Hip-hop is steadily on the rise and for once the underground community is getting almost a regular outlet for their growing stack of mix tapes and albums.

Mainstream radio hasn’t noticed them yet or maybe they are just plainly ignoring the movement so probably Access Ghana’s decision to put a price tag on this holiday rap battle for strangled emcees is about the best Christmas present ever.

The King of Hip Hop contest will run over the next six months. It starts with 3 different sessions with two young rappers being knighted at the end of each series and given4-GigiPods for their time and rhyme. Then these Knights will be taken to night clubs, radio stations and other social events for rap battles so people see and choose their favorite Knight.

The final event will see the 6 Knights joust it out for the ultimate price of King of Hip Hop along with $1000 and a week’s trip to gorgeous Los Angeles to start an album recording.

But this is not before they have been groomed to meet the demands of fans and done a tour round Ghana to show them off to all Ghanaians.
Registration for the show is currently o going with the main show taking off on December 15th.

“We think the shows that are being organized are mainly Hiplife that is why we settled for hiphop; Ghanaians like weird things sometimes, you know?” Says Edwin Zuta, the Media Coordinator. “We want to give Ghanaians something different.” The King will be selected by a team of judges with 40% of the votes and the general public with the remaining 60%.

According to Eric Zuta, “Hip Hop originated from Africa but has been developed in the US so we have to do something about it in Ghana. We need to unearth the potential in these young ones and give them room to operate.” If you can rap and are between 18 and 30 be clued in to the fact that registration (50,000 cedis) ends on Wednesday, December i3th.

Don’t wait till the queue gets a mile long. “If you are female and think you can make it as Queen of hip hop, please don’t get cold feet. Your sex is not a barrier”, says Michael Azuayi, events Co-ordinator.