In 2009, hip-hop will strike back in video games — finally?

For the last few years, rock music has been the force behind games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero," which is all well and good for people who fantasize about guitar solos and drum fills. But what if what if your musical dream involves turntables and a mic?

Word recently leaked that "Guitar Hero" maker Activision is working on a project called "DJ Hero." On Wednesday, music entrepreneur Quincy Jones III told MTV News about a similar project, "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ," which is set to come out in 2009. Jones has been helping to make the game and assemble its track list, trying to build the first hip-hop game to get the same glory as all those popular rock games.

"The urban community has rallied around this," Jones said in a telephone interview. "They see the void as well. It's been a great communal effort to make this the best it can be so we can see more games like it."

"Scratch" doesn't have a guitar controller or a drum kit. It's a turntable-based game. The game's controller will be developed by DJ equipment manufacturer Numark and will be shaped, according to Jones, like a CDJ turntable, complete with realistic crossfader and MPC drum-machine-style buttons.

"You can select the samples that you're scratching within the game and use the crossfader to select them, just like with a CDJ," Jones explained. Hip-hop gamers' creativity is going to be rewarded. "What got me excited about this upfront was that, with 'Guitar Hero,' you're playing along with the songs and if you play a note different from the original you get penalized. ... But with this game, if you're playing along, at some point you get a chance to flex your own skills — if you want to do a scratch solo or add a new beat to it, you can do that and get extra points."

Even though the game is slated for spring release, the makers of the game aren't releasing screenshots of the game or images of the controller yet. Right now the developers aren't showing people publicly just how game and controller works together. But Jones did try to talk through the controls. As seen in released concept images, the game will present players with the standard music-game cascade of colored notes, in this case, representing elements of a rap song like the keyboards or bass. Occasionally a cue will signal the player to start a scratch solo. Other cues will send players to the beat pads to help the player control a "specific element of the song."

A track list hasn't been announced, but Jones said it will represent "all the urban food groups," offering a combination of known and unknown '70s, '80s and more modern tracks, as well as a selection of break beats provided by a range of producers. "There's definitely certain tracks in there that I think people will be surprised by," he said.

As of now, there is no emceeing planned for the game. Jones said he was familiar with the rap-freestyle game "Get on Da Mic." The only turntable game to see release for home consoles in recent years was Konami's "Beatmania," which included a controller that allowed gamers to scratch and tap big buttons. Jones hasn't played that game, which was primarily stacked with techno tracks, but he has read up on it. "We're going after a much more realistic gameplay," he said.

Jones said the "Scratch" game will feel more urban and more authentic than the few rap-based games that have been on the market before. What does that mean? "Mainstream [gamers] will have a good time with the game — and if you've never scratched before, you'll have an awesome time — but this is the first time where a controller truly resembles the real thing. It's not just a novelty."

"Scratch: The Ultimate DJ" is backed by Genius Products and Genco Interactive. 7 Studios, a company known for movie-based games, is developing it, but Jones said they have some serious music-technology experts assigned to the project.

The game is slated for "next-generation" platforms, which generally include the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, but it's not yet clear whether a Wii version will also be available.

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