UK rap is in the best shape it has ever been in. We have had Stormzy gifting Glastonbury with the most jaw-dropping headline set in years. Little Simz, Dave and Slowthai are all on the 2019 Mercury prize shortlist. Loyle Carner – and his lovely mum – have settled into the Celebrity Gogglebox sofas. New gen MC Flohio has collaborated with old-school hero the Streets. Headie One is bringing drill to the masses. And Winchmore warrior Skepta is doing live sessions with … um, Sophie Ellis-Bextor? Surreal collabs aside, it can only mean one thing; it’s time for a UK rap reality show!
BBC Three is, this week, launching its own version of The Rap Game, the US version of which has now been running for five seasons, fronted by rap svengali Jermaine Dupri alongside Queen Latifah. The Rap Game UK is a somewhat more low-key take. South London rappers Krept & Konan and BBC 1Xtra’s head of music and grime OG DJ Target will mentor seven unsigned MCs, who have been flung together in a soulless-looking penthouse in Birmingham for a) the purposes of our entertainment and b) the chance to win a recording contact with Krept & Konan’s Play Dirty label. The show is the latest series to prove that the appetite for rap-themed talent telly is still growing. Over in the States, along with The Rap Game US, mega-names Cardi B and Chance the Rapper are working on a new show called Rhythm & Flow, set to launch this autumn. Cardi announced via Instagram that she will be on it, looking for the next urban superstar, someone who’s “that diamond in the rough”. Yet with streaming and social media opening up the floodgates for new rappers – Old Town Road’s wildly successful use as a meme on TikTok helped make Lil Nas X’s tune the biggest debut single of all time – do we really need to re-impose industry gatekeepers? Krept & Konan think so.
“We’re quite picky with what we do,” explains Krept, a man who last year co-opened a pancake and ice-cream parlour in Croydon called Crepes and Cones. “But me and Konan are all about breaking new talent.” For Konan, the stakes for the winner are pretty high. “I want them to have a long-lasting career, I want them to fulfil their dreams, change their lives and change their families’ lives,” he says. “I don’t want it to be one hit song and then everyone forgets about them; I want them to leave their mark and become a real rapper and to compete with the top guys in the game.”
If it wasn’t clear, The Rap Game UK is definitely not looking for the next Honey G. While none of the previous winners of The Rap Game US – Miss Mulatto, Mani, Nova, Street Bud and Tyeler Reign – are yet household names, there are far more interesting things about the UK version than its ambition to create the next Wiley. As the lack of diversity in reality television continues to be a major issue, it is refreshing to see something where the vast majority of contestants, hosts and guests are from a BAME background. Some of the young stars, too, have stories that the tabloids would no doubt joyously reveal in order to bring them down, had they appeared on any other show. Yet the fact that one artist has been to prison for intent to supply class A drugs and another is a single father who lives in emergency accommodation is mentioned without fuss or judgment.
Hip-hop has long offered a route out of difficult situations and The Rap Game UK is no different. Many of the seven wannabe stars are from unlikely hip-hop hotbeds such as Scunthorpe and Aberdeen. “That’s what makes the show so sick,” explains Krept. “An MC from Scotland is a first for me!” And rather than replicating any public humiliation element, this one starts with the contestants already in place and there is no public vote. “You don’t see them audition and we don’t press buzzers,” confirms Konan. No one is there for comedy value or to be mocked for their lack of skill; although one particular rapper’s fondness for napping rather than practising is casually revealed in the first episode.
When it came to casting, a shout-out for applications was placed on social media; artists were also flagged by the BBC’s own in-house new music launchpad BBC Introducing. One of them was former admin assistant Lady Ice, an MC from Manchester, whose super-fast flow is peppered with patois. She has already freestyled for Toddla T on 1Xtra and isn’t new to the televised talent show hustle, either. As a teenager, she got through to The X Factor’s bootcamp stage as part of a grime duo with her cousin, but they left the show after he had a change of heart. Back then she was gutted, but she has since realised it might not have been the best way to forge a career.
“This is more real and authentic,” says Lady Ice of The Rap Game UK. “This is more me. It’s more down to earth and less polished; 100% I would be watching it if I wasn’t in it!”
As well as impressive new artists, the show has some seriously good guest appearances: Ghetts, AJ Tracey, NSG, Mist, Jae5 and Lady Leshurr all drop by to offer advice. There is something else you wouldn’t hear on The X Factor – controversial bars about Madeleine McCann. “We wanted these guys to have freedom of speech,” explains DJ Target of his insistence against a family-friendly filter. “Rap was created because people were unheard. The last thing we wanted to do was give these artists a bunch of rules about what they could and couldn’t say.”
The Rap Game UK continues to keep things authentic in its weekly challenges, by replicating the real journey of an emerging hip-hop act. “We reference things that actually happen in urban culture, like clashes,” says Krept of the show’s own take on Lord of the Mics – Jammer from Boy Better Know’s notorious grime battle event. It’s all a hell of a lot more relevant than Rap Idol, the programme that footballer Rio Ferdinand threatened to launch more than a decade ago. A shocking-sounding Pop Idol pastiche, noted freestylers Jimmy Carr, Katie Price and Chris Moyles had all reportedly signed up, “Jimmy Carr performing Tupac Shakur tracks will be appointment viewing,” a source told the Sun in 2008. A harrowing proposition indeed.
We will have to wait to see if the show can uncover new talent and make them ubiquitous, Olly Murs-style. But maybe that’s not really the point. Maybe it’s about finally making space for a credible British hip-hop show that truly understands that world, as well as its audience. “There hasn’t been much for me to scream and shout about on UK talent shows in the past, especially when it comes to rappers; that’s why this programme is so necessary and relevant,” says DJ Target. “We’ve been working very hard to deliver something that’s real.” It looks like they’re not too far off.
The Rap Game UK is on BBC Three from Friday 23 August
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