Bandai Namco/Instagram/dtjaaaamT-Pain has never been shy about letting the world know just how much he loves video games. The rapper even streams a ton of his own gameplay these days, so it’s not massively surprising to see that he’s big into Tekken.
What did take me slightly by surprise was seeing T-Pain dressed to the nines in a next level cosplay of a Tekken character who isn’t even playable yet. That’s some serious dedication. Leroy Smith is the new fighter coming to Tekken 7 before the end of the year, and I’ll think you’ll agree that T-Pain absolute nailed the look while in attendance at DragonCon.
Leroy Smith was announced at the EVO 2019 fighting game tournament earlier this month, and looks all set to boast a unique fighting style that should help keep the iconic fighting game feeling fresh when he finally drops as part of the latest season of updates.
If you haven’t already seen the newest Tekken fighter, check out Leroy in action below to get an idea of just how on the money T-Pain’s cosplay was.
As if T-Pain rocking up to a con dressed as an unreleased Tekken character wasn’t cool enough, he took his daughter Lyriq along to join in on the fun. Families who cosplay together really do stay together.
Lyriq opted to dress up as Red Dead Redemption’s Dutch Van der Linde, easily one of gaming’s most fascinating and complex characters. As you can see below, she knows how to rock a cosplay just like her old man.
Given that Leroy is a brand new addition to the Tekken family, there’s a chance that T-Pains immaculate cosplay could be part of some kind of promotional deal with Bandai Namco – people are certainly talking about it, after all.
Then again, maybe the guy just saw a chance to rock a cosplay that nobody else has done yet. If so, mission very much accomplished.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.