“Karaoke” conjures horrifying images of screeching middle-aged women in dive bars, balding dads squinting at TelePrompTers, and homesick Japanese businessmen. Vancouver’s Hip Hop Karaoke is none of these things.

Founded in 2009 by best friends Chad Iverson and Paul Gibson, the night has been a monthly staple at Fortune Sound Club for six years. Offering a stage for hip-hop aficionados to strut their stuff in front of 400-strong crowds, Hip Hop Karaoke gives aspiring rappers a unique chance to showcase their skills outside of the shower. Now gearing up for the first event of its seventh year, Hip Hop Karaoke—or HHK, as it’s affectionately known—is so much more than your typical karaoke night.

Featuring up to 30 acts per show, HHK is so popular that potential participants must sign up weeks in advance. Iverson and Gibson pride themselves on the quality of their events. Resourcing legitimate instrumentals to be spun under the mastery of resident DJ Seko, HHK ensures that each performance is, as Iverson puts it, “hard-hitting and banging”.

“These people put in the time,” Iverson says in a conference call from his Vancouver home. “It seems like some guys spend hundreds of hours practising in front of the mirror—and they absolutely kill it. Our night is really focused on performing. You’re on the stage, in the middle of the stage. There’s nothing else going on: no TelePrompTers, no music anywhere else. Everyone’s attention is on you.”

HHK is something of a lone star in Vancouver’s hip-hop galaxy. Iverson can think of only one other regular rap evening, and it’s in a downtown doughnut shop.

“I’m from Toronto,” Gibson adds, “and you have a really strong hip-hop community out there: it’s been flourishing for a long time. In Vancouver, it’s much more on the fringe. West Coast people come up to me like, ‘Oh, you rap? Like, you’re a rapper? That’s kind of weird, right?’ It’s not embedded in the city.”

That’s something Hip Hop Karaoke strives to change. In addition to offering aspiring MCs an opportunity to “unleash your inner rap star”, as Gibson puts it, HHK offers an arena for all aspects of Vancouver’s hip-hop culture. Iverson and Gibson regularly invite local DJs to spin alongside Seko, and the founders encourage the city’s premier beatboxers and break-dance crews to fire up the crowd before the show. HHK has fast become the vehicle driving the local rap scene—and it aims to steer the culture out of the underground.

“We like to position ourselves as an all-inclusive outlet for rap fans and the hip-hop identity,” Iverson suggests. “I believe we provide a pretty good channel for people in the community.”

That community is starting to be recognized internationally. HHK boasts a catalogue of global stars who have been enticed to share the stage with Vancouver’s karaoke enthusiasts.

“The Alkaholiks have come and rapped,” Iverson says. “We’ve had Grandmaster Flash roll in. K-os showed up once—literally just showed up and grabbed the mike and started performing. Prevail from Swollen Members has jumped up and rapped.”

Does that sound intimidating? It shouldn’t. Hip Hop Karaoke is dedicated to inclusivity, and goes out of its way to make the night accessible.

“It’s great when people get up who are so scared, can’t rap for shit, and they absolutely blow it. Because everyone still cheers. The crowd is so stoked on it, because they got on-stage and that takes some guts,” Iverson says. “There’s been times that someone’s been up on the mike and totally messed up, and someone from the crowd has been like, ‘I’ve got this!’ jumped up on-stage, and they rap it together.”

“We want to open it up to as many people as possible,” Gibson adds. “It forms a culture in itself, but inclusivity is number one. We love to get people out who are not in the scene, and widen our own little music community as a result. It’s not a contest; it’s not about who’s better. HHK really flips that typical view of rappers upside down. Rap is often hypermisogynistic and real tough, and the people that do the best at Hip Hop Karaoke are normally unassuming nerds in sweater vests.”

As HHK enters its seventh year, the night remains the linchpin of the rap community—and with its policy of welcoming all Vancouverites to the show, it aims to open the door to new fans.

“In the future, we’ll keep reaching out to the local people that keep the hip-hop scene going,” Iverson says with a laugh. “We’re on the lookout for fresh faces, and fresh talent rolling through. And we’ll keep it unlocked for anyone who wants to come rapping.”

“As long as people like rap music,” Gibson promises, “Hip Hop Karaoke will stay around!”

Hip Hop Karaoke is at Fortune Sound Club next Thursday (February 11).