Episode five of BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK is here and this episode marks the last week before Krept, Konan and DJ Target make that all-important decision on who deserves to win the coveted record deal.
The first challenge of the week sees the six contestants, J Lucia, Lady Ice, F.O.S, Chade Paine, Kiico and Ransom FA, come face to face with some of the industry’s most prolific social media influencers and tastemakers.
Remel London, Harry Pinero, Python, Hyper Frank and Renz and Denz all review the social media presence of the hopefuls, watch them perform and then offer constructive criticism. Whilst the influencers are making their initial judgements, Krept and Konan sit with the contestants and show a live stream of the feedback.
The challenge appears brutal at face value, but it offers necessary insight for the contestants on how social media works in the real world as you are constantly faced with criticism and compliments which you receive in real-time.
Some artists are given a confidence boost by the feedback offered by the influencers and tastemakers whilst others are left disappointed with the opinions formed by the influencers.
Krept, Konan and Target then spring the next challenge onto the contestants and this one takes the competition to new levels.
J Lucia, Lady Ice, F.O.S, Chade Paine, Kiico and Ransom FA are tasked with creating a music video for the track they produced with Jae5 last week.
Some of the most prolific directors on the scene including Risky Roadz, Kevin Hudson, Ray Fiasco and Flash Johnson are called in to assist the artists with their cinematography and creative direction.
Each artist is given five hours to shoot the video, a £100 budget and they are allocated a maximum of five people to cast in the video.
They must also stick to the specified brief which is to showcase in the visuals where their hometown is and what home means to them.
The six contestants then head to Scunthorpe, Islington, Manchester, Southend, North West London and Aberdeen to shoot their videos.
The visuals are all varied and exceptionally creative; we see deep storytelling visuals, tongue in cheek clips and videos set in various locations including on a bus and at the beach.
Krept, Konan and DJ Target then call in Matt Walker as a guest judge to help them rate the visuals and decide the subsequent rankings of the contestants.
Seeing their visuals for the first time is an exciting experience for the six and they are all receptive to feedback however some display frustration at the lack of creative control they had, and the time constraints set on the task.
The sheer quality of the music videos and of their performances in the influencer challenge makes deciding this week’s ratings very difficult for Krept, Konan and Target.
When the six contestants finally receive their feedback, some are elated but others are disappointed that they failed to top the rankings this week.
With this week being the penultimate episode before the winner is chosen, you cannot miss next week’s episode of The Rap Game UK where the champion and future signee to Play Dirty Records is chosen. Will it be J Lucia, Lady Ice, F.O.S, Chade Paine, Kiico and Ransom FA? All will be revealed next week.
Catch BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK now on iPlayer here.