Parnassus tent is right in front of you. You buy your copies of this book, and our three authors will be signing at the very next tent behind it. So thank you all for your time coming today. And lets thank these three authors. Langston, colin wilkins. Let me pull up my cheat sheet here here. I should know this by now. I do this frequently. So hes currently an assistant professor of folklore and africanamerican studies at the university of wisconsin, madison. Before that, he was in seattle, where he was the director of the Washington Cultural traditions center, Washington Cultural. Its a mess. It is. And before he actually was here in tennessee, where he worked at both the Tennessee Arts Commission and tennessee, so formally in a past life, he was one of these people running the tense, doing other hospitality. But now hes on the other side as a published author himself. And so with that, ill turn it to langston, and hes going to give us an introduction. Hip hop in houston, thank thank you. Yeah, im delighted to be here. Like jennifer just said, maybe five years ago. Yeah, i was running around working on and collaborating with the rest of the staff to produce this here event. Its really weird to be back here as an author, but again, im delighted to. Be here. Yeah. Im an assistant professor of folklore and africaamerican studies at the university of wisconsin, and those two areas kind of informed my first book. Welcome to houston, hip hop, heritage and hustle town. Ill see, you know, im kind of switching into like author mode here i was planning to be the host but you know so, forgive me so book came out in august through university of illinois press. Its an ethnographic look at the houston hip hop scene. Im from houston, texas. So i went back there for about a year and did maybe ten more years of fieldwork down in houston working with hip hop artists. I conducted 30 oral histories with these artists, attended numerous shows, did a lot of archival work, produce this book. Essentially, it focuses on the role of place, the development and maintenance of heritage, a hip hop heritage in houston, texas. So i use all ethnographic information and fieldwork to kind of take a look at how this local heritage was the product of African Americans intimate vine or connection with place in their environment. So just a little bit about the philosophy kind of underpinning the book and why decided to do it. You know, it was the general feeling that the way we talk about hip hop culture does not always reflect a true nature of the culture. These common definitions are a bit limiting at times, so when we talk about hip hop. We often talk about it as multibillion dollar global industry, right . So its currently the most popular genre in the country, musical genre in the country. In fact, hip hop now is responsible for 25 of all music consumption in this country. So its a big dominant music genre. Thats true. We also focus on its new york roots and this traditional of hip hop, which is a culture consisting of four elements. You have the emceeing deejaying, the bowling or breakdancing and the graffiti. And thats also true for the but both of these understandings are relevant and. True, but at the same time, hip hop culture looks differently across space right. And so each locale in this country and around the world, their own hip hop culture and tradition is based on the experiences and kind of worldview and experiences of people in those cities. Houston, texas where im from, yeah, has a very unique hip hop heritage, is comprised of 2 to 3 core practices. You have the music called screwed which is this very slow muddy kind of atmospheric hip hop sound you have slabs, which is a kind of a local car culture that emerged in the streets of houston, texas in the 1980s. And depending on you, on who you talk to, theres also a illicit drug called mean, which i dont i dont necessarily consider that firmly a part of the heritage. But some people do. Right. And so this kind of mix of practices creates this again, this very unique hip hop heritage in, houston. And thats kind of what i explored through the book. My main point, though, is that even as the National Hip Hop industry kind of grows and changes at a very rapid rate, houstons hip hop heritage continues to persist largely of this intense pride of place, that central to the lives of black people in especially working class black folks in houston and these neighborhoods that produce hip hop culture so lacking Financial Resources and cultural capital, these working class black houstonians and i count myself one of those people. I grew up in those neighborhoods and thats you know, thats what made me we draw Identity Protection and inspiration from our streets where we grew up, our neighborhoods apartment buildings and even the city itself. Right. And so these spaces and places seen as sort of inheritance, right. It becomes part of our identity. And in the book, i show how this identification with place and this pride of place has led to development of each particular of houstons hip hop heritage and also this deep connection to the city of houston and at least our version of it. Thats cause local artists and audiences to maintain this local hop heritage. But heritage is complicated. So, yes, houston has this local and longstanding hip hop heritage, but heritage is not or universal for some people. It can be. It can empower and affirm, but for others, it could be incredibly and even harmful. And so i explore the complexities of heritage through three different artists, artistic communities. Each of these communities are these subgroups have their own particular connection to local hip hop heritage, and they use it in different ways. And it produces different outcomes for them. So i talked to based artist and theyre the ones who actively kind of maintain connection to this local heritage. They feel like. Its their duty as artists to support the local heritage so that music still very much rooted in through music. They actually talk about slabs and all that and because local are deeply connected this heritage these street artists are among the most successful artists in the city but you have selfproclaimed underground whose styles move quite a bit away from the through tradition and their they have wide influence is and theyre driven mostly by their own artistic impulses and so they dont really feel obligated to maintain this heritage but at the same time they strategically use it in order to appease local audiences, but nevertheless, because they dont actively adhere to legacy, they kind of struggle for relevance, relevancy in the same now. And i also talk to christian artists or holy hip hoppers in the city who use hip hop heritage kind of as a tool in ministry, of course, elements of local heritage could conflict the christian i think thats pretty clear. But you see them reference this sound and slabs and all that in order to connect with and minister, minister to locals. So houston hip hop is also a tool of ministry for these folks. So yeah, basically you what im trying to say with the book is that hip hop is a folk culture is not often understood as such, but its very much a folk music folk with a small, if not the genre. But it is certainly music that at its core is developed by small place bound communities or folk groups and reflects their way of life, their social values and even their traditions and, hip hop culture creatively communicates the experiences, attitudes and the worldview of working class africanamericans and land. Next, folks, its entertainment, but it also ideas and information within these communities. So even the most popular and dominant hop styles have a folk foundation. The art market started as small group, and some of them became traditions. And so thats the book. And nutshell. And yeah, im to chat further about hip hop or whatever. So when does your study begin . Give us idea of the time to time. Yeah, it begins around 11. Thats when i went to do the field work in houston. I was at university, moved back literally into my parents house and stayed for a year or so doing deep research and then yeah, again, on and off for about ten years. But it starts around 2011. Yeah. Okay. And you, you talked about the you interviewed people who had been involved from the very beginning and then you interviewed who were kind of seen founders of this field and then you sort of talked to the people who were popular at the moment. And then you talked to the group of emerging artists. And so how far back in time do they go, the founders of houston hip hop. Oh yeah yeah they go way to the mid eighties some of these folks were making hip hop as early as 1982. So after the genre first developed in new york and spread across the so yeah now theyre long time hip hop folks they really i to folks who really helped build the foundation this scene in the city which are describe for the neighborhoods oh. Thats a great question yeah no you know these neighborhoods are often unfairly labeled as bad and and rough but you know, that was in my right. Theres so much more that and beyond that i mean their communities are mostly situated, you know in the north side and south side of the city of long standing residential segregation and racism right there tight knit. Right. And so if you grew up in the northern or the southern part, thats kind of your social world, right . You dont really like go back forth. You dont move out of it. You could move out of it. But like youre youre its part of your identity. But, you know, theres to any other neighborhood, theyre tight knit people socialize together. You they grew up together and again, i think they see the neighborhood as part of their heritage inheritance. So its something that you actively and represent even as you go further in life and move away from it. Its still part of my identity. And so, yeah, theyre just kind of rich, beautiful neighborhoods full of vibrant cultural practices. And one of those is hip hop culture. So talk a little bit about the production of the sound and how its to houston. Oh yeah, yeah. So its just screwed and chopped sound, which is dominant sound in the national hop atlanta interNational Hip Hop landscape nowadays. But it started in houston in the late 1980s. Its super, super slow, right . Most hip hop culture historically has been uptempo, you know, midtempo, uptempo. You know. But houston, we do it slow. And theres many reasons for that, mostly because its hot. Were just tired all the time, but its slow music. Its kind of muddy. Its bass heavy. Its meant to be played through in these powerful car stereo speakers. The lyrics are rooted kind of like deeply local experience. So youre like, not from there. You might not understand what everybodys talking about, but i know its great music, and it started in 1980s with this guy named dj screw, who just kind of on his own develop this sound that kind of took over the world. But, you know, its great when you hear its just super slow, choppy, muddy muddy music, but it started in houston. Yeah. How did actually do it . Oh, yeah. First, when he started it. He was doing it. I think he was using tapes too. And it just kind of slowed these tapes down. But eventually he could use the pitch control knob of his turntable to slow the records but then eventually his final setup was recording everything in real time and in normal speed and slowing it down when he would reproduce the tapes. Now, though using latest technology, you can make that super slow music just using your computer. Yeah. So is it only something that is produced in the Recording Studio or is it live . Also, you can do it live. No, you can. You can do it live again using. All sorts of latest mechanical or musical instruments. But its mostly i think a studio produced sound kind of hard to recreate that particular slow and atmospheric sound live and stage. So its mostly a studio based thing so as interested in introduction, you say it averages around 60 beats per minute. Yeah thats the average human heart rate. Oh, thats interesting. Yeah, there could be some connection there. No. Yeah, i will say know there theres i kind of over the drug connection because i dont like to like highlight that so much, but it is part of at least the history of the culture, the individual lives who were establishing the sound. They drank coffee, sirup and would slow them down. And this music kind of arose within that experience of being slow having your whole kind of faculties slowed down. This music was kind of the musical accompaniment for, that experience. So its certainly connected to the body. Yeah, ill give you that. And for those of you, i didnt know the term lean. I think here in we call it purple drank. Well what i call the houston. Yeah now it has a bunch of different names we were talking about this but yeah yeah yeah it israel though. Its