Lupe Fiasco, nerd rapper extraordinaire who made his name in the mainstream with a song superficially about skateboarding, has solidified his standing as hip hop’s premiere gamer by defeating fighting game champion Daigo in a match of Street Fighter V.
The battle between Daigo’s Ryu and Lupe’s Ken took place at a Street Fighter V launch event, so it could very well have been that this whole thing was a publicity stunt put in place by Capcom, but, either way, it’s an exciting 20-minute battle.
The fight begins with Daigo searching for a bearded Ryu that is only available in a pre-order option, and so begins the cynicism that points to this whole thing being a spectacle orchestrated by Capcom. There are some exciting developments throughout, such as Lupe exploiting the fact that Daigo is unfamiliar with the “anti-air properties in Street Fighter V,” and a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t translate very well into text from the absurdly excited voices of the live commentators.
There’s a whole fiasco about whether or not the fight was staged, and you can read about it over at Kotaku, but, regardless of the legitimacy of Lupe’s win, it’s a good watch. (It also got a relatively game-averse publication to write about Street Fighter V, so that’s worth something.)