Winners of BSCPB's Battle of the Emcees on Saturday will determine who will open for Wocka Flocka Flame Sibs Weekend.
Ohio University’s Black Student Cultural Programming Board will be hosting the Battle of the Emcees, a rap competition that will determine who gets to open up for Waka Flocka Flame on Sibs Weekend.
The free event, which is between local students, will take place at Baker Theater Saturday evening.
There will be two rounds where contestants can perform original songs of their choosing. Judges will determine who moves on.
The final round, however, will be a freestyle round between the final two performers. Both finalists will freestyle to the same song, but the contestants have no idea what song will be played. The audience will get to choose the winner of the final round.
“It’s about what the students want. They’re going to be the ones at the concert,” said Lauren Holland, a senior studying psychology and the vice president of BSCPB.
The BSPCB feels that the audience would be the best source of unbiased opinion on which rapper deserves to open up for Waka Flocka Flame and $hy Glizzy. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to decide who gets the honor.
Due to the switch between quarters and semesters, this opportunity has not presented itself for a couple years. The five contestants will be judged on a number of qualities such as flow and rhyme.
There is still time to participate.
“If you can keep up, you can join,” Holland said.
The competition is currently open to Ohio University, Hocking and local high school students.
There will also be a special performance during the battle. Two Columbus hip-hop artists, Zac Fresh and Big James, will be putting on a show in between the rounds.
The BSCPB chose a different direction in the promotion of the event. They produced a series of videos aimed at showing the humorous side of rap battles.
“We were trying to do a lot of innovative things. We didn’t want to stick to the standard,” Holland said.
The videos mimic Internet sensation Supa Hot Fire, who uses very simple rhymes, only to be overly hyped up by the crowd around him, leading to his victory.
“We were trying to come up with something fun and exciting.” Holland said.
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