![JSWISS featuring Chandanie - LML [VIDEO]](https://www.birthplacemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/JSWISS-218x150.jpg "JSWISS featuring Chandanie – LML [VIDEO]")
Last year, the annual Rapathon was one of Birthplace Magazine’s early “5 Reasons Why New York Hip Hop Doesn’t Suck.” The two-day event, held at the Hip Hop Culture Center in Harlem is back, and for 28 hours from Saturday, May 21 at 3 p.m. until Sunday, May 22 at 7 p.m., more than 130 rappers will engage in a continuous freestyle session, delivering a vastly diverse display of rhythmic American poetry.
In our previous write-up, we called the yearly event a “no cursing, aggression-free, lyric-filled exposition of verbal dexterity and harmonious, multi-gendered, multi-racial, family-friendly, peer-to-peer camaraderie in an event that in one day, single-handedly defies nearly every rap stereotype that has ever existed.” The same ideals will be celebrated this May 21-22 at Rapathon 5. In addition to being a pure exhibition, a cash prize of $1000 is being offered to a recipient deemed the best MC, and if tradition holds true, several other awards will be given to participants of this exciting event.
The Rapathon will be streaming live over the internet at www.livestream.com/onfumes, and is shown below.
Expect many of the New York and surrounding area’s finest independent and underground MCs to touch the Rapathon stage at some point (or several), while legendary hip hop icon Ralph McDaniels will be in the house to document the occasion.
Rapathon 5 is taking place at the Hip Hop Culture Center in Harlem from Saturday, May 21 at 3 p.m. to Sunday, May 22 at 7 p.m. The Hip Hop Culture Center is located at 2309 Frederick Douglass Blvd., (at the Magic Johnson Theater), New York, NY 10027. Call (212) 234-7171 or email hiphopculturectr@gmail.com for more information.