VIBE Verses Winner Announced

The people have spoken. After 3 months, hundreds of thousands of votes, and millions of page views, the VIBE Verses Rap Battle community has picked a winner: OldSkoolyHigh. I’ll be honest, many of us at KickApps were pulling for The Empress, but such is the sacred heartbreak of democracy.

Months before 50 cent got with YouTube, VIBE launched Verses as an experiment in Social Media–kind of an online ‘American Idol’ for rappers. Using KickApps, they took Verses from concept to launch in about three weeks. And with a little viral marketing, the site took off in a big way. In fact, what started as a short-term contest evolved into a community of 60,000 people. These are passionate and engaged hip-hop fans who choose to be involved with the VIBE Verses community because it speaks to them and gives undiscovered artists a forum to get recognition.

The best part: it’s not over. VIBE plans to leverage the success of Verses to launch another contest shortly. So other brands take note–when you pair Social Media with a good idea, you’re building a foundation that will yield benefits in perpetuity. Congrats to VIBE, OldSkoolyHigh and the Verses Community on the beginning of something big.

And to The Empress, there’s always next year…