Wines and Rhymes
Wine references are not uncommon in rap. However, hip-hop got its first song devoted entirely to wine with Dev the Somm’s recent release, which even drops in a food pairing for good measure
“Like a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I’m fine like wine when I start to rap,” rhymed the Beastie Boys in Body Movin’. However, like most rap artists, they don’t move past basic analogies in a genre in which wine is most often name checked for status. However, wine is front and centre of Wine, Wine, Wine, Dev the Somm’s oenophile reworking of Jay-Z’s Girls, Girls, Girls.
Devin Reed, aka Dev the Somm, is a sommelier first. Wine, Wine, Wine is the first foray into rap for this Los Angeles-based wine professional, inspired by the lack of hip-hop tunes talking about the fine wines he likes to drink. There may be a reference to Dom P, one of the prestige Champagnes favoured by rappers, but from St Maur to Cahors, Dev covers a diversity of wines unparalleled in any other music release I can recall.
Dev raps that “Cali Chard is kinda hard for me/ I mean, personally, I like Chablis/ No oak, don’t want them trees/ And please Montrachet Laguiche me/ Some French Chardonnay/ With my shorty from the Bay”.
You can get hold of the track on most major music streaming platforms, or here, which you can check out the lyrics of Dev’s love song to great wine.