TV’s Hi Poul programming block. It was announced to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original PaRappa The Rapper as well as the anime’s 15th anniversary. Cultural impact Promotion and merchandise An arrangement album styled after PaRappa and PJ Berri titled PJ & Parappa – I Scream! was released to promote Um Jammer Lammy, which remixes many of the game's songs from stages and cutscenes to include full-length rap routines performed by Dred Foxx as PaRappa. Some of its tracks were performed by the game’s composers and performers for the launch party of Um Jammer Lammy at New York's The Roxy nightclub. Sony published an interview with Rodney Greenblat on its website to promote the release of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) port of the original PaRappa The Rapper. It featured select questions provided by eu.playstation.com forum members, who were each promised a PaRappa plushie based on Greenblat's design as a reward. Sony also announced several PaRappa promotions throughout the summer of 2007 to promote the release of the first game's PSP port, including a limited edition t-shirt featuring PaRappa by Paul Frank Industries. In a video uploaded to the Official PlayStation Europe YouTube channel which coincided with the launch of PaRappa the Rapper Remastered for PlayStation 4 in April 2017, several interviewees discuss PaRappa's cultural significance. In 2021, Japanese skateboard brand WIND AND SEA launched a PaRappa the Rapper "capsule", a collection of clothing items like t-shirts, long sleeves, bucket hats, beanies, cushions, slippers, and keychains which feature the iconography of PaRappa as well as other series characters. Reception PaRappa has been featured in a number of "top" character lists by critics. In 2008 MTV named PaRappa the greatest video game canine character. GamesRadar staff ranked PaRappa number 87 in a 2012 list of the best heroes or protagonists in games. IGN ranked PaRappa 8th place in their 2019 list of the "Top 10 Dogs in Video Games". Critics noted that PaRappa was created at the very moment in which Japanese hip-hop transitioned from a small subculture to a mainstream phenomenon. Noting the character's enthusiasm in spite of his goofy nature, J. C. Herz described PaRappa in an article for The New York Times in 1998 as the "Will Smith of video game characters". He observed that the character "manages to be hip by not being cool, a contrast to the sneering action heroes who have become parodies of themselves".