Within the context of the music world, Nile Rodgers is something of a legend. As one of the founders of the seminal funk/disco outfit Chic, he was responsible for such seminal hits as "Good Times" (this is the song that became the blueprint for rap music in that The Sugarhill Gang lifted the bassline for their now classic "Rapper's Delight") and "Le Freak." But Rodgers influence didn't end with the danceable thrust of Chic. He also penned hits for The Sisters Sledge ("We Are Family") and Diana Ross ("Upside Down") not to mention the fact that he has parlayed his sonic gifts into a prosperous career producing and playing for a wide variety of stellar artists ranging from Eric Clapton to Madonna.

Rodgers latest passion, however, is video games. Specifically helping to create a symbiotic relationship between games and music. To this end he was enlisted as an Executive Producer for Simon & Schuster's Outlaw Volleyball. To look at him--dreadlocks, Kangol, dark glasses, you know that musician chic--you'd hardly think him the gamer. But as we all know, looks can be deceiving. Rodgers is in fact an avid fan of the Outlaw franchise, having first cut his chops on Outlaw Golf.

But would Rodgers consider himself a "big" gamer? "Big? I don't know," laughs Rodgers. "I mean I do a lot of it. I have to wean myself off of it. It ruins my day sometimes." When you press Rodgers further about his gaming origins he doesn't hesitate to elaborate. "When we recorded our first records [in the late '70s] we would go to the arcades 'cause there was one right around the corner from our recording studio. So we played all the early generation games. That was our thing. And then we made friends with the guy who owned the arcade. He became a big Chic fan, so we could play all the games free. Plus my house was loaded with Ms. Pac-Man, Mario, all that stuff back in the day."

Given his old school gamer mentality, getting into the whole Outlaw Volleyball tract was a fairly logical endeavor. "It was perfect," says Rodgers with a sly grin. "It made all the sense in the world. First of all I've played Outlaw Golf a lot. It's like when you play games like I play games, there's the stuff that's the hardcore game that I spend a lot of time playing and then there's games that I go to for fun that sort of take your mind off of things. So I play games like Halo, that's the stuff I'm intense about. But then for fun I always play Outlaw Golf. 'Look at my crotch!' It was fun 'cause it's a great game of golf. So after we played that for some reason, it was almost like this wonderful synchronistic event that Simon & Schuster called me to work on Volleyball because I play Golf all the time. It was like 'Wow! Man, this is cool. I like the characters, I know the characters.' And actually when I was playing Golf I used to always think 'Man, it would be cool if music was in this game. And all of a sudden with Volleyball it was a lot better with music. There's no comparison."

Nile Rodgers gives the Outlaw thumbs up.

Like most musicians, Rodgers enjoys marrying his chosen art form with other art forms. He appreciated how music can adhere itself to a motion picture and increase or decrease the emotional amplitude of a given scene. He believes that music should (and can) be used to the same effect in video games, that music can actually enhance game play. "The thing is, when you think about music in entertainment, it's not just there to be background. Sometimes it's there for emotion, to set the tone, you know what I mean? Also, you've got to remember, "outlaw" is the operative word here. Which means that all bets are off, pal. We do whatever we want to do."

Contrary to what one would surmise, Rodgers didn't compose any music for the game. Instead he oversaw the soundtrack, actively picking and choosing what songs would inhabit the game. "What I did, which was really fun, is that a friend of mine Melinda Gedman is the Music Supervisor for The Osbournes. So once I heard "outlaw" I thought 'Wow, what's the most irreverent kind of show on television?' So I went to Melinda and I said 'Look, I love watching The Osbournes and mostly what I like about it is the background music.' So she said 'Nile, I have all this great hardcore stuff that we don't even use, let's talk to some of these artists and get the dialogue open.' She was a great resource, plus I had a number of resources anyway, which made it a perfect marriage. On this game Melinda really is what I would consider the Music Supervisor and I'm the Executive Producer in that I'm like the final say-so guy. I probably found four or five of the original artists, but then I said to Melinda 'I designed this thing, here's the template of what I want. You go out there and make it really hardcore.'"

So exactly what was Nile's sonic template? "The template was that the first time we put a song [in the game] it was a pretty hardcore rap song that talked about 'I want the money, the pimps and the ho's, the drugs, and the weed…' But the track was so slammin' that when [your character] throws up the ball to serve and it goes 'I want the money…!' it was just perfect. It was great. And we knew that it could just get more and more intense. So there was almost no limit to how hardcore we could go."

In terms of artists you can expect to be blasting away on Outlaw Volleyball, the majority of the songs in the game are done by less than big name acts. Which isn't to say that they don't rock, they're just new and on the come-up. "It actually works better having unknown bands on this game," says Rodgers. "We put in some famous stuff and went 'Is that as cool as "I'm Pretty Like Drugs" by Queen Adreena? Naw, Queen Adreena is much cooler.' It's just hardcore. We found ourselves laughing so much because it was so perfect that we kept thinking 'Wow, this is what it's all about. It's about pushing the outer edge of the envelope to see how far can you go.' And that's not necessarily the purpose. You want to see how far can you go before it stops working. 'Is this working or have we gone over the line?' And it seems to be working pretty good."

In addition to the propulsive output of Queen Adreena, Outlaw Volleyball also features the music of DJ Ashba. "I found him by accident," explains Rodgers. "He gave his CD to my assistant and she stuck it in my bag. I didn't even know what it was for like two months and then I pulled this thing out and it said 'DJ Ashba' and I thought it was a DJ record; I thought it was a record of beats or something. But this guy's like a hardcore rocker and his songwriting is amazing. He should be like a big pop star because his songs are great. And when we married his music to the trailer everybody was going 'Who is that?' I feel like we at least have the potential to bring recognition to a lot of artists who normally wouldn't see the time of day. So, for me, if we're true to the game and these artists are providing something that really heightens that experience, it's just the perfect symbiotic relationship."

But just because Rodgers has the bulk of the soundtrack compiled, there's always room for tweakage. "The interesting thing is that even at this late stage of the game…" he pauses, smiles, then resumes, "Last Friday I got a cut from Anthrax. I loved it, but it's like 'What do you take out to stick that in.' I think that in a game, just like in a film, man, you've gotta be true to the first product. The first product is the game. So when the person is playing the game you want that soundtrack to really go along with the game. I'm not trying to do something that I can say 'Well I got Moby and I got Madonna and I got so-and-so.' That's not the purpose. That doesn't work for me. Because there's a lot of opportunities to do that. The point of this was, when we sit down and play it are we laughing and are we having the time of our lives and when the track kicks in does it make us go 'Whoo!'? That was our first consideration."

-- Spence D.