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P-Money's new album will be released in a few months. Photo / Supplied

When hip-hop producer and artist P-Money began searching for someone to work for him he didn't expect to wander through a hall of mirrors accompanied by a television camera. But seeing people compete for an internship at Dirty Records/Dirty Management "was like looking in a mirror at myself 10 years ago - like a caricature of myself," the 31-year-old Peter Wadams (aka P-Money) says.

MTV approached Aucklander P-Money for their latest local endeavour airing tonight, Work for Money, a reality-television opportunity for someone eventually hoping to become a manager, label manager or promoter. In the vein of Donald Trump's The Apprentice (but hopefully without the comb-forward), Kiwi contestants had to complete a series of challenges. Work for Money's one-off, half-hour format meant there wasn't much time to shine - but some competitors needed no encouragement.

He isn't giving much away, but P-Money rates finalist Frank as great entertainment. "He was my favourite guy on the show, he's hilarious," says P-Money. "He was very cocky, very over-confident."

Was P-Money as cocky as Frank 10 years ago? "They tell me that, but I have no idea. I hope I wasn't as bad as he was. But I think confidence is a hugely important thing to have. If you put yourself out there as a performer, you need to have confidence in your ability," he says.

About 250 applicants were whittled down to six finalists, who went in front of the cameras to complete a series of challenges over four days - from delivering music while charming radio-station programme directors, to making money in the most inventive or effective way possible.

As for the show's soundtrack, did they consider that little-known Donna Summer classic, "She Works Hard for P-Money"? "If there was a music budget, we probably would've thought about doing that," he says. "But seeing as I make music and the show's about me, we just used all my stuff."

The winner still works a couple of days a week at his office with the other two full-time staff. Is there much coffee-making involved?

"Well, the stuff that the winner is doing now is pretty basic, menial stuff, but the fact is they're in the mix with my staff and the artists that I work with. It means they get the exposure to that and a little bit of background info in what actually goes into making our releases and running a business day to day," he says.

But having someone else in the office hasn't given him more time for writing music as gigging in New Zealand and Australia since October has kept him almost constantly busy. He recently returned from Australia, after touring with the Good Vibrations festivals alongside Fatboy Slim, The Presets and Q-Tip. An added bonus was playing at the press launch of the MTV Australia Awards 2009, where he was nominated for the Best Kiwi Artist award (results are out March 27). Soon he'll get four weeks of downtime to rest and finish writing songs for his new album, scheduled for release in June or July. He's excited about letting his own ideas out and collaborating with local talents like Vince Harder and David Dallas. "I haven't done a full-length traditional album of all my own stuff in the last four years. It's a long time to be making music and experimenting with different sounds." He says he feels free to play with r'n'b, rock or dance beats now if they inspire him - no more worrying about what other people think.

* Work for Money screens tonight on MTV at 8pm, and repeats on Monday March 2 at 5.30pm.