Yesterday, Michael Christmas flipped the world upside down when he announced he was holding a contest in which he’d give away a free ticket to THIS CONCERT to the person who came up with the best new nickname for him.

The contest closed two hours ago. Michael Christmas promised he would pick a winner as soon as the contest closed. He changed his mind.

Instead, he chose his favorite four out of the 50+ entries and now wants the public to vote on their favorite. The winner will be determined by whichever name has the most votes by 12 PM tomorrow.

Vote below. You can vote once every six hours.

CLICK HERE to buy tickets to the show via Ticketmaster ($15). Or tweet at @TheFreshHeir for hard copies ($12).

BREAKING NEWS: Michael Christmas is giving away a free ticket to the show of the spring – April 18th at Brighton Music Hall featuring Cam Meekins, Pilot Nation, OG Swaggerdick and Christmas himself.

Anyone who’s familiar with Christmas knows he is a man of many names. In the streets, he is also known as the following:

Bob Hanukkah

King Koala

Baby Huey

Young Dirty Bastard

HE WANTS ANOTHER ONE. WHO’S GOING TO COME UP WITH IT?

Whoever does – that is, whoever cooks up the new nickname Michael Christmas is most fond of – will be given a free ticket to the April 18th show.

RULES:

• Tweet at Michael Christmas (@MichaelChristmas) between NOW and 4 PM tomorrow with the nickname of your creation
• That’s pretty much it

So yeah. In case someone comes up with a better nickname than you, CLICK HERE to buy tickets to the show via Ticketmaster ($15). Or tweet at @TheFreshHeir for hard copies ($12).

Oh, and if you’ve never heard of Michael Christmas… I’m sorry. But try this on for size:

After five days of voting, the top three vote-getters in the TFH x Producer Pat White “Got Bars” Contest (as posted last night) were:

JBaskinz, D Beez and D-Celli.

After a day of deliberation, the four contest judges have come to a unanimous decision that the winner of the contest, who will be coming onto WTBU’s Midnight Marauders hip-hop radio show for an on-air interview and freestyle session this Sunday night (8-10 PM), is:

D-CELLI

Thanks to all who entered the contest. We had a great response, so we will likely be hosting something similar in the future.

But that’s not all. As promised, D-Celli’s verse will not be the only contest entry played live on the radio Sunday night. We have selected four others:

JBaskinz, D Beez, Witty and The Grey Scale

Tune in from 8-10 PM on wtburadio.org to hear these verses played at some point during the show. D-Celli will be live in-studio and will have a video of his freestyle session similar to one of these produced and released the following week.

Again, thanks to all who supported this contest – whether entering, re-posting or voting. In just five days, over 1,000 votes were cast. Be on the lookout for another one like it in the near future.

What’s on the line?

A pair of tickets to see Big K.R.I.T. live at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, MA on Tuesday, May 1st.

How do you win?

This is a simple one. The concert (brought to you by Leedz Edutainment) features Boston’s own Natural as one of the openers – he hooked it up for this contest, so the rules are gonna go like this:

1. Follow @Natural617 and @TheFreshHeir on Twitter. (I’ll check to make sure you did).
2. Like Natural and The Fresh Heir on Facebook. (I’ll check to make sure you did that too).
3. Download Natural’s latest project, The Bartender, for free HERE. (I can’t really check to make sure you did that, but it’s your loss if you don’t – it’s some good ass music).
4. Tweet the following: “@TheFreshHeir is giving away a pair of tix to see @BIGKRIT and @Natural617 live at the @MidEastClub on 5/1. This is my contest entry.”
5. That’s all you need to do. I will RT your tweet to confirm your entry. On Sunday, April 29th at 11 PM, I will randomly select a winner and make the announcement via Twitter and Facebook.
6. The winner will be contacted immediately, and the tickets will be exchanged outside the venue Tuesday night.

