Rich Seng may have come up with the next big concept for reality TV. The organizer of the monthly “Cherry Bomb” series of free DVD and CD compilations is in post on his debut feature doc, “Rhyme Spitters.”
Seng describes it as “8 Mile” meets “American Idol” ? covering the 64-person battle rap tournament he organized July 31 outside in Wicker Park and at the Note. He sees the doc as a demo for a reality series about a national battle rap competition.
“We’d have eight battles in eight major cities, then two winners of each city would be moved to Chicago to battle and people at home could call in and vote on whoever they thought was the winner each week,” Seng said.
Since March 2003, Seng has released 11 CDs compiling work by local musicians, and six DVDs featuring shorts by local filmmakers. It’s been essentially a break-even proposition, with local sponsors covering the cost of 1-2,000 copies given away at neighborhood businesses.
“After I’d done five indie rock compilations, people asked me ?when are you going to do a hip-hop CD?'” Seng recalled. “I started networking and meeting people in that community, and the first ?Cherry Bomb’ hip-hop CD came out in March.”
“Our release party at Subterranean featured 20 of the best Chicago rappers. I started going to their shows and saw them rap and battle. They were so spontaneous and raw and unrehearsed. I’d met all these filmmakers from the ?Cherry Bomb’ DVDs, and I thought, ?why not put them together a make a movie about Chicago’s MC battling scene?'”
At the July 31 tournament Seng and his crew shot 50 hours of footage on eight cameras. He plans to finish cutting in December and open the film with a weekend of screenings at a local theater, then distribute a run of 2,000 free DVDs financed using his “Cherry Bomb” model of interspersing the doc footage with commercial spots made by local filmmakers for local sponsoring businesses.
Seng is courting national sponsors, including beer and car companies, to finance a national DVD release of “Rhyme Spitters,” which would also serve to promote an eventual national tournament.
He aims the “Rhyme Spitters” series for cable, “where MCs won’t have to censor themselves,” or for a three-DVD advertiser-supported set to be distributed free nationally.
Reach Seng at 773/235.8886 or see www.cherrybombusa.com.
? by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com
