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," it was changed to say "MAXIMUM." Lettering was previously used in the same way, with kickboxer Kwon, in the unofficial spinoff game Human Killing Machine.
In Super Street Fighter II, Dee Jay has a manager named Rick, while in Street Fighter Alpha 3 he has an agent named Bob.
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