The legendary duo, Sway & King ech, hosts of the long-running hip-hop radio program the Wake Up Show, are ready to find the next hot musical talent with the '100K Battle.’  The battle which has been launched in conjunction with urSession.com has a deadline of December 4th, 2008, where the winner will be announced and receive a trip to Hollywood, $5000, and an appearance on The Wake Up Show as well as a development deal on the urSession.com label. 

Helping artists in this manner is nothing new for Sway and King Tech.  The duo has regularly supported new artists with their management and promotional skills. Sixshot spoke with King Tech about the contest, the state of the industry, and whether or not we can expect another album form him and Sway.

Sixshot.com:  What inspired you guys to launch this contest?

King Tech:  I was at a radio station in San Francisco and Sway and I are from the Bay Area.  So a lot of calls were coming in with people asking us if there was anything we could do for the Bay Area.  People felt stuck down there and like nobody was looking for them besides hyphy, but that’s not really happening no more. So I was like rattling my brain and I called up some prod ucers and said, “I got this crazy idea to give beats away to find the next raw talent and give them a chance.”  I made about five calls and everybody was down with it.  So I got on there and I said, “I’ll be back in one month with this thing ready to go,” and that’s exactly what happened.

Sixhsot.com:  What are you two looking for in the next hot MC?

King Tech:  I think these days versatility.  Back in the day you could be a Public Enemy and go after one audience with one image or one angle and get it and you were good.  These days it’s different.  For example, Lil' Wayne picked up a guitar a few years ago and people were laughing at him but he crossed over to a whole other different crowd.  When the Soundscan numbers came out nobody understood how he did a million when dudes were not selling CD’s.  He sold across the board to different genres.  He sold to the mixtape crowd, underground crowd, he did pop records, and he started singing on records.  Not everybody knew all the things he was doing.  So for us these days I think to have a chance to really make an impact you have to be above and beyond the norm. 

Sixhsot.com:  Part of the prize is a development deal.  There was a time when labels would actually invest time and energy to develop artists, but now artists need to come in with everything polished and ready to go.  So what kind of development are you guys offering to the winner?

King Tech:  Well it depends on what the winner needs.  It’s hard to tell.  We had a smaller contests and everybody needed something different.  Some guys are already done with their style and their demos and they just showed up with albums finished.  If they win the next conversation is, “Hey man, where are you trying to go with your career?  Are you trying to be the guy that’s famous but not super famous?”  Then there were guys that said they were done with underground hip-hop.  So its tough to say what they need until they win.  If their style is underground then we try to give them some of the top underground producers.  This way if they go the majors at least they got a chance in that market.  At this pint there’s not much that Sway and I can’t offer to a new artist cause we been in the game for 18 years.  We got it locked down at this point of all the people we need to know.

Sixhshot.com:  What do you think is the wisest investment with the prize money?

King Tech:  There’s no way to tell.  We had a freestyle battle some years ago and I gave this guy $2,500 cash.  I said, “Go the studio and make the best demo you've ever made in your life.”  Two weeks later I called him and asked if he recorded anything.  He said, “I was so happy I went to Vegas, gambled, and f***** it up.”  So again what I see for them and what they’re gonna do are two different things.  The wisest investment is somebody that really believes in you.  Find somebody in your area—let's say he’s from Canada and there’s an upcoming producer from Canada.  He says, “Look man I just won this contest and got these people behind me.  I got $5,000 cash.  What can we do together?”  These days $5,000 will get a producer to be like, “Okay I'll do three joints with you or 2 joints and take it back.” 

Sixshot.com:  How is urSession.com different from the competitors?

King Tech:  Honestly when we started it I know there were some sites that took our lead or people say we took their lead.  But the key difference is that when I walk into these different companies they feel like companies to me.  They don’t have the feel that we have.  Our guys are straight music and we been in the game so many years that we’re music dudes.  We got a proven track record of helping artists and promoting artists.  I don’t know if any other site comes with that.

Sixshot.com:  What’s the most exciting thing about the internet and how it’s changed the industry?

King Tech:  There’s a major upside and a small downside.  The upside is you no longer have to rely on somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody to get to a meeting with somebody.  You could make enough noise on the internet or your region for people to start checking you out.  If you’re incredible and from Alaska then people will talk about you and find you.  The downside is that there’s so much s*** out there it’s harder to find the good s*** sometimes.

Sixshot.com:  People can still go to sites like Limewire and not pay for music.  That’s also a major downside for artists and companies. 

King Tech:  I talk to a bunch of cats in high school and they don’t buy music.  One person buys it and all the friends make copies.  So I think in the next two years you will see record labels shrink from 30 or 40 down to 20 or 30 offices, and everybody else will be outsourced in the rap game.  I remember the nineties where you had 5 new artists come out a month that were incredible.  They were getting pushed and people were behind them.  You’re lucky these days if you get two [artists] with a big push.  People are scared to spend their money cause they can't recoup it like they used to.  Once you put something on the net the world has it so the only thing left to do is what Lil' Wayne does.  That means going out and giving away so much free s*** that you develop a loyal fan base who will buy your stuff when it comes out.  I think there's still a crowd that will pick it up. 

Sixshot.com:  Is there another album in the works from you and Sway?

King Tech:  I don’t know.  For the last couple of ones we did we were trying to promote new guys coming out and we came out as artists before that.  Then we turned into like managers and co-managers and we did an album for Interscope where we introduced a lot of new talent to the world.  I’m talking with Sway right now about maybe doing part two but that is up in the air.  We would love to do it to give people one more thing cause there’s a lot of talent out there, but right now it's hard to say cause the focus has been this 100K Battle.  That’s all we’ve been doing.

For more information please visit:
www.ursession.com