Can the combined power of Vibe magazine, MySpace, and KickApps' social multimedia platform uncover the next great MC? That's the plan, and they're all hoping three is the magic number.
Vibe Verses 3, an online rap battle that lets aspiring MCs upload videos of themselves spitting rhymes, launches today.
The viral contest, promoted on both Vibe.com and MySpace, is using KickApps video widgets to let rappers and their fans embed the clips in MySpace profiles and other Web pages.
Participants in the contest select from one of 23 beats, then make a video of themselves performing their own lyrics to the track. MySpace users and members of the Vibe online community can then vote on each video; the number of votes determines the finalists.
Wyclef Jean of the Fugees picks the overall winner of the contest on November 30, and he has a personal stake in his selection. The winner of Vibe Verses 3 will be the opening act for Wyclef on December 4 in Los Angeles. The contest winner will also get a full-page ad in Vibe magazine.
According to the press release, more than 1,000 videos have been uploaded since May as part of the three Vibe Verses contests.
Submitting your own video for the contest is free, but you'll need to join the Vibe Rap Battle community to upload your video. You can listen to all 23 backbeats here and get instructions on how to participate here.
One quick tip: use the right microphone for the job. Say yes to a handheld condenser mic, and take a pass on those skinny wand-shaped mics that Bob Barker used to use.
Back in early September, I wrote about the five finalists to win a combined $250,000 in development funding from MTV and Cisco, sponsors of the Digital Incubator contest for university-grown Web apps.
Today, they announced a prize even grander than the first--$100,000 in addition to the $30,000 finalist grant already applied to RapHappy.com's development. The social network for recording, editing, distributing, and commenting on user-generated raps won Digital Incubator's judges with a business plan detailing the nascent company's next level of growth.
Ben Leduc-Mills and Matt Fargo, both graduate students in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and the brains behind RapHappy, are nothing short of jubilant. "We want to give a great big hug to all of you who helped us get this far," reads the message on their Web site, "But I guess you'll just have to settle for a big shoutout on the Web site instead. Thanks though, really. It's your amazing raps that won it for us."
In addition to the Web site, RapHappy rappers can also lay down vocals via hotline (for inspired cell phone rapping) and through a Facebook app.
With a freshly signed check for $30,000, some student Web developers won't have to eat instant ramen, that venerated mainstay of U.S. student diets, ever again.
Each year, five groups win grants from Digital Incubator, a contest co-sponsored by mtvU (MTV University) and Cisco to reward up-and-coming, college-age Web application developers. One project, cryptically called The Osiris Project, links MP3s to Flickr's photo library to create on-the-fly music videos tailored to a given song. Intrigued? So were we. Pull over for more about The Osiris Project and the other winners--including a rap studio and social networking espionage game.... Read more
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