With one full-length CD ("The Self-Educated Learning Process") and two mixtapes ("Punch Drunk Melodies Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2") to its credit, local rap act Smoke Screen -- MCs Tommy "Street Chemist" Sheridan and Rodney "Mooke" Mynatt -- has high hopes that the Northeast Ohio hip-hop scene is about to take off.
"Right now, it's bubbling," said Sheridan, a 2005 Brush High School graduate. "There's a lot of talent around here, and a lot of guys doing their thing around here. It's just that it's going to take people to get together and get on the same page because everyone right now is on their own thing, which holds people back. But I think Northeast Ohio is actually starting to bubble a little bit more, and our music is more indie hip-hop with kind of a mainstream flavor. It kind of works funny because the music I'm into is more indie hip-hop or underground hip-hop, and Mooke is into more mainstream accessible stuff. So our stuff is lyrical, and it's got content, but you can dance to it."