Stay up past midnight on any Saturday, tune your car or bedroom radio to KTUH 90.3 FM, and you'll find the beats, rhymes and lives of a small core of artists building up our town's ever-evolving, largely unheralded hip-hop scene.

"The genuineHI Show" is three hours of prolific, often potent beats and flow from local hip-hop playas new and established such as Creed Chameleon, Soul Pacific, NoMasterBacks, AudibleLabRats, The Spacifics, Tempo Valley, Emirc, Kavet the Catalyst, DJ Observ, Million Billion and more.

Corporate-controlled mainstream hit radio can keep its current T.I.- and Young Jeezy-obsessed airwaves and play lists. The raison d'etre of Jake "The Snake" Miyasato's year-and-change-old "genuineHI Show" is to raise the collective musical profile of local hip-hop artists and only local hip-hop artists.

Want you some Pretty Ricky? Slum at "Da Bomb."

"I really was inspired by the local guys when I saw them perform, heard their demos and saw how much effort they put into their music," said Miyasato, 21, explaining the genesis of "genuineHI." "The music was really good, of a high quality, and a lot of it was more conscious and meaningful than the stuff that I heard on the radio all the time.

"It was frustrating to me that no one knew about it."

Miyasato, a University of Hawai'i-Manoa mechanical engineering major, was hardly an expert on local hip-hop. At the start of "genuineHI," he knew few artists on the scene and had no idea if he could find enough local hip-hop to fill a three-hour show, let alone procure it.

"But I just felt there had to be a space made for (the music) to mature and grow," said Miyasato. "I felt no one knew about Hawai'i hip-hop. I didn't know about Hawai'i hip-hop. So we were all going to be learning about it together on my show. That was kind of the plan."

Sub-themed "Flux," tonight's third edition of "onthe1" — genuineHI's multihour live showcase for artists on the show's playlist — should further prove just how far Miyasato's grand college radio experiment has come. Held just after "genuineHI" made its January 2006 debut, onthe1's first outing — sub-themed "Chill" — drew a mere handful of the curious to UH's Hemenway Hall courtyard. By last September's "onthe1: Special Delivery," however, "genuineHI" had gained enough of an audience to fill the event with a couple hundred hip-hop-loving souls.

A fourth edition of onthe1, "Bachi," drops April 13. Miyasato hopes to take the free, all-ages, open-to-the-public show monthly in the fall semester.

Meanwhile, entire broadcasts of "The genuineHI Show" — boasting upwards of 40 tracks each — can be downloaded to iPod at genuineHI.com. Miya-sato's genuineHI site also boasts a comprehensive collection of links to individual artists' Web sites and MySpace Music pages for more local hip-hop.

I asked artists invited to perform at this evening's "onthe1: Flux" for some thoughts on their music, influences, the local hip-hop scene and a few of their favorite discs.

Show them all some love tonight ... and tune in to Jake the Snake on "genuineHI" at midnight Saturday.

THE SPACIFICS

Members: seph.i. (Joseph I. Rosales), k.town (David Keli'i Wong), sean.jovi (Sean Ho), dj risup (Bronson Kaleialoha), slo (Eugene Carrol), Eric Awa

Our music is: "Raw edge, in your face, conscious, collect, correct, mic check, one two, boom bap, live, organik, harmonik, melodik, hip-hop, next level, rooted ... the Spacifics."

Musical influences: Include Quadraphonix, Tempo Valley, Fungus, The Roots, Gangstarr, A Tribe Called Quest, Bob Marley, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Paisley, Jim Morrison.

Best thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "The specificity of the arts and crafts of young, aspiring kinds ... the specialties of various artists and musicians involved in the uplifting of our roots communities ... the special bond between those connected with the now and beyond."

Worst thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "Promoters who only care about being seen and not heard."

Best place to find live local hip-hop: Jazz Minds & Arts Cafe (Mondays for "Unscene Foundation," Fridays for the Fort Union/Dugout collaboration "Crate Miners," Saturdays for Tempo Valley) and The Living Room (Saturdays for "The Next Level")

Essential hip-hop disc: "Hard to Earn" — Gangstarr

Essential non-hip-hop disc: "Babylon By Bus" — Bob Marley

Find our music: http://myspace.com/thespacifics, http://myspace.com/sephone

CREED CHAMELEON

Real name: Kristofer Rojas

My music is: "The re-definitioned era of Hawai'i hip-hop and beyond."

Musical influences: Include Run-DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, The Living Legends, Atmosphere, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Portishead

I do hip-hop because: "It took me for who I am, regardless of color or race and content of expression."

Best thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "(It) is way more diverse. It's also a very accepting culture since we have the aloha spirit within us."

