DJ Jazzy Jeff says being in NBA Jam was “almost a badge of honor,” but he never got paid for it

NBA Jam was known for having some truly random and off-the-wall hidden characters. Among the mix was DJ Jazzy Jeff, who was actually surprised to see himself in the game. He had no idea Acclaim added him to the game, and says seeing himself in there was “almost a badge of honor.”

“Every musician I know wants to be a superstar in sports and every superstar in sports wants to be a musician. That’s why you have so many rappers playing in celebrity basketball games. Every time you saw someone jump up and dunk with that character, that was actually me. I did that.”

The bad news about Jazz's appearance is that Acclaim never bothered to pay him for the cameo. They just included him and called it a day. There's no way something like that would happen nowadays, but back then, gaming was still coming up. Things like this could fly under the radar, for better or worse. In this case, it's a bit disappointing that Jazz never got paid for appearing in the game.