Dee Jay is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series. He made his first appearance in the 1993's Super Street Fighter II as one of the four new characters introduced in the game. In the series, he is a Jamaican kickboxer and karateka, as well as a recording artist and breakdancer. He was the only character at the time to be designed by an American. Dee Jay was based on real-life kickboxer Billy Blanks and has received mixed critical reception.
Appearances
Dee Jay made his debut in Super Street Fighter II as one of the four new characters introduced in the game in addition to the original twelve character roster from previous Street Fighter II games. He enters the World Warrior tournament, seeking inspiration to develop a new musical sound. Dee Jay reappears as a playable character in the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 and in the console version of . The game is set before the World Warrior tournament and depicts Dee Jay before he began his professional music career. While he was not included in Street Fighter IV, development of his character for its sequel, Super Street Fighter IV, had commenced during the former game's development. Audio files of the announcer from Street Fighter IV announcing Dee Jay were found amongst the game's audio files. He was revealed along with T. Hawk, who also originated from Super Street Fighter II, and Juri, a character created for Street Fighter IV. In Super Street Fighter II, Dee Jay has a manager named Rick, while in Street Fighter Alpha 3 he has an agent named Bob. One of the trailers of Street Fighter X Tekken showed parts of Dee Jay that resembles him. However he did not make it to the final roster. Instead, his appearance served as a swap costume for Hwoarang.
In other media
Dee Jay plays a minor role in . Here, he beats up a few punks causing trouble at a nightclub before being warned by Guile and Chun-Li that he is being monitored by Shadaloo, which he does not believe until Chun-Li destroys one of their cyborgs in front of him. He was voiced by Ginzo Matsuo in Japanese and Beau Billingslea in English. In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Dee Jay was portrayed by Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as one of the primary antagonists. He is depicted as a greedy hacker and engineer working for General M. Bison. In the film's climax, Dee Jay flees from Bison's base with a trunk of Bison's money instead of staying to fight, only to find it full of useless "Bison Dollars" that Bison had planned to issue as currency once he took over the world. He is also seen telling Zangief that Bison is the true enemy and had been using them both since his rise to crime power. This version of Dee Jay appears in the console version of the Street Fighter: The Movie video game, and serves as the second of the four Grand Masters in the Street Battle mode. UDON's line of Street Fighter comics gives Dee Jay a minor role as a brainwashed agent of Shadaloo who breaks into MI5's Delta Red headquarters and frees a captured Doll agent from their custody. He is captured during the raid and his mind is restored with the help of Delta Red.
Character design
Dee Jay was conceived for Super Street Fighter II by American designer James Goddard, and is one of three characters in the series to have been conceived by an American, along with Blade and Captain Sawada. While Super Street Fighter II was going to feature Cammy, T. Hawk, and two brothers who had the same design save for a head swap, Goddard felt that it would be redundant to have another pair of characters with the same fighting style. As a result, Capcom added Dee Jay in place of one of the brothers, while the other evolved into Fei Long. The Japanese team asked Goddard for any more ideas for Dee Jay, which Goddard replied by suggesting kickboxer Billy Blanks. He commented that "a really kick-ass black character would be awesome, instead of someone who was more negative, which is what you tended to see from the Japanese back in those days." In spite of the fact that Blanks is a bad guy in the film which he saw him in, The King of the Kickboxers, he states "his build and look, I just thought that it would make a great character --high-flying, crazy kicks... I mean, you have to remember, this was Billy Blanks pre-'Tae Bo.' He was so bad-ass." He began designing Dee Jay by drawing a sketch of him and sending it to the Japanese team. He sent the film The King of the Kickboxers by copying a VHS tape and sending it through FedEx. He designed him as a "positive, fun character," implementing elements such as him being Jamaican, a "fun-loving guy," and a person who is trying to "jump-start his music career while kicking a lot of ass." While the design on his pants originally said "MANTIS," but was changed to say "MAXIMUM." This was because his sprite facing left was a mirror image of his sprite facing right, and the N and S in "MANTIS" would be reversed on the left sprite.
Reception
Dee Jay has received mixed reception. Rocky Mountain News described Dee Jay as "a flashy rapper-type, and probably the best of the new four" characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II. GameDaily listed him at number seventeen on their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, noting the strength of his fighting style in game. In discussing the final character reveals of Street Fighter IV, Crave Online commented that they would have preferred Dee Jay. Allgame editor Matthew House described Dee Jay as "widely missed." IGN editor Jesse Schedeen criticized his inclusion in the film, stating that he "seemed included merely for comic relief." Bitmob editor Brian Shirk included Dee Jay in his analysis of racial stereotypes, commenting that his appearance "immediately brings to mind the word "savage."" Professional Street Fighter player Justin Wong said that Dee Jay impressed him "as a character more than Juri because they actually gave him a lot of tools in this game to make him really good." He commented that while he did not like him in Super Street Fighter II, he liked him in Super Street Fighter IV "because the style he had in the other game was as a Street Fighter IV character." Fellow professional Street Fighter player Keith Stuart listed him as his second favourite Street Fighter character and praised his Super Street Fighter II Turbo incarnation, while also praising him for being "a really positive, happy character." IGN UK editor Martin Robinson, in discussing the Dee Jay, T. Hawk, and Juri, stated that "all three of which we've played and all three of which we're already in love with." 1UP.com criticized Super Street Fighter II, commenting that Capcom had overestimated demand for such a game. They described Dee Jay as a "loser." In discussing Super Street Fighter II, Giant Bomb editor Jeff Gerstmann commented that "I did my best to basically pretend he didn't exist," stating that the "real stars" of the game were Fei-Long and Cammy.
