Horsham vs. Crawley rap hits YouTube

JPCT 080814 S14330118x You Tube rappers. Horsham, Crawley -photo by Steve Cobb SUS-140808-144715001

The masterminds behind the tongue-in-cheek video are four students from Horsham and Crawley who launched their YouTube channel ‘Royalty Three’ in April this year to host their satirical videos about local life.

“It’s a long way from Eminem’s ‘8 Mile’ than what some people may expect it to be,” said Will Bower, who plays the Crawley rapper.

The video ‘Crawley Vs. Horsham’ has almost 2,000 views, and features 21-year-old Horsham resident George Watts engage in a hilarious battle of wits against 21-year-old Will.

“It was all rehearsed - Will wrote the lyrics,” said George.

Will added: “We’re playing on stereotypes. Everyone knows it’s just fun, it’s not harmful to anyone.”

Earlier this year, the team released a ‘mockumentary’ on Crawley, which promotes the Sussex town like a holiday destination - the two minute clip has now received more than 16,000 hits.

“We want to keep doing these videos because we enjoy it more than anything else and we try to make each project better than the last,” said Will.

The team hope to build a fan base by focusing on local interest videos, before spanning out to the wider YouTube community.

Callum Dent said: “We use a lot of YouTubers for inspiration, like Devinsupertramp.”

YouTube has launched the careers of many ‘bedroom stars’ who have become famous faces amongst young viewers, like Swedish-born ‘PewDiePie’ who recently moved to Brighton and Horsham’s very own YouTuber ‘Keyori’.”

In fact, the four students will be collaborating on a new video with Keyori who has half a million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

“I guess he likes what we do. We know him from school and he wants to be in a sketch,” said Will.

Using platforms like Google AdSense, YouTubers with high view counts can make a living from producing videos.

George Bower, 19, Will’s younger brother, said it would be nice if Royalty Three could turn a profit.

He said: “We didn’t set out with that as our goal, we just did it for fun, but if that happens we’re not going to say no.”

To watch ‘Crawley Vs. Horsham Rap Battle Parody 2014’, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDq6KqiuWVI

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