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Drake is a man of many talents. He's a (kind of) a rapper! He's (kind of) a singer! Like many rappers, he comes from a hardscrabble background, which includes being Canadian and starring in the popular teen show Degrassi: The Next Generation. In the music world, he's making a big splash by sounding exactly like Lil' Wayne would sound if he wasn't out of his gourd on cough syrup. Now, the super MC is adding "voice actor" to his already considerable resume.
Examiner.com reports that he's now been tapped to be the voice of new character Jace Stratton in Epic's Gears of War 3.
“Jace is a central character in the comic books, so he was an obvious choice as a character we wanted to bring into the third game,” said Epic Executive Producer Rod Fergusson. “When we began casting for the role, ‘So Far Gone’ had just released and Drake’s combination of heart and grit was just what we were looking for. Rather than search for somebody who sounded like him, it was clear that we should approach him directly… fortunately he turned out to be a huge fan.”
Drake echoes Fergusson's enthusiasm, saying, "[I] couldn't pass it up. They've created an amazing character in Jace, and I'm looking forward to my tour in Delta Squad."
It would be pretty awesome if all of Jace's in-game dialogue was autotuned, so here's hoping.
Gears of War 3 will be released in April 2011, while Drake's Thank Me Later album will hit stores on June 15. His song "Find Your Love" is currently 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Top picture courtesy of Doc Funk's Brain on Funk, the most hilarious NBA blog in the world.
Email the author Matt Helgeson, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
hahaha you might be surprised how much i know
also: ohio players/zapp/roger/etc weren't using autotune, autotune is a plugin for protools and other recording programs...they were using vocorder
man..... thatzz wussupp cant wait to play gears drake playin jace man he's gonna do right and kill everythinggg haha......
@omegaspartan - reload the page, yr wish is my command!
Yeah, I don't mean to single you out Matt, but in general I find GI and GIO in general to be overly dismissive of the genre.
@Omega: look Drake up, he is, in fact, terrible.
poor Jace. so much potential, and Drake will proceed to ruin it. the "best" rapper in a very mediocre era of rap and hip hop.
(xpost to @omega - you might have to clear your cache, but he's now just a canadian rapper)
@akbirdman, no prob dude, i love rap since like dmc/rakim/special ed/etc days...annette does too, i don't think ppl are esp negative about it on staff but i guess i'm not sure
@Matt. i cant believe it. That first paragraph pretty much sums up my exact feelings on Drake. glad to see im not alone. seems like you, Annette, and akbirdman have some good taste in music.
Lol i wonder if Jace is gonna sing in one of the cutscenes..lmao
I remember this guy from the Sprite commercial where he breaks apart like that guy from Men in Black. Congrats on lending his voice to Gears 3 I guess.
Ahh too bad, I was hopin he was one of the characters that gets killed off fairly soon.
Is the voice acting in Gears of War even a big deal for this kind of game anyway? I can't even remember the whole story from the first one, only the amazing game-play.
But Drake isn't Ludacris.. I mean Jace!
Wow opinionated much seems like you heavily dislike Drake and rather than report what happened you took it as an opportunity to criticize him.
Also you sound REALLY ignorant.
They're going to use Canadian rappers and not give any love to Snow, Chuggo, or Rush's "Roll the Bones?"
Who'd love to do the VO work? Chuggo would. AAAHHHH!!! C'mon *** a guy!
I'm not going to bother complaining too much since his character is probably going to die.
Everything I hear about GoW3 makes me think it's as overrated as halo 3. Maybe it's just because I can't stand the console market anymore.
Drake Hatin...