so
oh that’s laughs I like to dedicate this
talk to my pop on my Nana boo and my
husband mr. Roy Bradley because he’s
watching so how many of you realize that
you are sitting on a mountaintop yup yup
the exact same one that dr. Martin
Luther King or if you have home training
dr. Martin Luther the king or King
talked about in his speech
I see the promised land or the infamous
I have a dream mountaintop speech the
night before his death on April 3rd 1968
so what exactly does the mountaintop
mean well we’ve been taught that the
mountaintop means racial equality social
tolerance and just good old black folks
done made it but what if I told you that
yeah we’re on the mountaintop but no it
ain’t Flint and what if I told you that
the young black folks who live in the
contemporary South realize that the
mountaintop ain’t flat that our music
ain’t flat that our purpose ain’t flat
and what if I told you that with all of
that and with all the regard that we
have for those who have paved the way
for us to realize that the amount on top
ain’t flat or that we can be messy is
that music I was talking about was
hip-hop now see some of your face has
changed when I said hip hop hip hop nope
and that’s not southern that’s not
country it’s not rock and roll right
we’re southern so we verbal out you know
we PluralEyes everything the countries
hip-hop is urban hip-hop is brash
hip-hop was meant for those black and
brown teenagers in 1970s and 1980s New
York to talk about their frustrations
and concerns in New York
well when hip-hop made its way south
southern listeners were like oh this is
dope but we also realized that yeah
they’re talking about something that
doesn’t really speak to us just yet give
you an example in New York the subway is
a mode of transportation in a small
rural city like Albany Georgia
subway is a sandwich so I moved to
Albany OR Albany in 1998 I was 14 tall
lanky and awkward isn’t that great and
you know what dr. King went to Albany
once upon a time – he really did and he
wanted to share his dream of this
mountaintop and racial equality and
white folks in Albany was like nah and
Albany is a living civil rights monument
you have the Civil Rights Institute and
a lot of the folks who marched and
organized in the 1960s still live there
had a teacher who was there and you know
February is Black History Month so
that’s like Negro employment month so
that’s when folks came out who marched
and talked to us about this is what it
means to be part of the civil rights
movement and my grandparents Nana boo
and Papa never let me forget that the
civil rights movement happened in Albany
and don’t get me wrong I love my
grandparents I still love hearing them
talk about you know growing up in the
south and because you know my papa was
from Athens Georgia and my Nana booze
from Leary Georgia and if you know where
but the reality was their South wasn’t
mine they grew up in the Jim Crow South
came of age in the Jim Crow South and if
you left my pop I’ll tell it he was
ready to hit Jim Crow with a big old
stick myself was different I was able to
enjoy the fruits and Labor’s from the
movement I had access to integrated
schools there was no open segregation
but I also had hip hop which showed me
that there were still a few things that
were left unattended to from the
movement in ways that my folks were like
you not going to tell us that we know
that you know that something is left to
miss from the movement so the question
becomes how does hip hop help us bridge
the south from the past to the present
well you were listening to a music
critic like say Charlie Braxton he would
say that hip hop been southern and the
hip hop is just you know a tree or is
from the tree and it’s a branch that
extends northward because you know if
you’re southern is not roots its roots
hip-hop has Southern roots and just
reached up north east and if you were to
listen to a scholar like Trisha Rose she
says that hip-hop is the contemporary
stage for the powerless now let me think
about this for a second have you ever
met anybody more victimized than
southern black people let me tell you
I’m talking about
in popular culture we subscribe to a
particular formula for southern black
folks we is weary of some white folks we
just we just deal with y’all
we live here because we have to not
because we want to and then my personal
favorite
I mean cha they just they just so
country and backwards down there right
you know aside from the fact of flying
cockroaches and the nets that have their
own opinion and can go to class for you
type and then when you really think
about it let’s face it normally when you
think about this idea of the
recognizable victim that’s associated
with southern black folks it’s linked to
three major historical moments the first
one is the antebellum era and
reconstruction right that Gone with the
Wind romanticism oh my god Gone with the
Wind well folks would rather appreciate
you know this idea of the Confederacy as
heritage without actually looking at the
fact that slavery is the institution
upon which that heritage is built the
second historical moment is
reconstruction Jim Crow where
segregation was open and separate was
not equal and then you have the third
historical moment which is the modern
civil rights movement where you have
black folks dressed up in a Sunday’s
best who are marching for civil rights
and also the acknowledgement to be
considered human beings and after that
that’s it so where do the folks who were
born after 1968 like myself I promise
after 1968 even though I’m cute
where do we send to this conversation
about the south and sub earnest hip hop
is a tool for us to move past 1968 it is
also a tool for us to recognize the
allege ability of contemporary southern
black experiences we realize that we’re
the social outcasts right
speaking of outcasts there were two in
particular that I’m thinking about a
certain mr. Antoine big boy Patton who’s
from savannahs because remember we
PluralEyes everything in the south of
venice and a certain mr. Andre 3000
Benjamin who are better known as
outcasts and their body of work and
music is powerful in the fact that they
took this idea of being outcasts being
rejected and utilize that to move past
something that is considered south ness
which is the connection of ideas
experiences realities to the physical
region we know as the south to Southern
this which is the conceptualization of
South right the ability to create worlds
outside of the physical cultural and
historical renderings of what it means
to be southern and this really came to a
head at the 1995 source hip hop Magazine
Awards it was in New York we already in
trouble
and they won for best new duo for their
first album
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik say that
three times fast and they’re coming on
stage and all you hear is this booing in
the background and the bullying is
getting you know louder and louder and
if you could boo in a New York dialect
to probably be like boo fun and Big Boi
is like we appreciate y’all letting us
in your city right and trying to be
diplomatic and then Andre 3000 comes
over and he says particular phrase that
has become the battle cry for
contemporary southern black folks the
South got something to say and when he
said the South got something to say he
didn’t say it with an expiration date on
it
he said the South got something to say
then in 95 and now in 2017 and hip hop
is the access point to do that so when
we say the mountaintop bang slack it’s
not a bad thing we realized that but on
the one hand hip-hop helps us realize
yes we have come a long way but it’s
also our representation yes
we still have a very long way to go thank you so much