DJ Hero is a music video game from Activision that was a spin-off for the wildly popular Guitar Hero series of games. The game play is based around turntablism and features several big name DJs & artists including DJ Jazzy Jeff, Grandmaster Flash, Daft Punk, Z-Trip, DJ Shadow and, of course, DJ AM. The game was released in the U.S. on October 27th, 2009 (2 months after Adam passed away) and was initially well received by game journalists but ultimately did not perform well sales-wise due to a decline in interest in these type of music games at that time.
Let's take a few looks at DJ AM as represented in DJ Hero. He is featured in the game repping a Deckstar tee. Illustration concepts in the game were done by Dan Lish:
Check out this DJ Hero advertisement centered around AM speaking on what it means to be a DJ. The ad features an interview bits with AM, shots of the DJ Hero gameplay and some footage from the 2009 WMC Deckstar Party in Miami:
Here are a couple videos of the game play featuring AM using mashup tracks that he came up with specifically for the gameplay. His tracks featured the Beastie Boys, Bel Biv Devoe, Gwen Stefani and Indeep:
Prior to the launch of the game in October of 2009, there was a private DJ Hero party at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Monday June 1st, 2009. The party featured Jay-Z, Eminem, TRV$DJ-AM and AM dj'ing for both Jay & Em!
It was a star studded Hollywood event to be sure. Celebrity attendees included Kim Kardashian, Adam Levine, Tyrese Gibson, Tony Hawk, Nicky Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio among others.
Below is an video recap of the private party showing red carpet arrivals, clips from the performances, game play footage and interviews including one with AM himself:
Another video from Deckstar's original YouTube page showing DJ AM doing his classic mix of Tribe Called Quest "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" (Vampire Mix) into Lil Wayne's "A Milli"at the private event then Jay rapping over it. This is legendary stuff right here:
Here's the setlist for the evening:
Here are some additional pics from Getty images highlighting the event: