Distribution agreement In presenting this thesis or dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I hereby grant to Emory University and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive, make accessible, and display my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, including display on the world wide web. I understand that I may select some access restrictions as part of the online submission of this thesis or dissertation. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. Signature: __________________________________ _________ Matthew L. Miller Date Bounce: Rap Music and Local Identity in New Orleans, 1980-2005 By Matt Miller Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts American Studies _________________________________________ Allen E. Tullos, Advisor _________________________________________ Timothy J. Dowd Committee Member _________________________________________ Anna Grimshaw Committee Member Accepted: _________________________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School __________ Date Bounce: Rap Music and Local Identity in New Orleans, 1980-2005 By Matt Miller B.A., Emory University, 1992 Advisor: Prof. Allen E. Tullos, Ph.D. An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts 2009 Abstract Bounce: Rap Music and Local Identity in New Orleans, 1980-2005 By Matt Miller Through a detailed, chronological examination of rap’s emergence and establishment in New Orleans, this dissertation shows how music and a sense of place are engaged in a dynamic relationship of mutual influence. Comparative analysis of sound recordings, interviews, and music journalism shows how rap in New Orleans evolved within the context of contested and shifting ideas of local identity and debates about its influence upon and expression through popular music. Guided by a phenomenological approach to the study of local cultural production, the dissertation periodizes and analyzes the efforts of successive and overlapping waves of rappers, DJs, producers, record label owners, and audiences, who through processes of innovation, collaboration, contestation and appropriation shaped the stylistic and thematic dimensions of the New Orleans rap scene. The practices and preferences that emerged around rap and the local subgenre called ‘bounce’ are framed within the city's history of popular music production and within its ongoing, wider cultural environment, which includes deeply-rooted traditions like "second line" parades and Mardi Gras Indians, as well as more quotidian activities in nightclubs and at neighborhood block parties. The dissertation argues that rap in New Orleans was shaped by multiple and interconnected factors, including the city’s political economy, geography and cultural context as well as its peripheral location with regard to the national music industry. Bounce: Rap Music and Local Identity in New Orleans, 1980-2005 By Matt Miller B.A., Emory University, 1992 Advisor: Prof. Allen E. Tullos, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts 2009 Acknowledgements I am grateful to all of the participants in the New Orleans scene who shared their insight with me over the past several years. In addition to befitting from the wisdom and experience of the six individuals whose interviews were used as source material for this dissertation (Isaac Bolden, Charles "Captain Charles" Leach, Ronald Lewis, Travis "T-Hustle" Lyons, Herbert Michael "Ice Mike" Scott, and Dartanian "MC Dart" Stovall), my understanding of New Orleans's culture and music grew through conversations with many others, including but not limited to John "Bust Down" Bickham, Big Al and Lil Tee, Big Freedia, Kenyon "Katey Red" Carter, Leo "Slick Leo" Coakland, DJ Duck , Greg "Gregory D" Duvernay, Joseph "Joe Blakk" Francois, Kilo, Lucky, Tony Owens, Earl Mackie, Jimi "DJ Jimi" Payton, Shine Baby, the Showboys (Orville Hall and Phillip Price), Jerome "DJ Jubilee" Temple, Sthaddeus "Polo Silk" Terrell, Dwayne "Big Heavy" Thompson, Kevin "MC T Tucker" Ventry, and Mia "Mia X" Young. Daniel Green offered many helpful comments as he read through various drafts of this work. Colin Meneghini, Andrew Nosnitsky, and Sean Schuster-Craig provided crucial access to rare and out-of-print recordings, while the staff of OffBeat magazine generously opened their archive to me. Various friends and colleagues have helped me gain a greater understanding of New Orleans rap, including but not limited to Alison Fensterstock, Cristina Hernandez, Andy Hopkins, Sue Lamond, Ben Lawless, John & Glenda Robert, Jon Spano, Stephen Thomas, and Jason Trotter. Finally, I am grateful to my wife Holly Vanderbilt and my extended family for their continued encouragement and support. Table of contents Introduction (pages 1-20) Chapter 1. History, Culture, and Music in New Orleans: From Slavery to the Jazz Era (pages 21-56) Chapter 2. History, Culture, and Music in New Orleans: The 20th Century and Beyond (pages 57-103) Chapter 3. "The City That Is Overlooked": Rap Beginnings (1980-1990) (pages 104-148) Chapter 4. Bounce (1991-1994) (pages 149-194) Chapter 5. "'Bout It": New Orleans breaking through (1995-2000) (pages 195- 242) Chapter 6. Stagnation, Decline and the Resurgence of the Local (2001-2004) (pages 243-272) Conclusion (pages 273-277) Works cited (pages 278-304) 1 Responding to the query, "Why do you think local rap music often has difficulty making it on the national scene?" in 1997, Bryan 'Baby' Williams, co- owner of Cash Money Records, opined, "A lot of the (rap) music that comes from down here sounds the same and when people from out of town come to New Orleans and listen to the radio they hear a lot of the same type of shit" (Cortello 1997b, 33). At the same time, he asserted, "We need to let people know that we have a unique sound, a different sound." By this logic, Williams sought to strategically separate the desirable aspect of the local scene—stylistic distinctiveness and a grounding in place-based authenticity —from the very processes of repetition, imitation, and appropriation that fostered it in the first place. Williams' notions regarding the marketing of New Orleans rap to wider audiences seem more significant in light of the fact that, within a few months of this statement, his company had sealed a deal worth $30 million with Universal to distribute its distinctive, danceable gangsta rap, which had dominated the local market for several years. His observations illustrate the essentially paradoxical nature of what I call rap's "local-global nexus", the points of intersection (real and imagined) between the everyday culture of a specific place and wider markets or audiences and the major music companies that cater to their trade. The assertion that the rap music from a given city should have a distinct sound, a musical brand that captures its distinctiveness, without everyone producing "the same type of shit," speaks to the elusive nature of creating predictable or profitable intersections between the rap genre and local identity. The following dissertation tracks close to thirty years of such efforts by New Orleans-based artists, who participated in a process of collective creation and imagination of socio-cultural identity in the realms of musical style, lyrical content, and public discourse. 2 Introduction Rap music has been a commanding presence on the U.S. cultural scene for thirty years now, remaining recognizable as a genre through certain core approaches to lyrical performance, narrative voice, and instrumentation. Rap has experienced remarkable stylistic and thematic diversification, achieving a market share and a level of geographical dispersal that no one thought possible in the early 1980s. In the genre's formative years, aspiring performers, producers, and entrepreneurs outside of rap's centers of production looked to New York-based pioneers for inspiration and leadership; over time, local rap scenes and distinctive stylistic interpretations emerged as the cumulative result of these initially derivative efforts. The extent to which these local scenes were able to connect to national audiences largely depended upon their geographic distance from the centers of rap music production. This dissertation presents a case study of such a local rap scene as it emerged in New Orleans, a city with a rich history of popular music and vernacular expressive culture. My goal is to more fully understand the dynamic evolution of rap as a genre and cultural practice in a particular local setting. I offer detailed and periodized analysis of the contributions of many successive waves of rappers, producers, record label owners, club and radio deejays, and audiences, all of whom helped challenge and define prevailing stylistic conventions on the local and regional levels. The present work encompasses a wide-ranging exploration of the rich and complex results of the adaptation of the rap form in New Orleans, a city that was already associated (within the U.S. context) with a unique set of cultural traditions