Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey presents Jack’N For Beats

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The night was filled with great drinks and beautiful people but the reason we all came out was for the rhymes. Over 150 emcees auditioned last Friday for the chance to compete in last Saturday’s competition. Approximately 54 emcees made the cut; names such as YC St. Louis, Buddy Love, Boatshoe Holly, and more brought out the best in one another. As Tiffany Fowler, the coordinator and director for the Jack’N for Beats tour informed me as the rounds went on the better and better the talent would get. The winner of the night’s $500.00 prize would be Metta (@man_metta) a very talented battle rapper who definitely was a crowd favorite. I have to admit that I was not aware of him before but I can say without any doubt that I will be following his career from now on. He is that good.

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Jack’N For Beats

If you are unfamiliar with the competition here’s your chance to get in on what is the best program in the country for hip hop. Before I go any further I must tell you that even if you didn’t get a chance to audition and perform in one of the 11 cities on the tour you still have a chance to enter online and uploading your 16 bars over an exclusive Jack Daniels track. [Click Here Now for More Details]

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The Program

Okay so here is what you need to know: The Jack Daniel’s Jack’N For Beats Competition is the only program in the country where persons can enter for free and compete in front of  A&R’s like AJ (@directlyme), execs like Johnnie Franklin (@1JohnBlaze) and hip hop taste makers and professionals like DJ Khaled, to win money, and get a recording session in Miami with AJ and Khaled.

The program which has been in existence for about 4 years now has grown to become a launching pad for artist. According to last year’s St. Louis winner, Riley B, aside from providing him a check for $5k the competition also gave him national exposure. “For people who didn’t know me before it gave them a chance to get familiar with what I already had. I already had videos, songs, and radio play but it gave me a chance to really broaden the audience… it took me beyond local to establish relationships with people outside of St. Louis and put my foot on the gas as far as my music is concerned,” he told me. He also expressed appreciation for the competition and the impact it has on St. Louis, saying it created a “great buzz” for the city. I had to ask if that was a pun because the contest is sponsored by Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey and he said it wasn’t, but before the competition he didn’t drink Jack but after he won he hasn’t been drinking anything else.

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The Process

What you may not know is that Khaled and AJ listen to these tracks everyday. AJ’s resume is about a mile wide and contains names like Busta Rhymes, Melanie Fiona, Asher Roth, and others. Brought in on the program by Azim Rashid, AJ met with Johnnie and saw it was a great program to give back to the community and brought in high caliber DJ’s like Drama, Scream, Envy and now Khaled. He described the process for me that while yesterday each artist selected one of 5 tracks to freestyle over, tonight would be a mixture of industry beats and maybe acapella. Emcees cannot curse or use the “n-word” this forces some emcees to be more creative. There are mutliple rounds and within them emcees are selected to advance to later rounds with 5 being selected to represent the city. The top emcee out of the 5 wins the cash prize.

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What I found during my time with the competition is that this contest can instantly propel ones rap career to working with top industry talent in regard to A&R’s, producers, and record execs for free.   “Regardless of anyone who wins this competition whether it is in the city or online it’s a huge cosign, you competed against everybody in America, you won $10,000 dollars, and you are in the studio in Khaled,” AJ told me adding that, “there’s no other program in the world that offers this type of opportunity”.

Stay tuned into the contest here online at deluxmag.com or in the pages of DELUX Magazine.

The next stops on the tour will be  July 7th Detroit, MI\July 9th Cleveland, OH\July 11th Philadelphia, PA\July 14th Brooklyn, NY. 

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DeWarren Smith
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