Here are the official rules for the TFH x Producer Pat White “Got Bars?” Contest:

1. Vote once every 12 hours (twice a day) until 11:59 PM (ET) on Thursday, 4/26.
2. Top three vote-getters will be announced immediately after the polls close.
3. The panel of judges (myself, Pat White, and the co-hosts of Midnight Marauders) will select our favorite out of the top three vote-getters and announce the winner at 11 PM on Friday, 4/27.
4. The winner will appear live in-studio on WTBU’s Midnight Marauders from 8-10 PM on Sunday, 4/29. Alongside The Fresh Heir and Pat White, the winner will be interviewed on-air and will have the opportunity to perform the winning verse as well as any other freestyles/verses that time allows for.
5. We will also select two additional entries (2nd and 3rd place) that we will play on-air at some point during the show.

(Check out his recent Fresh Baked Beat Tape HERE)

The Fresh Heir has hosted a number of contests in the past, but this one is unlike any that have come before it. This one’s for the rappers. I don’t care if you’ve put out 12 mixtapes or if you’ve done nothing more than freestyle drunk at a party… if you think you’ve GOT BARS, this contest is for you.

Pat White produced four original beats specifically for this contest. Listen to them below, and download however many you want. Drop a 16 on whichever beat you so please, send it back to thefreshheir90@gmail.com, and you’ll have a chance to appear on WTBU’s Midnight Marauders radio show to perform the track live on the air. Dope, right?

The beats are available for download below, and further down the page you’ll find the official rules for The Fresh Heir x Producer Pat White “GOT BARS?” Contest. Make sure you read through all of them.

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. Like The Fresh Heir and Producer Pat White on Facebook.

2. Follow @TheFreshHeir and @ProdByPatWhite on Twitter.

3. Download any of the four Pat White beats, as many as you want.

4. Record a single 16 bar verse on one of the beats.

5. Email your verse, AKA your contest submission, to thefreshheir90@gmail.com by Friday, April 20th at 11:59 pm.

6. All submissions will be uploaded to YouTube the following day. A poll will be posted on TheFreshHeir.com, open to the public for exactly five days. The top THREE vote-getting artists will move onto the finals.

7. By Friday, April 27th at 11:59 PM, the panel of judges (myself, Pat White, and Midnight Maruaders co-hosts @mrmisterbill and @matthewpaterno) will select the winner of the three finalists. We will notify the winner immediately.

8. On Sunday, April 29th from 8-10 pm, the winner will appear on Midnight Marauders with myself and Pat White for a live, in-studio performance and an exclusive interview. Contestants must be local to the Boston area and have the ability to get to the Boston University campus for the radio show.

If you’re not local to Boston, send us your 16 anyway. We’ll play two more on the radio that night in addition to the winner’s submission!

With a whopping 44% of the overall vote (377 votes), K-Woody, with “Here’s To Fame,” took first place in the opening round. MC DOOL, with “Dreams (Everlasting Paradise),” took second with 180 votes, and Phenom, with “Kicks Pumped,” came in third with 77.

Initially, Ben (@SwaggernautBen) and I announced that following the first round of voting, we would announce the three finalists, and from there we would simply select the winner based on whose song was our favorite. Last night, we decided to throw in a little wrinkle.

The top three, as decided by voting, have advanced to the finals. We also decided to “revive” two artists that didn’t make the cut. Now, there will be one more round of public voting, starting immediately, that will close on Sunday, March 11th at 11:59 PM.

Whoever has the most votes at the end of the finals is the winner. Since there was such a good voter turnout and positive response to the first round, we’re no longer forcing ourselves to choose who gets the video. We want the public to decide. Sunday night after midnight, we will post the results and the winner will be contacted privately and publicly.

We chose to revive Classiqk and Stan D. You’ll find all five tracks below. THIS IS A NEW SESSION OF VOTING. The first round poll has been closed, and this one is now open. Be sure to share this post.

VOTE UP TO FOUR TIMES A DAY. Must be no more than once every six hours. We want to allow for more voting in a shorter time frame.

