Guest mentors of The Rap Game UK – DJ Target, Krept and Konan – open up about the importance of the show as it returns for its fourth series.
The Rap Game UK is back for series four, and promises to be bigger and better than ever.
With grime music making headlines and entering the mainstream for many years now, the rap competition show has levelled up in terms of artists, challenges, battles and guest mentors.
Speaking to BBC Three, The Rap Game UK mentor DJ Target says: “I think [the show] is super important. The fact that the BBC commissioned a show like this and let us bring what we bring to the table in terms of knowing how to make this [show] authentic, which was one of the main things we wanted when we got on board.
“We said, ‘This has to be something that we could watch as core rap fans. It is done incredibly and holds the integrity of the culture.’”
Rapper and fellow mentor Konan feels the same: “Representation is essential and the culture needs to be represented more on TV.
“Rap is, and has been, taking over the UK music scene for some time now – we’ve seen drill artists go to number one in the charts, so there’s definitely a space for it.
“The different sounds coming out of the UK all deserve the chance to be heard and highlighted.”
It’s not just the big guest mentors (this series we have Lethal Bizzle, Shaybo, Jaykae, Leomie Anderson, Unknown T and more) and the Manchester penthouse – where the artists can live and breathe their bars – but the challenges have given the artists an even bigger stepping stone to opening up and proving that they are worthy to be the winner.
DJ Target ecstatically says: “I think this year, it's like constant growth and development from the first episode. You can tell that this year is going to be a good battle and is going to be a good competition. There’s emotion in there. Challenges. Explosions. It’s a sick series. This is the one.”
Krept adds: “With this series we had a lot more input. I think it made this series as authentic, from our perspective, as possible, and you can see that this season is probably going to be the most competitive season yet, for those reasons as well.”
The Rap Game UK has already seen some big highlights: Bafta and Royal Television Society nominations; Graft’s “Paul Pogba” clash in series two; Lady Ice’s smooth raps; and Zones’ powerful and deep meaning bars.
Unlike any other series and for the first time ever, the artists will face elimination – meaning not all of them will make it to the final stage for that Kenny Allstar 1Xtra performance.
DJ Target adds: “Some of the challenges – we have stepped the game up with them and there’s some twists and turns that people won’t be expecting and just seeing how tight the competition was this year is crazy. We’ve had some of the best clashes we have ever had on a series.”
Fans of The Rap Game UK know that the clashes are always explosive – but one challenge that all three mentors named as their favourite was the ‘letter to yourself’ challenge.
Target said: “The ‘letter to yourself’ challenge was a great challenge – the artists really had to be vulnerable and open up on that one, and we got to learn a lot about where they came from, and things they’d gone through. There was a lot of emotion after that one.”
Krept said: “We went through the whole show just seeing one side of them, and when they had to write the letter to themselves we found out a lot about each individual artist, things that we didn’t know before that were really personal to them. Everybody had a different story.”
Target emphasises the importance of new talent as well: “We constantly try to find new ways to find new talent. I know sometimes people need that spark to start off their career so we are trying to be that spark for them since we are in the position to.”
But what does it take to be the person to win The Rap Game UK, which comes with a £20,000 prize and a mentorship scheme to help the winning artist create, and launch, their own music after the contest ends?
“Consistency,” Konan elaborates. “One good challenge isn’t enough – and just somebody that’s going to work hard and take advantage of this opportunity.”
Krept also says: “Star factor, great lyricism, stage presence and just someone that’s willing to go out and make it themselves – they’re not going to sit around and wait for someone to pull strings for them and make stuff happen, they’re going to get up and go and get it.”
Target ends: “First of all, it is an amazing competition to be a part of and even if you don’t come out the winner, you would have still learnt so much and gained new fans from the show. It is up to you to use that exposure and fan base.”
The Rap Game UK airs weekly from 11 August at 9pm on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.
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