Asylum nights to unearth hip hop talent

Sharon Mathala | Wednesday June 10, 2015 15:02

The event dubbed Asylum Nights is the brainchild of rappers, Thabo ‘Touch’ Rantao and Samora ‘Monorac’ Nthobatsang, which debuted on Monday.

Before the finale each performer has two minutes to ascertain their contention for the spot on the night.  To give it a little exciting twist and bring the street style to the competition, there is no panel of judges to decide who walks away with the ultimate bragging rights.

Here, the winner is ‘chosen by the roar of the crowd’.  The competition is in two ways; the first segment is the acapella, where each contender is given about five minutes to do his or her freestyling.

To ensure that all contestants improvise and do not use any written material, there is no background music provided for the first round.

In the second round, however, a beat is provided to the participants for the last face-off. Showbiz caught up with one of the organisers, Touch, who explained that their initiative has brought back hip-hop excitement in the streets.

He said although during the battle, there is intensive dissing, the one rule they have is: ‘no fighting’.

“It can get intense, sometimes during these battles emcees may use not-so polite words to diss each other, but we are very strict in the ‘no violence’ code,” he said.

“Basically, we just want to expose new local hip hop talent giving them a platform where they can showcase their talent.

We are only doing this for upcoming rappers with the hope that sponsors and record labels can be able to spot talent at these shows,” Touch said.

The ultimate winner will clinch a recording deal and get an opportunity to record two fully sponsored music videos. The organisers are hopeful that through the show potential hip-hop stars would be unearthed.

It was through shows such as this that prominent artists like La Timmy and Dramaboi were discovered.