Worst thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "Not much of the majority listens to conscious or underground hip-hop. ... If (they do listen to hip-hop) it's that watered down, bling bling, fake commercialized rap. ... And that leaves the underground artists, like myself, struggling."

Best place to find live local hip-hop: Jazz Minds & Arts Cafe on Saturdays for Tempo Valley, The Living Room at Fisherman's Wharf on Saturdays for open mike, Tropics Diner

Honolulu hip-hop artist I admire most: Emirc. "He's done (an) endless amount of underground work and now he's got a record label and clothing/shoe company going."

Essential hip-hop disc: "The Black Album" — Jay-Z

Essential non-hip-hop disc: "Paranoid" — Black Sabbath

Essential hip-hop track: "Walk This Way" — Run-DMC with Aerosmith

Find my music: http://myspace.com/creedchameleon, www.siqrecords.com

AUDIBLELABRATS

Members: DJ Skid (Francis Rupunte), Nomadd (Chris Blue), WerdupStu (Stephen Lagaras)

Our music is: "In a world of materialism and negativity ... positive in our message. The music is original, nutritional, untraditional, soulful and experimental ... comical ... yet educational."

Musical influences: Include Afrika Bambaataa, KRS-One, The Meters, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Barbra Streisand, Slayer, Metallica, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Michael Franks

We do hip-hop because: "We live, breathe and eat hip-hop."

Best thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "It is a positive atmosphere that happens to be in paradise. Everybody has a sort-of respect for one another."

Best places to find, listen to, download or buy local hip-hop: Prototype, Jelly's, Toogruvs, Stylus Hawaii, Jimmy Taco's "Mind Tactics" show on Hot 93.9 FM, KTUH FM's "The genuineHI Show" and "Got Rice?"

Honolulu hip-hop artist we admire most: Creed Chameleon "because he works hard and is hungry, like we are."

Essential hip-hop disc: DJ Skid: "Hard to Earn" — Gangstarr; Nomadd: "Midnight Marauders" — A Tribe Called Quest; WerdupStu: "Things Fall Apart" — The Roots

Essential non-hip-hop disc: DJ Skid & Nomadd: "Exodus" — Bob Marley; WerdupStu: "Mama's Gun" — Erykah Badu

Essential hip-hop track: DJ Skid: "Planet Rock" — Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force; Nomadd: "My Philosophy" — Boogie Down Productions; WerdupStu: "Love Of My Life" — The Roots

Find our music: http://myspace.com/audiblelabrats

RHYME DA OLD MAN

Real name: Raymonte Britt

My music is: "Gritty, classic (with a) golden era vibe (and) visual chapters of storytelling expertise for the new listener with a pinch of old-school boom-bap for the hip-hop purist."

Musical influences: Da Beatminerz, Primo, Pete Rock, The RZA, Large Professor, J-Dilla, Run-DMC, Rakim, Nas, Slick Rick, KRS-One, Scarface, G-Rap

Best thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "The sense of family created among hip-hop artists who rep for the 808."

Worst thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "The limited amount of performance venues (and) mainstream clubs catering to local talent and the fans that follow them."

Best places to find, listen to, download or buy local hip-hop: Prototype ("for music, gear and finding out what's going on in the local music scene"), KTUH-FM's "The genuineHI Show" and "Stone Groove Radio"

Best place to find live local hip-hop: O Lounge on Saturdays for "Flow"

Honolulu hip-hop artists I admire most: Big Mox, Creed Chameleon

Essential hip-hop disc: "Paid In Full" — Erik B and Rakim

Essential non-hip-hop disc: Anything from Anthony Hamilton. "(He's) putting real balladry back into music."

Essential hip-hop track: "I Used To Love H.E.R." — Common

Find my music: http://myspace.com/palmettoghetto

ADRENALINE THE TRUTH

Real name: Pablo Paz

My music is: "Lyricism with a message."

Musical influences: Nas, Murs, One Be Lo, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, J-Dilla

Best thing about Honolulu's hip-hop scene: "There is a lot of local unity and love for (individual) styles. I love the purity to the art of hip-hop out here. Every once in a while, I pick up an album from someone here and it blows me away. "

Honolulu hip-hop artists I admire most: Emirc, Creed Chameleon, Soul Pacific

Essential hip-hop disc: "Illmatic" — Nas

Essential non-hip-hop disc: Anything from Lou Rawls "because just listening to his CDs gives me the best ideas for beats I've ever heard."

Essential hip-hop track: "Nas Is Like" — Nas

Find my music: http://myspace.com/adrenalinetruth, http://myspace.com/linesight

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.