Ring out the year with some local rappers at the hip-hop stage at First Night, Tacoma’s annual New Year’s Eve festival.

Local rapper Quincy “Q Dot” Henry was asked to program the stage this year. The lineup will be EvergreenOne and Todd Sykes, Q Dot, Strik and Crusal, Team Avengers, Logics, Josh Rizeberg, J2 and DV.

Performances go from 7-11:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 at Moroccan Treasures, located at 906 Broadway. The first two or three acts will perform for 15 minutes and the remainder will get 30-minute sets.

Q Dot feels organizing this show fits well with his commitment as an artist and label owner to elevate the local rap scene into national prominence. All the acts are from the South Sound and are worthy of attention, in his view.

Q Dot recently released his latest album “Underground Railroad.” He feels he and other local acts are creating a growing buzz in the Northwest. He thinks this rap scene could attain national prominence, just as the rock scene in Seattle did in the 1990s.

He performed at the one previous time First Night had a hip-hop stage. When organizers approached him about doing another, he jumped at the opportunity.

“They asked me to be a part of it and I said sure,” he remarked.

Some of the other performers are acts he has shared a stage with, others he knows from being around the local scene. Strik and Crusal he knows from when he was a student at Central Washington University and was organizing shows in Ellensburg.

Josh Rizeberg got his start with spoken word poetry. He released his debut rap album last year.

“He is rather politically charged,” Q Dot said of Rizeberg’s socially conscious lyrics. “He will be the firecracker on the bill.”

When Q Dot performed at First Night previously, Theater on the Square was the venue for the hip-hop stage. While he considers it a nice facility, it is meant for people to sit down and take in a play or lecture. Rap shows need to have room for the audience to stand up to provide the right atmosphere, in Q Dot’s opinion. Thus, this year it will take place across the street at Moroccan Treasures.

“I want this to be more like an old-school rap party,” he said. “We had the option of holding it in a theater, but having everyone sit down just makes them detached from the performance.”