Mark Guglielmo

Founder, Phloetic

Born and raised in the gritty New York of the 70s and 80s, I came up in LA's underground hip-hop scene as rapper/producer Vesuveo. Started at hole-in-the-wall clubs where our pay was a plastic cup for the keg. One person in the crowd. Set up a folding table on Venice Beach boardwalk after quitting my restaurant job—living off credit cards, connecting with other hungry artists. That's where I met Eminem's manager in 1997. Two months later, Em showed up at my Venice bungalow to record. Both of us broke, both grinding. We laid down "Green and Gold" in one session—the song charted Top 10 alongside his first single with Dr. Dre. Considered an underground classic, it's still reaching legions of new fans worldwide and generating revenue 28 years later.

When the record industry collapsed, I moved back to New York and built SupaTunes—placing 200 independent artists in 177 shows on 40 networks over ten years as reality TV exploded. Arrived in Northampton in 2007 and shifted focus to visual art. My series of large-scale photo-collage portraits featuring everyday people I met on three trips to Cuba exhibited at five museums and galleries across the country. At the same time, I ran operations for arts nonprofit Young@Heart for 14 years—sustaining the elderly chorus by raising millions, co-producing dozens of concerts, building their digital infrastructure, transforming crisis into opportunity, creating programs that endure.

In a 2021 ValleyCreates Zoom breakout room, I shared early ideas for life-size collage portraits of my Southern Italian immigrant ancestors. Three grants later, the series exhibited at six venues across 18 months—culminating at the United Nations during General Assembly in September 2025. By 2024, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts brought me onboard as paid Community Advisor to co-author a new paradigm in foundation funding—giving artists real decision-making power to catalyze a regional arts ecosystem. Now I work with foundations, arts organizations, and cultural institutions to help them see what's missing and build what's next.