Thursday, March 31, 2011
Youngstown rapper Suge B’s first film project, “Self-Made TV: 10 Years Deep,” is an in-your-face — and frequently hilarious — guerrilla-style glimpse of the state’s hip-hop scene.
Suge brings his camera all over Ohio to capture comments and performances from hip-hop artists. My favorite is an impromptu rap battle at a rib festival in Columbus.
Rappers and others mug and rant for the camera, going off the moment the mic is aimed at them. Suge cuts back and forth between scenes every minute or so and keeps the camera moving — usually to the next person spitting profanity-laced wisecracks.
The overall effect is a grainy-but-authentic street-level look at indie artists who are hustling to be heard.
The effort is part of Suge B’s “self-paid” theory. “In order for a scene to progress, those with influence must figure out what’s missing and fill in the gaps,” he said. “The goal of this film was to bring [attention] to the Valley’s hip-hop scene, and I’ve been able to accomplish that.”
Suge’s next goal is to make a full-length feature film.
“Self-Made TV” includes a bonus audio CD of new music from Suge B and other Youngstown rappers, including Don Kody, Chief, Otis Grimes and Rutty Coleone. It can be purchased at Geo’s Music on Boardman Street in downtown Youngstown and at several convenience stores. For more information, send an e-mail to idorapblog@gmail.com.
Suge B (his real name is DeJuan Ellis) is a graduate of The Rayen School and attended Mount Union College and Columbus State Community College. He represented Youngstown as a finalist in MTV2’s “Your Block” contest a few years ago.
GUIDEBOOK OUTLINES OHIO WINE-COUNTRY EXCURSIONS
Ohio wine afficionados will enjoy Patricia Latimer’s newly updated guidebook published by University of Akron Press.
Ohio Wine Excursions offers a short history of wine making in the state — which was a leading wine producer in the mid-1800s — as well as inspiration for dozens of one-tank trips.
Latimer, who has written about the wine industries in Spain and California, includes essays on about 80 wineries across the Buckeye State, with photos and fact sheets. Included are Mastropietro and Myrrdin wineries in western Mahoning County, and Cortland Wine Cellar in northern Trumbull.
When viticulture began in Ohio in the 1800s in the Cincinnati area, Catawba was king.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was even moved to write a poem, “Ode to Catawba Wine,” after sampling the product grown from grapes grown along the Ohio River (which had been nicknamed The Beautiful River by a French explorer). Here’s an excerpt:
Very good in its way
Is the Verzenay
Or the Sillery soft and creamy
But Catawba wine
Has a taste more divine
More dulcet, delicious and dreamy.
There grows no vine
By the haunted Rhine
By Danube or Guadalquivir,
Nor on island or cape
That bears such a grape
As grows by the Beautiful River.
Vine rot, the rise of California vineyards and Prohibition dealt Ohio vintners a series of blows over the ensuing decades. But the industry began a rebirth in the 1970s.
Today, the state has all or part of five distinct wine-making regions, including the Lake Erie American viticultural area, which includes the Grand River Valley sub-appelation, just south of Geneva.
CELLAR RATS BREWERY PLANS ‘BEER ON THE VINE’ FESTIVAL
Chalet Debonne Vineyards, in the aforementioned Grand River Valley wine country, also produces its own craft beer at its Cellar Rats Brewery. The brewery will host Beer on the Vine, its third annual beer-and-food festival, from 7 to 10 p.m. April 8.
Cellar Rats and four other Northeast Ohio breweries will pour featured brews paired with a selected appetizer. Tours of Cellar Rats Brewery and Debonne Vineyards will be offered all evening, and music will be provided by Hatrick in the main winery.
Tickets are $15 in advance (call 440-466-3485) and $19 at the door. Chalet Debonne is at 7743 Doty Road, Madison.
MICK BOOGIE HOOKS UP WITH JAY-Z’S ROC NATION
Mick Boogie, the Poland native (real name: Mick Batyske) who has become one of the world’s top DJs and mixtape creators, now is being managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
He’s in good company. The Roc Nation talent roster also includes Mark Ronson, Rihanna, The Ting Tings, D-Nice, Harley Viera-Newton and Santigold.