Drake and Lil Wayne kick off Street Fighter-themed tour, launch interactive mobile app

Hip hop artists Drake and Lil Wayne kicked off a two-month tour in New York on Friday, a tour titled "Drake vs. Lil Wayne," that will see the two rappers battle in Street Fighter style on stage.

The Capcom-sponsored tour is complemented by a new iOS and Android app — also called Drake vs. Lil Wayne —that determines how the tour plays out.

Through the app, which includes sounds and visuals pulled from the Street Fighter series (the two rappers are each rendered Street Fighter 4-style in the app), users can choose a side: Drake or Lil Wayne. They can then "button mash" and send power-ups to the rapper of their choice which, during the show, will fill up an on-stage meter for each rapper. In each city, on each night, one artist will emerge the victor based on audience interaction.

Here's how Drizzy himself described the app and what it means to the tour on Twitter: "You decide who STARTS the show, who WINS the show, and of course what side you are on! Just choose your city and from there its on YOU."

The Drake vs. Lil Wayne app also lets users apply Street Fighter-themed stickers — fireballs, Guile's sonic boom, Sagat's eyepatch, E. Honda's makeup, life bars and more — to photos. (See above for an example of my own handiwork.)

The app was developed by iam8bit as part of a collaboration with Capcom, Drake and Lil Wayne. It's all part of a much larger stage show that incorporates Street Fighter-themed visuals and live footage. But the parties involved are keeping the interactive particulars of the Drake vs. Lil Wayne aspects of the show under wraps, seemingly in an attempt to not spoil the experience for concertgoers.

Here's what Jon Gibson, co-founder of iam8bit, had to say about the interactive concert experience in an email to Polygon.

"Capcom, Drake and Wayne invited us to collaborate on a new kind of concert experience, so we'd be crazy not to say 'YES!'" Gibson said. "Together, we developed something we're all really proud of, creating a performance narrative using a variety of mediums — animation, live-action and motion graphics, as well allowing the audience to participate via the Drake vs. Lil Wayne app. All-in, it's pretty damn epic! "

The Drake vs. Lil Wayne app is available through Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store.

Drake and Lil Wayne will be touring together across the United States through Sept. 27.