Good luck to K-Woody, MC DOOL, Phenom, Stan D, and Classiqk! Big thanks to everyone who participated that didn’t make the finals, too. Many more contests will be held in the future.

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K-Woody – Here’s To Fame (prod. Cutlery)

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MC DOOL – Dreams (Everlasting Paradise)

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Phenom – Kicks Pumped Up (prod. Fly Life Beats)

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Stan D – Turning Pages

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Classiqk – Just A Memory ft. Raymon Jamez (prod. Pat White) 

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Artists were asked to submit one previously unreleased song in order to enter the contest. The submission deadline passed this past Sunday night, so now we’re in business.

Here’s the deal. Ten tracks. Top three make it to the finals. Ben Foley of Swaggernaut Productions and I will sit down and choose the one winner out of the top three based on originality, adaptability to video, and…….. fuck it, we’re picking our favorite. Pretty simple.

The one-week voting period starts right now and will end on Wednesday, March 7th at 10 AM. Check out all the songs, listed in alphabetical order (artist name). Vote for your favorite below after listening through all of them. Or just vote for the dude you came here for. Whatever you want.

Top three vote-getters will be publicly announced on March 7th, and we will announce the winner of the free music video, directed by Ben Foley of Swaggernaut Productions, that weekend.

PLEASE NOTE: Voters can vote once every 12 hours. That means twice a day for all you non-Math majors. Just make sure the two times are at least 12 hours apart, otherwise the voting system won’t let you do it.

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2ndNature – Woodstock (prod. SKetcho)

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Champ Brown – Pay Dayz (prod. CyreusB3) 

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Classiqk – Just A Memory ft. Raymon Jamez (prod. Pat White) 

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K-Woody – Here’s To Fame (prod. Cutlery)

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Matt Maratea – My Approach (prod. RocketScience)

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MC DOOL – Dreams (Everlasting Paradise)

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Natural – Bump That

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Phenom – Kicks Pumped Up (prod. Fly Life Beats)

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Stan D – Turning Pages

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Timmy Vendetta – Fools Gold Redux

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As any faithful readers or fans of the site should know by now, The Fresh Heir fully supports talented, up-and-coming artists from all over the country. One of my main goals for this site from the very beginning was to provide quality music – much of which would not be exposed to the majority of The Fresh Heir’s audience without a post or a cosign. That’s not saying the talent isn’t there, because any artist, track, or mixtape that’s ever been posted on this site has received my attention and been written about for good reason – it’s just that not all artists have the exposure to be able to reach a mass audience during the beginning stages of their careers without a little help along the way.

With that philosophy in mind, let me usher in The Incredibly Fresh, Swagged-Out Music Video Contest, presented by TheFreshHeir.com and Swaggernaut Productions, LLC.

My dude Ben Foley is one of many great people I’ve met through my work with The Fresh Heir. Ben is the co-founder of an all-purpose media company called Swaggernaut Productions and is one of the top up-and-coming videographers in Boston. All you need to do is search his name on YouTube or hit the Swaggernaut client list to get an idea of the sheer amount and quality of work he’s done in the past year, but just to name a few artists that Ben and Swaggernaut have worked with in recent months:

Casey Veggies, Chris Webby, DJ Ill Will, Hendersin, J. Cole, Kid Ink, Los, Mac Miller, Moufy, NV Concepts, Wale…. and that selection is only scratching the surface.

Ben and I have discussed collaborative efforts and a joining of forces in great detail recently, and now it’s time to present the first of what will likely be many The Fresh Heir x Swaggernaut Productions joint projects – this one designed specifically for local Boston hip-hop artists.

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There are so many different ways to build buzz and gain a following for your music these days, but few efforts prove more effective than a quality music video. Tyler the Creator’s “Yonkers” video singlehandedly put Odd Future on the map about a year ago today, and now the west coast collective is undeniably the hottest hip-hop group in the world. Lil B The Based God, as controversial a hip-hop figure as he is, gained a devout following through weekly videos, several of which went viral like “Wonton Soup.” A year later, he is selling out shows across America, and people are praying to him before they go to sleep at night.

