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What's Going on with Ghostface Killah's 'Canada Takes The Mic' Contest?

Is Ghostface Killah's new reality show a bigger opportunity for him than the potential guests?

Ghostface in Halifax - Photo courtesy of Scott Blackburn

Ghostface Killah isn’t a rapper with an open schedule. Recently the Wu-Tang member has been busy playing surprise shows at sandwich shops, inciting fights in the front row of his concerts, and speaking out against police brutality—not to mention dropping an album over live instrumentals made by Toronto’s Frank Dukes and BADBADNOTGOOD. It may be this last career move that inspired Ghostface to create Canada Takes the Mic, a reality show that sounds like it’s a mix between the Idol series and The Ultimate Fighter. "Canada Takes the Mic is almost like a talent search. We’ll have ten cities or whatever, and the best people out of those cities, we’ll take those winners and put them inside a house.” explained Ghostface when [[we interviewed him at a roller derby.]] “We’ll let them marinate in there, and then every week we’ll eliminate somebody until we get down to number one. Even within those ten cities, after they go through the two days of auditioning, on the third day, they’ll perform before my concert on that day."

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To reiterate, Ghostface will be auditioning talent in conjunction with being on a tour of Canada. According to the show's website, auditions will be held “over a period of 35 days throughout the Fall of 2015” and that the contest will be coming to 14 cities (not ten) across Canada. If 14 cities in 35 days sounds like a a busy production schedule, it's because it is. A look at the information posted on the website has Ghostface auditioning rappers every single day from September 7 in Vancouver, until October 11 in Toronto. Then, on October 12th all ten finalists from across Canada will be put into the “Mic Mansion” in Toronto where two rappers will be eliminated by the judges every week. The judges will be scoring the rappers on the criteria of “creativity, lyrics, production & performance.”

The grand prize for winning Ghostface’s reality show is $100,000 and a record deal, but upon closer inspection that money isn’t awarded via a comically large burlap sack with a dollar sign on it, but “in prizes towards their career that will assist the winner in taking their career to the next level with a credible co-sign.” So although the winner will receive a lump sum of $5,000, a hefty $75,000 portion of the award is split evenly through three main streams: production of a music video, a distribution deal, and getting the winner a feature for their first single. It’s not known who will be the featured artist, but since the winner will be signed to Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Records—which currently has no artists on the roster—it’s likely that the featured artist the winner is paying $25,000 for will be Ghostface himself.

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Picture courtesy of website

The artists will be judged by Farley Flex, who is a former Canadian Idol judge, music promoter, and the original manager of Maestro Fresh Wes. Ghostface Killah will also judge the competition, along with a yet-to-be-named third host who we will assume is Drake until told otherwise. According to the website, this will be a “televised contest,” but when asked which network this will appear on, a representative for the show tells Noisey that “nothing has been posted yet as we have a few options that are being looked at.”

Although registration opens on April 15th, I decided that I would get a jump on the competition and apply now. After all, I’ve wanted to be a rapper ever since I saw how cool their accessories were, and this seemed like the perfect chance. I clicked over to the “Register” tab on the website and filled out the form, only to be greeted with a message that “Registration is $250 CAD per entry.” and that I “will be directed to PayPal to complete [the] transaction.” It’s not clear as to where this money will go, as the representative for the show didn't reply to multiple requests for comment. But thanks to my ability to use a calculator I’ve deduced that if 400 people across Canada sign up for this contest, the show stands to make back all of the money it is offering as the grand prize. Paying a large sum of money to participate in what should be a for-profit venture with other sources of revenue—as would be the case if this were a televised show like American Idol—is objectively shady

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Continued below.

When asked why he chose Canada as the stage for his contest, despite the fact that its population is considerably less than that of California, Ghostface said "cause I know there’s talent in Canada that’s undiscovered. I can just tell by the ones that are out there right now; Justin Bieber, there’s Drake, Melanie Fiona and BADBADNOTGOOD. There’s talent there."

This wouldn’t be the first time a Wu-Tang member travelled North of the American border to seek a business opportunity. After opening ICEH20 Records in 2012, Raekwon signed a few artists that ultimately didn’t manage to break out on an international level before closing the label’s doors in 2014.

Time will tell if Ghostface experiences more success with his endeavour than his fellow Wu-Tang affiliate, but one can’t help but wonder who Ghostface Killah hopes to have Canada Take the Mic benefit: himself, or the fledgling auditioning artists.

Slava Pastuk is a writer living in Toronto - @SlavaP