Lex Jones hailed King Of The Mic

By Linda Serck
BBC Berkshire reporter

Lex Jones is signed to the Rupture UK record label

A King Of The Mic battle has raged in glorious style in Ascot with rapper Lex Jones taking the crown for 2009.

The Slough 'spitter' wowed the judges and the crowd at Jagz and beat off seven other MCs to win a £150 cheque on Friday 16 October.

Organised by Berkshire label Raw Linx, the battle was the first of its kind in the county.

Lex said: "I'm really happy, there were a lot of other really good MCs and I could easily not have won it."

I was on the panel of judges alongside local rapper Jonny Virgo and legendary music producer Martin Rushent, who is based in Pangbourne.

The night kicked off with the rap artists from Berkshire and Surrey free-style rapping with a live band, called The Upfront Band, who performed a range of known hip hop instrumental riffs.

In the second round the rappers then performed their own tunes, mostly to their own backing track.

There were some clear contenders in the mix, with around five MCs making a good impression with their raps, rhythms, crowd interaction and stage presence.

But we whittled it down to just two, who'd go head-to-head in an MC battle: Lex Jones from Slough and MCX from Reading - both of whom were clear seasoned performers whose creative lyrical poetry effortlessly punctuated through the music.

The crowd had to decide on the final winner, and they evidently made the most noise for Jones, who was then hailed as the Ascot 2009 King Of The Mic and presented with the large cheque by Miss Berkshire runner-up Charlotte Hammond.

Speaking to a jubilant Lex afterwards, the 24-year-old said: "I was quite nervous driving up here, I was anxious about flowing over a live band as I've not done that for a while.

"I have entered one other competition like this when I was 17 and again I got lucky and managed to win it. But battling is not anything new to me, that's a regular thing growing up as an MC."

And what will he be spending his winnings on?

"Penny sweets," he grins, "foam bananas mainly and then some Jazzies."