Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Recent years have seen the rise of rap stars inVietnamese music industry like Den Vau or Suboi, and two new reality TVdedicated to rap have shown the increasing popularity of the genre.

Rap Viet and King of Rap arethe first two competitions seeking talented rappers to be aired on Vietnamesetelevision. Both shows have been screened during prime time at the weekendsince August 1.

Both Rap Viet and King of Rap are adapted from foreignversions. While the first is adapted from TheRapper of Thailand, a show widely known in Asia, the second has thecopyright from the Republic of Korea’s ShowMe the Money rap competition.

The second episode of Rap Viet, whichaired on August 8, attracted more than 576,000 concurrent viewers, a record fora reality TV show in Vietnam.

The full video of the performances of the contestants in the first episode of Rap Viet, uploaded on YouTube, hastopped 19 million views up to date, while the Kingof Rap has reached nearly 6 million views after a week of being online.

Rap Viet features not only renowned MC Tran Thanh as host but alsomany famous Vietnamese rappers like JustaTee, Rhymastic, Wowy, Binz, and Suboias judges and coaches for the show.

Meanwhile, King of Rap featurestalented Vietnamese rap stars over the past decade as well like Lil'Shady,LK and BigDaddy.

According to rapper Ha Le, both shows are recorded in high quality, especiallythe sound, and the judges represent different facets of Vietnamese rap.

“This is a very good opportunity for rappers to experience their passion,” hetold Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

As a keen listener to rap for years, Nguyen Duy from Hanoi reckoned that both Rap Viet and Kingof Rap have shown the strength of the genre like the lyrics, rhythmand puns, in addition to minimising its negativity.

“But it would be great of the shows to allow contestants to compete in battleraps, which are of course limited in words. Here we can really see the truepeak of rap, as the genre is developed though underground battles,” he said.

Rap Viet is screened at 8pm on HTV2 Channel and King of Rap is shown at 9.15pm on VTV3every Saturday.

Among the coaches of Rap Viet isWowy, a familiar name to many underground music lovers in Vietnam.

Born in 1988, the rapper, whose real name is Nguyen Ngoc Minh Huy, has been inthe game for at least 14 years.

He is also considered a pioneer of rap in the south and has been particularlysuccessful in combining rap with Vietnamese social and cultural issues.

After hiding from the spotlight for a while, Wowy has returned with two roles,actor/songwriter for director Tran Thanh Huy’s Rom filmand coach of Rap Viet withother renowned rappers like Binz, Karik and Suboi.

The 32-year-old embarked on his musical career as a member of SouthGanz in2006, one of the first rap bands in the south at that time.

He pursued a solo path two years later and attracted a special attention fromthe rap world when he debuted Hai The Gioi (TwoWorlds) and Khu Tao Song (WhereI Live) which he collaborated with young rapper Karik. But the rap hit thatbrought him fame was Buddha in2012.

In 2015, Wowy released an album titled LaoDai (The Senior), which contained rap songs about life and also hisrap identity./.