HIP HOP OFFICIAL’S ARTIST OF THE WEEK CONTEST.

By now you've noticed Hip Hop Offcial's Artist of the Week features. Every day I get hundreds of emails asking if they can be featured as the Artist of the Week. I barely even listen to a quarter of the music I get sent. So I got to thinking...maybe I should have a contest, with the winner getting the opportunity to be featured as the Artist of the Week. Dope idea, right? I thought so too.

We're giving any aspiring, up and coming, unsigned, independent artist a shot of be covered on Hip Hop Official. It doesn't matter if you live in your mom's basement, have never performed on stage, or never even traded shots in a cypher - if you have the skills, you'll get your shot. This is your time to get some shine.

Submit 1 song to us, and we're gonna select the top 16 unsigned hip hop artists to compete through an elimination-style tournament to be the crowned the coveted Hip Hop Official Artist of the Week. The winner will get their own artist feature produced by HHO. The tournament will be conducted via our website (hiphopofficial.com) and Twitter (twitter.com/hiphopofficial), and the winners will be determined by you, THE PEOPLE. Hip Hop Official is for the children!

Starting Monday July 6th, the previously selected artists will be pitted against each other in a one-on-one type battle in which we will post a song from each artist on our blog. Fans will log on to the website and vote for their favorite, with the winner in each match-up advancing to the next round. Each round (or voting period) will last from Monday to Sunday, with the winners being announced the following Monday. At that time, the next round match-ups will be posted with BRAND NEW SONGS and voting will commence once again. This will continue for 4 weeks until a winner is crowned.

JULY 6: Round 1 match-ups: ROUND OF 16
JULY 13: Round 2 match-ups: ELITE 8
JULY 20: Round 3 match-ups: FINAL FOUR
JULY 27: Round 4: THE CHAMPIONSHIP

The winner will be announced via our blog, and at that time the winners will be notified and we’ll schedule the interview. A camera crew will meet the winners and shoot the segment to be aired later in August. The voting is open to the public, so make sure you get your people together to vote for you!

So how do you enter this amazing contest? It's mad easy. Just follow these simple steps:

1.Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hiphopofficial
(If you already are, you're ahead of the game. If you don't have a Twitter account, create one – it's FREE.)

2.Email us at hiphopofficial@gmail.com
(IMPORTANT: In the email include your name, twitter account (so we know you are actually following us), a phone number, a brief bio, website/myspace page, and a song submission. JUST SEND ONE SONG.

That's it. If you forget any of those items, you'll automatically be disqualified. I don't care if you're Rakim. SUBMISSIONS CLOSE JUNE 28TH. Don't miss the deadline. If you are one of the 16 chosen to compete, we will email you to notify you and then more rules will follow. Nothing too crazy, but enough to keep you on your toes. Keep in mind this is 4 rounds, so you will need to provide 4 different songs over the course of the competition. NOT ALL AT ONCE. We will have specifics for each round, just to keep it interesting.