real, right . Yeah. I mean in purple now, but anyway. Yeah, yeah. So tell us a little bit about the role of local production and local record shops. Oh yeah, yeah. No, i love to talk about that. Yeah. You know, this is for a long time and still to this day, its super local like, you know, houston is such a weird industry. Your scene because you could be super successful and get kind of rich as an artist while never leaving the city because the hip hop culture is so vibrant and so big and most of it historically and to this day is produced through local and put out through local independent record labels. So its hyper local music to this day. Yeah, no, no. The record in the record shops. Yeah, its mostly sold within the city. It feels like in houston, it feels like everybody in houston. Right. Its not true, but it like that is so ubiquitous and but its kind of supported by this strong infrastructure for hip hop thats been developed over the and the labels and the studios. The record shops play a big part of that. How has streaming affected that . Oh, yeah, yeah. I think its affected the money that an artist can get. I mean, thats really true because they went from selling out physical stores. Right, and getting quite a bit of money to putting their own records to everything being streamed. And they get like less than a cent off individual stream. So it impacted their ability to maintain lives and careers off it. But its also kind of grown the scope, reach of the culture. Now i think theyre reaching countries in areas that they never would have reached before. And youre hearing people all over the world, houston, identify through music, like theyre referencing like stuff in houston, even though they never set foot there. And i think streaming had a lot to do with that for sure. So you write a little bit about your own role as kind of an insider, which is, yeah, the constant dilemma, the folklorist or ethnomusicologist. Sure. How did you negotiate those interactions . It wasnt, yeah. That was part of the hes doing the work because i actively tried to maintain this sort of outsider perspective because thats what i was taught in school, you know, at the time it was, hey, youre supposed to be this objective kind of researcher, or no matter how intimate or intimately connected you are with the folks. Right. In order to produce good scholarship. Right. You had this kind of, you know, be distant from it. But i was, you know, down there and moving in through spaces that im like where i lived and grew up, right . And meeting people who like, you know, knew these environments i grew up in, you know. I kind of dropped a lot of that in. I think it helped really help me kind of build bonds. I wouldnt have otherwise been able to and i really think i got information and got access that i otherwise couldnt have gotten, you know, and at the same time to just kind of talking to these folks and saying, hey, look, you know, im here kind of preparing my ph. D. , but im the same guy from these neighborhoods. I think they kind of took pride in that. And they were willing to, again, give me a lot more and information than i would otherwise get. So, yeah, kind of during their research. I feel like i stepped into sort of an insider role. But when i wrote book, i kind of stepped away from it in order to get it published and get it through peer review. So yeah, thats interesting that you say that you were taught that in school because we went to the same school and my experience a little bit before you as a little bit different where we were taught pretty much what you were just saying to take advantage of the fact youre an insider that a folklorist an anthropologist looking at their own culture and trying to bring those tools in. What youre really is the methodology is what making you different than somebody whos participating in the culture. Yeah, yeah. And let me say it was like one or two professors that emphasized i need to step away. So but they were like super important to my work but yeah and i think to kind of before our era you know it was there was this push to be you know for anthropology and folklorist be these objective distant observers but. I think in the last 20 years or so that thats changed. You know, we have been pushed to like use our connections and our intimacy to, you know, do better work. So, yeah, thats very true. Yeah and i would agree that before my time or yeah, the time of my professors were taught that you have to be objective, but then you cant, you know, theres no such thing as being when youre participating in the itself. Right. And, you know, i think different when some of these professors, you know were absolutely like stepping in a world that they werent from. And it was hard for them to get that of status for me. Im going literally back to my moms house. And so now how can i ever feign theyre like, thats my culture these are my folks. And so anyway, yeah, yeah. Well, im just just kind of a little the career path of many people turn out to be folklorist is a lot of time. Start off with your own culture and then with each successive project, you move a little bit further away from that until all of a youre in turkey looking at ceramics or something. Yeah. And thats where langston will be next. Lets now look out for that book in 15 years. Yeah, i want to ask you about the material culture, okay . Yes. And with this so tell us about cars. Oh, yeah. I can tell you a lot about the cars. Yeah. No, the cars are you know, if im known for anything and im not known, but if im not for anything, its studying this car culture and so yeah. Houston the houston hip hop scene has this kind car culture called slab that developed in houston street culture in the mid 1980s there essentially these older models, large size american sedans, were talking like cadillacs, lincolns, oldsmobiles and things like buick, things like that, that painted in these like explosive candy, like colors and they feature all kinds, other body modifications and they sit out by sedan or theyre the rims these cone like chariot like rims called swinger the elbows is actually pictured on the back cover. Yeah. Kind of emerge as their own culture in the mid 1980s, but as the screw sound kind of emerged, the slab kind of was a primary vehicle through which that music was promoted and produced and so they kind of became interconnect did in the early 1990s and now theyre kind of inextricably tied together. You c