The Grapes of Rap

I’ve seen a couple YouTube wine country raps and they’ve been, how shall I say it, bad.  Like your AP Chem teacher trying to rap the elements bad.

So I was rather impressed when I saw the new “”Wine Country” release, a video that is actual rap _ smooth moves, f-bombs and all _ and at the same time very clued in to the wine world. As the tagline puts it: “For connoisseurs of fine wine with a gangsta sensibility, this jam is for you.”

The video comes from three guys based in the San Francisco area, rapper Moe Green, Bayonics lead singer Jairo “Rojah” Vargas and Cameron Washington of the Russian Hill Projects.

The song was recorded in New York and San Francisco. For the video shoot, the “hip hop” girls were only available for one day so their scenes were shot in various locations at Golden Gate Park. The rest of the video was shot in in downtown Sonoma and at nearby wineries, including Ravenswood.

Here’s some more info from an email Q&A I did with Cameron.

How’d you come up with the idea?

I was actually in New York when I came up with the idea for the song. There was a hip hop group performing after we had played a set at a bar in Williamsburg. They weren’t that bad, but they literally used the word Brooklyn about 50 plus times in the song. So after a certain point, me and some of my bandmates who happen to be from Northern Cali, started yelling back Bay Area Cities when they yelled Brooklyn. “San Francisco!”.I hollered..”Berkeley!”…At one point, I yelled “Sonoma represent!!” And we all cracked up. I thought to myself, damn it would be funny if there was a hip hop group that represented for wine country as hard as these cats were repping for Brooklyn. And the song idea was born.

Do some of you like wine?

Absolutely we love wine. We have no respect for people who don’t enjoy a glass or bottle with any meal. Well let’s see, if I had to put in order I am probably the biggest wine nerd out of the group. It is the reason I wrote “wine country”. I really love wine, and love drinking copious amounts of it with great food. Jairo (who is the emcee on the 3rd verse), is probably the next biggest wine enthusiast. That guy is always has a glass of wine in his hand. And Moe Green who raps on the 2nd verse is just entering the world of wine discovery.

Any reaction to the video from wine country folks?

I have received amazingly positive reactions from wine country folks in Sonoma and Napa. It has all been fantastic. I have had wine country folks thanking me from Mendocino to Paso Robles for our shout outs in the song. I am actually still in shock how quickly this song took off, and how much people like us rapping about wine.

So there you have it. If you are watching this video at work I would use headphones; it’s fairly sweary. But what can I say? There are just so many funny lines. Just between us, I giggle like a schoolgirl at the E&J Gallo part. And I’m adopting this line as my new motto: “Just one thing missing from this blessed day/A m—-f—–g magnum of cuvee chardonnay.”

I mean, really, who can argue with that?

Cheers, poetically.