The Source Magazine #Source360 Unsigned Hype Round 1 Competition Recap.

Last Night in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn, just a block from 560 state street, The Source Magazine held it’s first Unsigned Hype Competition as part of The Source 360 weekend.

DJ Selector Sean got things started, playing classic hits, many by former Unsigned Hype Winners like Brooklyn’s own Biggie Smalls who grew up roughly 15 minutes from Roulette, the competition’s venue. The crowd, which was a nice combination of those there to support their friends in the competition and many just there to see a dope hip hop simmered with anticipation as the minutes led up to the start of the event.

Heavy Hitter & Hot 97 DJ, L-Boogz was the nights host and set things off proper, explaining to the crowd what the completion was all about, and introducing the judges. First was legendary producer Amadeus along with upcoming rapper & one of the hottest producers in the game, Mike Zombie (“Started From The Bottom”, “They Don’t Love You No More”), the judging panel was rounded out by The Source Magazine’s own Music Editor Khari Nixon. The 27 participants would be narrowed down using a 3 part scale of Music, Lyrics, & Stage Presence.

The performs who went in alphabetical order to ensure fairness began with upstate NY emcee A-Train. Each participant had a 4 minute slot to perform whatever other interaction they could fit in. Some chose to get right to it, like Solomon Faye who literally jumped onto stage from the crowd after his name was called. Others, like Michael Haze used the time to introduce themselves and gain some crowd support.  Taylor Dunn who came from Philadelphia set things off to a self produced beat but then cut it off to go acapella, a tactic it’s surprising more emcee’s didn’t employ.

Some artists like Chewy Garcia, Tray Pizzy, & Wordsmiff definitely made it clear that they were some of the hometown crowd favorites with the crowd going up before they began to rock. Artists like J Reed & Narubi Selah (who literally brought the house down) proved that the ovation you came out to is not always the cheers you end up leaving with, in a great way!

When it was all said and done these Emcee’s moved on to the next round, THE CYPHER, which will be held at Albee Square for The 360 Plaza portion of Source 360 Saturday at 4 pm, the winners of that round will go on to perform at the big concert at The Barclays Center.