Country Rap: Katrina
/Ya Heard Me?
Dir. Matt Miller & Stephen Thomas, 2008, 75 mins.
This film is about a regional version of hip-hop specific to New Orleans called ‘Bounce’--how it got started and all about legends like T Tucker, Joe Black, Cheeky Blakk, DJ Irv, Mia X, The Show boys and Bustdown. What Dirty States does for Southern rap in general, Ya Heard Me? does for bounce in particular – providing a history of the music’s roots in second line and Mardi Gras Indian culture and tracing its development ward by ward. The film takes a turn towards tragedy as artist 10th Ward Buck records Katrina and Bounce artists are dispersed. Post-Katrina follow up in Houston, Atlanta, Mobile, Baton Rouge and New Orleans make this documentary a snapshot into a vibrant culture rooted in tradition, set adrift by tragedy.
Where They At, an exhibition portraying the players in the New Orleans rap scene known as bounce. Photographs, oral histories, and video comprise an archive that draws a line from the genre's inception to the present-day diaspora. Hurricane Katrina has scattered a once tight-knit bounce community whose music only existed at home — a home now redefined physically and culturally.
Panel: Discussion with Where They At, Aubrey Edwards & Alison Fensterstock, Sue Lamond (Producer, Ya Heard Me?) & Matt Miller (co-director, Ya’ Heard Me?)
Followed by a reception sponsored by The Harlem Brewery and Sugar Hill Ale
