BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK is back for the penultimate episode and the contestants are desperate to increase their chances of winning the all-important Play Dirty record deal.
Last week, the six hopefuls were reunited following Shogun’s stint in quarantine and the rappers created a club banger with help from London hailing artist Deno.
Later, the artists performed their own version of Krept and Konan’s “I Spy” along with a live orchestra and in front of UK legend Wretch 32.
This week, the heat is turned up once more and the contestants are asked to head into the studio to create a beat.
The six are asked to work with The Fanatix who have produced hits for Chip, Vybz Kartel, Popcaan, Nicki Minaj, Giggs and more.
For this challenge, the rappers are asked to articulate what they want to The Fanatix and collaborate with the producers to create a quality instrumental.
The catch though is that only one instrumental can win the challenge and said instrumental will be used by all six artists later on. The task here is to create something with universal appeal so that it can be fit for purpose.
The task comes naturally to some of the contestants but poses as foreign territory for others who have never worked with producers before in this way.
After providing feedback and working with the judges, the final track is chosen and the contestants get ready for their video shoots.
Ayishat Akanbi offers the hopefuls some creative direction and style tips before they prepare for their shoot.
After working with the likes of Avelino and Little Simz, Ayishat is well experienced with handling the overall image of an artist and she drops several gems on our hopefuls.
Themes like patriotism, playfulness, androgyny and more are suggested to the artists and most of them adhere to the advice.
With a £150 budget, Zones, Lesha, Shogun, D Live, Ddroid and Graft work hard to convey personality and star-power in their time-limited videos.
Directed by Ashleigh Jadee who has brought her skills to projects for Kida Kudz, Stormzy and M Huncho, the videos all aim to showcase the artist’s in their elements.
Props include Cuban cigars, watermelons, baseball bats, body bags and more.
Helping to judge the videos and offer feedback is Manchester’s main man Aitch who boasts hundreds of millions of views across YouTube on tracks like “Taste (Make it Shake)” and “Rain”.
Aitch is left impressed by the videos and tells the contestants that he feels “proud” of their output.
The collective success of the hopefuls leaves Krept, Konan and DJ Target in a difficult position for this week’s rankings as it becomes harder to nit-pick at the near-flawless work of the artists.
The rankings this week are not sent by text message and instead, Krept, Konan and Target opt to deliver them all in person.
The rankings leave some of the artist’s validated and others extremely disappointed – with the passionate discussion leaving some upset.
With the final episode of series two of BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK coming next, you cannot afford to miss a moment as we wait for the winner to be crowned.
Catch up with BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK on iPlayer now and prove your rap skills by making your mark on DJ Target’s Rap Map.