The Emcees of MC: Young Journalists strive for equity through storytelling

The Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists chapters at The University of Maryland collaborated Oct. 22 to screen the documentary, “Emcees of MC,”  produced, directed and edited by young journalists in Knight Hall’s Eaton Theater.

The documentary featured artists known as DJ Boom, Chipelo , Troy IV, 4th ‘N Oak and The Funkin’ Rock Rebellion. The 27-minute documentary covers the inner workings of the underground rap scene in Maryland’s most diverse county: Montgomery County, according to Niche, a ranking website.

The documentary, actualized by Tiger Maldonado, Julian Lee, Omolemo “Momo” Kale and this university’s own Ashley Neyra, was completed in September as a part of Montgomery Community Media’s LGBTQIA and BIPOC + Digital Futures Institute Fellowship, which the team began in May of this year.

Lee, a recent communications graduate from George Mason University, is the lead editor for the documentary and son of Funkin’ Rock Rebellion. He felt that the experience provided him with strong collaborative skills.

Kale, lead researcher for the documentary and a senior journalism major at Towson University said the group atmosphere was similar to ​​Streamer University, a program founded by famed twitch streamer Kai Cenat in May of this year. The four day program whose inaugural was hosted at the University of Akron, Ohio, combines students of different backgrounds and utilizes their strengths to forward them in their career.

“This was a very similar experience to me, where I felt like I was with a bunch of stars in their own rights, and stars came together to potentially impact the community that we are serving for the most part,” he said.

Neyra, a journalism major at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, was the lead cinematographer for the documentary, and exercises collaboration off-set as the current president and founder of NAHJ at Merrill. 

In fact, the screening was a result of camaraderie between the Society of Professional Journalists and NAHJ, who both aim to promote equity within the school. Due to these similarities, they decided to collaborate.

“We both had the same goal from the start, which is to spotlight underrepresented communities,” SPJ DEI Director and freshman journalism major Lina Nam said.

The purpose for the screening shared distinct similarities to the original purpose of the documentary.

“We were all thinking, trying to think of something we all had in common…[which]was music and our love of music,” Lee said. “So we were all like, what if we made a documentary about the underground hip-hop scene in Montgomery county?” 

Neyra, a Montgomery native, said that the team also shared a special connection with the artists included in the documentary.

“Montgomery County is obviously very rich in diversity, and as our documentary showed, it was very much highlighting those stories that are people of color,” she said in an interview with the Black Explosion.  “So we have Chipelo, who is Hispanic, we have Aaron [Teo] Lee, who’s Black, and then also the Fourth and Oak guys who identify as black as well.” 

The learned information from the process of creating differed from team member to team member. As a Montgomery native, Neyra said she was happily surprised with how many talented artists there are waiting to have their moment in her hometown.

Lee said he was unaware of there even being an underground hip-hop scene in Montgomery County.

“I straight up learned there was a national hip-hop museum located in Montgomery County,” he said.

To Kale, the lessons he learned from creating the documentary had been in front of his eyes in the community for a while.

“You can just drive around in your community. Just drive around,” he said. “And sometimes what you are exposed to just on the road will tell you enough, or a little bit about what the community prioritizes and what the county prioritizes.”

With a time-sensitive project, the team had understood the need for group chemistry and efficient work due to their past experiences as media students and other opportunities, Kale said.

“Without Ashley’s guidance, Tiger’s directing, or Momo’s comments, the project would have looked completely different and not as good as it actually was,” Lee said.

Neyra described the processes of assigning each other production roles as playing Pokemon.

“We listed everyone based on their skills. So each group needed a journalist, a videographer, audio person, and then someone who could do video… but we needed one with every skill,” she said. 

The editing process that comes after production in photography and videography was not unfamiliar to the team, but individual issues arose throughout the process. From fatigue due to a short and strict deadline, to balancing efficiency and audience engagement, Lee took intiative throughout to ensure a positive outcome for the team, Kale and Neyra said.

“It all kind of came down to me and the director, but I was like lead editor, so I did a lot of it. So I had to figure out how to interweave all three of these stories,” Lee said.

The process took a large amount of attention to detail, as the documentary focuses on many artists. This required Lee to review old storyboards to make sure the documentary followed what he called a cohesive narrative.

Although Lee played a part in maintaining the group’s hard work, they all maintained a collaborative approach regardless of the situation, he said.

“It really helped that my team members would come over to my house,” Lee said. “They’d tell me what they thought about the edits. I would make edits to the edits. It’s the first time I started getting feedback …and hey, we made it through.” 

Though the process was expectedly challenging for the team, they all left with different lessons from their discoveries in the process.

To Nam, who was also a patron of the screening, the documentary was cohesive with the goals of both organizations. She also confirmed she saw the intended purpose of the documentary.

“The documentary is a perfect example of why representation exactly matters in storytelling…it’s centered around local artists and youth culture that mainstream outlets often overlook, which is at the heart of DEI and journalism,” she said. “It also reminded me that diverse journalism isn’t just about who’s in the newsroom, but also about whose stories we choose to tell.”

Following the initial release in September of this year, the film was shown at The Be More Film Festival, a festival that showcases Mid-Atlantic talent focusing on the Baltimore area. The film creators hope to go on a road trip with the film, Lee added. 

The documentary is available to view on Youtube.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated the name of Montgomery Community Media incorrectly, had an inaccurate date for when the interns started working on the documentary and misspelled Kai Cenat’s name. This article has been updated.