This is what a music video is capable of doing for an artist, and in today’s social media-driven world where visuals spread through the inter-web faster than wildfire, supplementing a track of yours with a video here and there is almost essential – a smart move, at the very least.

As most artists know, shooting a video can be a costly experience. This thought process is not uncommon — “Is it worth it to drop a few hundred dollars on this when I could be putting it toward beats or forms of promotion, or to buy a opening slot for Moufy at the Middle East?”

For the time being, forget the cost. The Fresh Heir and Swaggernaut Productions are joining forces to provide a FREE MUSIC VIDEO for the winner of this contest. We want to provide an opportunity for an up-and-coming, local Boston rapper to have a video directed, edited, and posted on TheFreshHeir.com and SwaggernautProductions.com… all free of charge.

FIRST, let’s look at what’s on the line, then we’ll get into the official rules.

Winner will receive:

• 1-2 hour planning session with The Fresh Heir and Ben Foley of Swaggernaut Productions to discuss video concept and shooting details.
• Free video to be directed and edited by Swaggernaut Productions – date and details to be agreed upon in the aforementioned planning session.
• Exclusive posts on TheFreshHeir.com and SwaggernautProductions.com as well as full support from the sites’ social networking pages.

So, how do you enter and what are the rules??

We are looking for the best ORIGINAL, UNRELEASED song by Friday, February 24th at 11:59 pm. Immediately following the deadline, all entrants’ songs will be posted on TheFreshHeir.com, where a week-long voting session will take place. The general public will vote for its favorite track, and at the end of the voting period, Ben and I will take the TOP 3 VOTE-GETTERS, pick our favorite of the three, and name the official winner.

We will be judging the entries on the following:

1. Originality
2. Adaptability (will it lend itself well to a video?)
3. Likability (how likely are we to want to listen to it on our iPods?)

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. Submit an original, unreleased song by 2/24/12 at 11:59 PM to thefreshheir90@gmail.com via Soundcloud or YouTube. All submissions will be reviewed and posted on TheFreshHeir.com, assuming they adhere to the rest of the rules.
2. Song can be a collaborative effort between two artists, but no more than two artists on the same track.
3. Original beat is encouraged, but not required.
4. MUST BE A BOSTON HIP-HOP ARTIST. The video will be filmed in Boston or the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, this contest has to be restricted to artists local to the area.
5. All songs submitted will be posted on TheFreshHeir.com. Voting period opens on Saturday, February 25th at 10 pm and closes on Saturday, March 3rd at 10 pm. Top three vote-getting songs (as selected by the general public) will move onto the final round. Ben Foley and I will choose our favorite of the three based on [originality], [adaptability], and [likability], and the winner will be announced and notified immediately.
6. The video will be shot in March – dates and details to be agreed upon in The Fresh Heir x Swaggernaut Productions x Winning Artist planning session (see above).

That’s all you need to know. The contest is officially OPEN FOR ENTRANTS. This is going to be a lot of fun. Any questions? Comment below or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

RULES:

(1) Comment below with your Super Bowl score prediction.

(2) If an entrant predicts the correct score, he/she automatically wins. DO NOT PICK THE SAME SCORE AS SOMEONE ELSE. If you do, you have no chance of winning.

(3) If no one picks the right score, all entrants that chose the winning team will have their names written down and put into a hat, and a winner will be selected randomly

(4) Like the Facebook pages: The Fresh Heir… At The Buzzer ||||| and follow the Twitter accounts: @TheFreshHeir… @atbboston

Prize: One winner will receive a free snapback courtesy of At The Buzzer – either Patriots or Giants depending on which team he/she chooses – as well as two At The Buzzer stickers and two first-edition The Fresh Heir stickers.

(Note: Winner will be notified at the conclusion of the Super Bowl and will be provided with a choice of snapback style)

The contest is officially underway. Comment with your score prediction and you’re entered!!