Kahlief Adams Injects Some Culture Into Awards Season with The Spawnies
The SpawnOnMe host proves once again why black folks and other marginalized groups have earned a spotlight in the gaming community
Kahlief Adams, an independent content creator and host of SpawnOnMe, has released his new project to the world. He has created The Spawnies, an hour-long award show meant to celebrate his favorite games of the year. After watching it, I have to say, it’s nothing short of incredible.
It’s not often that I come across video game media content that radiates culture and personality, particularly black culture and personality. Unfortunately, it somewhat mimics what we often see in the video games themselves. Over the years, we’ve started to get more diverse skins on characters, but that’s usually all they are, skins. There’s often a lack of tradition and experience that helps people of color resonate with the characters they are controlling. That’s why I’ve been happy to see characters like Miles Morales, Colt Vahn, and Julianna Blake signal a change in this trend. Similarly, in the world of games media, I have been happy to see people like Kahlief create their own vision of change over the past several years.
The Spawnies went beyond just being another award show. It was brilliantly executed from start to finish. Where do I start?
The website was immaculate
The marketing package looked incredible
The music was hard
The pacing was tight and to the point
The variety of minorities among the presenters was welcome and refreshing
And of course, the hosts were incredible. The show was hosted by Kahlief, Riana Manuel, and the bombastic voice of Eli Harris, all of whom brought a unique flavor to the event. Not only that, but the awards were presented, and often accepted by, diverse faces that you don’t often see spotlighted in games media. To top it off, Kahlief even had these sick custom controllers commissioned as awards...c'mon man.
I want to specifically highlight a couple of key moments in the show. Each award assumed an identity of its own with its clever naming and visual language. The rap interstitials were a cool way to break up the segments and keep viewers on their toes. The award recipients had short speeches, but they also felt just long enough to let some personality shine through. Overall, I didn’t feel like the show overstayed its welcome.
As a person of color and a long-time video game fan, I don’t know that I’ve ever felt more at home consuming a piece of gaming content. The industry has been put on notice. Kahlief built a product that not only catered to an audience that often gets looked over, but he also created one of the most entertaining pieces of games media that I’ve seen in a long time, period. I hope this is just the beginning of productions like this as Kahlief and others like him continue to carve out a space in video game media.
Check out The Spawnies and send some praise Kahlief and Riana’s way.