‘The Rap Game’ Season 3 Cast And Episode 1 Recap For Lifetime Show

Lifetime’s The Rap Game Season 3 cast was officially introduced to viewers several days ago as the hip-hop reality TV competition show premiered. Jermaine Dupri of So So Def Recordings was back again as the man running the show and scouting the talent. The latest cast includes four newcomers and one fan favorite with another chance at superstardom. With thousands of social media fans, views, and listens between them, this latest cast seems unlikely to disappoint as they audition for a hip-hop career.

According to Heavy, the latest season of Rap Game premiered on Lifetime on Friday night at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. The show promises to be bigger and better with more drama than before. Five hip-hop hopefuls are competing for the chance to work with a major producer, but they’ll have to grind through the season’s challenges to do so. In addition to the aspiring hip-hop stars, there will be heavyweights in the industry featured throughout the season including Da Brat, Bow Wow, I Heart Memphis, Rick Ross, Fabulous, and Jeezy, among others.

Among the five contestants will be Deetrananada, a 15-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland, who has over 86,000 YouTube views. She brought her manager and brother, Platinum J, along for her journey on the show. There’s 16-year-old Nova from Reading, Pennsylvania, who has 152,000 Soundcloud views and has his uncle and manager, Ekko, with him.

Flau’jae is 12-years-old from Savannah, Georgia, and has 170,000 YouTube views to her credit. She’s also the daughter of rapper Camoflauge, who was murdered back in 2003, according to Savannah Now. Kia Jones is touted as her “mommy manager.” Atlanta native King Roscoe is 13-years-old with 209,000 social media views and has his mom with him as his manager. One of his songs is “All A Student.”

One hour until the premiere. Whose team are you on? #TheRapGame pic.twitter.com/MRFLFRaop6

— The Rap Game (@RapGameLifetime) January 14, 2017

The big surprise for the latest season comes with the return of a former contestant. The newer competitors were thrown a bit off guard with the return of Tally from Season 2 of the show. Fans spoke out on social media, so JD decided to give the 17-year-old a second run in the competition. Her sister, Jasmine, will be with her as her manager.

The first episode features the five contestants and their managers setting up camp in the house while preparing for the grueling weeks of competition. Tally immediately feels as if there’s a target on her back but is ready to take the chain. Jermaine’s assistant, Jny Flower, is also back to help out and brings the crew to see JD right off the bat. The latest group believes they’re being taken to a room with JD and his crew of big wigs to audition. Instead, they walked right into room full of party people ready to hear the competitors audition live.

Nova was the first to take the stage and rocked the crowd to set the bar high for the four remaining contenders. Unfortuantely, King Roscoe was second and nerves took effect as he stumbled through his lines, forgetting some. He picked up after the early issues to impress the judges a bit, but he’ll still need to put in work. Flau’Jae was out next, but unfortunately for a her, a mixup came in terms of Tally’s beat getting played. She went with it though and seemed to impress with her energy.

Tally was fourth to go and didn’t mess up this time around as she’s looking to snatch that chain this season. Deetranada finished out the auditions and came out on fire despite it being her first time to go on stage like that. She even finished things up with a bit of a freestyle to get the crowd’s and JD’s attention. After the auditions, each of the five contestants gets a mentor from JD’s crew to help guide them. Their first week’s assignment is delivering a 16-bar rap to introduce themselves and make a good first impression.

So So Def producer Mike Kalombo is the mentor for Deetranada and talked to her about staying consistent through her performance, despite how hard she went with it. Grammy-winning producer Zaytoven works with Nova and tells him to slow it down some on a beat with his latest rap work. Flau’ Jae gets to work with John John Da Don, who says he liked her crowd control. She gives him her 16 bars and he tells her to be clearer on her words she’s using. He also talks about her having big shoes to fill following in the footsteps of her dad.

Writer and producer Bryan-Michael Cox has won nine Grammy awards and chose King Roscoe to work with. He uses a unique technique of having the young artist do a light jog on a treadmill while attempting to deliver his lyrics from memory. Cox also gives Roscoe some homework to cut his number of bars down a bit before delivering them later. Hip-hop artist Da Brat is one of the legends of So So Def who came out back in the day with Kris Kross. She chooses returning contestant Tally to mentor and starts comparing her to Iggy Azalea. She gives her advice on developing a different sound to set herself apart.

Later on, JD shows up at the house with his mentors to listen to the artists deliver their bars. Also in the house to listen in is hip-hop star Fabulous. Before Dupri can finish speaking, Tally steps up and delivers some bars to impress, showing everyone she’s there to compete. Each of the other four contestants stepped up to do their thing and even got tips from Fabulous after they finished up.

With that assignment completed it was time for “The Hit List.” The five competitors were ranked from No. 5 to No. 1 to let them know who the frontrunner was after the first week. Coming in at the five spot was Flau’ Jae because JD felt she didn’t tell enough about herself in her 16-bar rap. No. 4 was King Roscoe who JD said wasn’t as strong with his lyrics despite bringing deep lines about his late father. Deetranada was third on the list due to her early stumbling, but improved delivery after that. In second place was Nova, which meant Tally took the top spot to set things off.

The first episode of The Rap Game really set the stage for what’s to come as returning contestant Tally seems to really have some hunger for that chain and contract. It’s going to be a grueling competition for 13 weeks for these aspiring stars. The second episode will arrive on Friday, January 20, on Lifetime starting at 10 p.m. Eastern Time.

Viewers, who was the top performer on the first episode of The Rap Game? Will Tally win the competition now that she’s back again?

[Featured Image by Paras Griffin/Getty Images]