Who will be the best spitter tonight?
That’s the question as the hour hand nears 10pm, commencing the grand finale of Rap’ture 2016, the first ever mainstream rap battle in PNG.
Six contestants will enter the battle grounds, armed with tongue-twisting creativity to impress the crowd and the judges tonight at the Cosmopolitan club.
With the heat settling in, one of Rap’ture 2016’s judge brings us back to the audition stages of the competition.
“When they came in, I wasn’t really impressed,” says Kamako of 3KiiNgZ.
But he is expecting something different for tonight:
“Tonight will blow people off. It’s going to be awesome, exciting, it will exceed our expectation,” he says.
Kamako is one of the pioneer Papua New Guineans in the underground rap/hip-hop movement.
Being on the panel for the last five weeks, he has seen the growth in the young talents.
“They started impressing us, wowing us. They went beyond our expectation. The boys will really step up the game tonight.”
Judges 3KiiNgZ and Naka Blood will look at more than outsmarting and out-talking opponents. They will look for eye contact, stage presence, attitude and entertainment.
Rapture 2016 sets to identify the rap/hip hop music genre as well as bring out the full potential of the contestants.
“These are not big names in the industry but new guys who have made it through and are leading in the grand finale. This makes the grand finale more like a mystery and very exciting.”