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DJ Rich NYCe, used two recent Hip Hop events, Elevator Music’s (614) Summer Jam and the Second Annual Polar Showcase as the framework to make a documentary about a couple of our city's Hip Hop scenes.
“There are 11 stories of various lengths. I fused some live performance footage and a couple videos to make one major project.”
DJ Rich NYCe is a Columbus Hip Hop veteran, so he has a vantage point.
NYCe was born in Guyana and grew up in New York but he has lived in Columbus since the 90s.
He is a founding member of Usual Suspects DJ Crew whose membership boasts DJ O-Sharp, J-Rawls, Krate Digga, King Sev and Brooklyn Butcher.
Rich currently deejays at Republic on Fridays.
You don’t have to be an OG DJ to be familiar with some of the film’s main subjects: King Vada, J. Rawls, Rashad and the 3rd, P. Blackk, Exec Gang, Cocky Club, Luxury League and Fabrashay A.
But Rich also wants to introduce you to a few new faces such as Ceezer, Ella Star and Armond Wake Up.
The project developed from the documentation that Rich’s online radio station, Pulse Radio, was doing as a media co-sponsor for both events.
Rich is the station manager of Pulse Radio. He outlined it’s operation.
“The station is 24 hours a day. You can get it on your smart phone with your Tune-in app, search Pulse 2k. You can get it there. We have a website that is 24 hours. The website is not just music. It’s new and entertainment and shows. We kind of modeled it after Hot 97 in New York. Most of us are New Yorkers so that is the style and energy we liked. We followed Hot 97 and mirrored that.”
Artists came in and out of Pulse Radio’s mix shows to promote both events which Rich says they caught on tape.
“We did a lot of filming. We were just trying to decide what we were going to do with that footage. Initially, we were just gonna put it on Youtube.”
NYCe said he started contemplating Columbus Hip Hop artists' relationships with limelight figures such as Rashad’s work with MMG’s Stalley, and J, Rawls’ friendships with Hip Hop legends such as this year’s Polar Showcase headliners Masta Ace and Wordsworth.
“The ideas started to flourish a little bit more,” Rich said. “I didn’t think someone was was going to sit in front of a computer and watch a two hour movie on Youtube.”
Rich decided his documentary needed to be in the theaters so he is set to premier the movie at the Gateway at 7pm on December 15th.
“It’s legitimately a movie. You sit down in a chair. You're sitting back, looking, eating popcorn. Making it an event. I don’t think it’s as tangible if you are just looking at it in front of your computer. I just wanted to create something that had captured the audience.”
Rich has a degree in Communications, and has had made a movie previously.
“I made one along time ago when indie films were first coming out, when digital cameras were first on the scene. It was maybe 2001ish or 2002ish. It was called Evolution. It was my attempt at a love story. I had all this stuff going on. I showed it at the Columbus Museum of Art. That’s when we still had public access. So we had it on public access running for awhile.”
He mentioned his previous film with a lighthearted smile.
In the cannon of Hip Hop movies, DJ Rich NYCe’s (614) Days of Summer is a documentary akin to Def Jam’s The Show or the Roc-a-Fella documentary Hard Knock Life vs. the Indie Romance that Evolution was.
“Hopefully, the people that come to the movie are going to be pleasantly surprised by a lot of the people’s back story. We might be familiar with everybody but we may not know everybody. I am hoping everyone can get a sense of who somebody else is. Whether it’s the inspiration behind what they do or just their back story.”
He says he hopes the bond the viewer makes with the movie's characters can be a framework for the community to feel more connected with each other.
“Unity is ringing in my ear. Everyone wants to say, ‘Oh, Columbus doesn’t support.’ So I am hoping this small group of individuals, these 11 stories, if they weren’t connected, now, they kinda of are. So the story connects them.
“Those 11 can expand to another 11. Just the 6 degrees of separation. But ultimately, I would like everyone who comes out of there, particularly the artists, really see how great of a city we are.”