RAP music is FOLK music the duality of identity

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[Applause]

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fitted fashion my tapestry keep a story

attached to me black hoodie represents a

catastrophe even

before blm i was seeing it happen in

front of me had a few things done to me

i was too young to fathom

just imagine being in the position of

being picked apart based upon your

pigment

they said i was academically challenged

but it was the academics that i

challenged i never fit in my district

they taught me lineage beginning to

change my family seems that i’m

beginning to change the attitude that i

tap into in that particular stage

benefited me at the end of the day

see i had a couple of white friends that

think i’m too black

black friends think i’m way too militant

and yet not black enough

even though most of them won’t admit it

but neither of them have a problem with

calling me

i used to read a lot of fiction because

the non-fiction was an odd mixture of

both

so i studied on my own i learned that

colonialism wasn’t only a decision based

upon expanding the hold on the globe

they thought that it was already there

so they were sold

and if you disagree them then you knew

it was on history is written by the

victor i think their definition of

victory is wrong

[Music]

fun

so rap is full huh

i remember the first time that i learned

that the banjo

came from africa was at the black banjo

gathering in mebane north carolina

and at the time i was eight or nine

years old and i

didn’t understand the gravity of that

information i didn’t really

know the weight that that would carry

and how it would impact me for the rest

of my life

i was young enough that it didn’t feel

wrong

but i was old enough to know that it

felt different

it felt like something wasn’t adding up

my aunt used to play for these two black

string bands called the sankofa strings

and the carolina chocolate drops and in

the summers

i would go with her to old time

festivals

and folk festivals like merlefest

and it felt like i was stepping into

narnia

like i was stepping into this different

world where i was exposed to a side of

my culture that felt hidden from me

because at home all we listened to was

rap and

r b and pop and it didn’t really feel

like there was a frame of reference for

folk when i was at home and it didn’t

feel like there was a frame of reference

to what i was listening to at home when

i would be in these folk spaces

it felt like my identity was ripped in

half

but when i would go out on these

adventures with my aunt i

loved the music i loved seeing black men

and women playing

fiddles and banjos and there was just

something in it that made me feel like i

had to get involved somehow

and so i started by trying to be a

violin player

and the thing about my experience

playing the violin

was i wanted to be a fiddle player but

before i could break the rules

i had to learn the rules first and so i

started learning the suzuki method but

it didn’t really hit for me

you know the beat that i was looking for

the groove that i was looking for i

didn’t find

in classical music and so i set it down

but i knew i had to get involved

in some way and so one day

we were at a music festival in

some random city some random state and

my aunt had just come back from africa

and she had a gourd banjo

and we’re in the hotel room and i pick

up the gourd banjo and i pluck a couple

strings

and it did not sound like a banjo

at all to me it didn’t have the twain

of the banjos that i was used to hearing

it sounded more like plucking

a cello string it had a very much lower

tone and it was beautiful

and i told my aunt i had to learn how to

play this i asked her if she could teach

and the first thing she taught me was

claw hammer

and the rhythm that i had to get in my

body the boom chicka boom

boom boom boom the way i play banjo

is not plucking the way you would uh

guitar

it’s more using the weight of your hand

to carry this part of your finger

down the strings you’re almost drumming

on each string and the first thing i had

to learn

was that boom boom boom it became a

heartbeat for me

and not just that my dad would come pick

me up

and we’d have an hour drive from durham

to greensboro

every other weekend and he would be

playing hip-hop but not just

recreationally

he broke down that there was coded

messaging

behind the lyrics that when jay-z said

he wanted to be forever young

that’s not just what he meant there were

layers behind what he was saying

and the rhythm of rap that

became my second heartbeat and it was a

heartbeat that i shared with my friends

as well as my father so it felt like

not only was i jumping from world to

world but i had these two heartbeats

vying for my attention for my love

when i’m in a folk space it seems that

we come together to celebrate

the history and the legacy of our

culture the past

and it feels like when i’m in the

hip-hop space we celebrate innovation in

the new and staying on the edge rap

is a young man’s game in that it

reinvents itself every couple of years

so it feels like i’m stuck in a place

between the past

and the future but as i got older i had

to ask myself

why why does folk music get lumped in

as something that only exists behind us

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what is folk music to me

folk music is just the music of the

people it’s the music

that you play to the rhythm of your own

heartbeat it’s not something that you

have to learn in class

or that has to be taught to you in any

real way it’s handed down like myth

and legend and if you think about it

rap and folk do not have very different

histories from the porch

to the stoop we’re talking about music

to make people dance and feel love

that has coded messaging in response to

adversity

stories of love and grief and joy

and pain all bound in this

wonderful sound

to me rap is one of the illest

examples of folk music of all time

what is rap but the art of storytelling

to the rhythm

of your heartbeat to the rhythm of your

environment

to the rhythm of your culture of your

legacy i made an album

called oh henry where i set out

to merge folk world

and hip-hop together that’s what i

thought i was going to do i thought i

was going to take these two worlds and

put them in the same space

i started putting uh banjo lines over

808 breaks

and i started putting rap flows over

banjo

rhythms and what i learned was that

these were not two

different heartbeats at all when you put

the boom chigga

with the boots and cuts and cuts

all you find is one heartbeat

and that’s mine

[Music]

now i usually with the back and forth

but i be packing iron like i don’t got

me a soccer or

this fire stick hit them a riot pitch

the glass will fall right here when i

appear

the smoking sticks you’ve been asking

for hit the gas and i’m dashing forward

that’s the ass in this floor my

passenger ass is on the door i told him

stop it

mr bones you know you’re so obnoxious

you make me nauseous plus you smoke like

you don’t need oxygen you see me and you

are opposite

opposition really boy you see me you

know what time it is you ain’t no friend

of me homie

get it more than the enemy you’re a

lieutenant you gotta be kidding

stuck around like i wanted you with me

through all of the pivotal moments they

probably would have ended different if i

had prior knowledge and listened i

obviously didn’t

i ain’t follow my heart now it’s a

schism with an iron inside of it

what ain’t fitting i made fit middle

finger up to what you make of it

running up the block i ain’t even know

what an acre mint spin a grip searching

for a place to spit hope an open mic can

open eyes to all the pain i’m in

mr bones need to leave me long said it’s

lit outside but i’d rather be at home on

my own

mr bones need to leave me long said it’s

lit outside but i’d rather be at home

on my own mr bones need to leave me

alone said it’s lit outside but i’d

rather be at home on my own

mr bones need to leave me long said it

slid outside but i’d rather be at home

now i don’t like to do this too often

it’s too much talking these days

not enough action or objects of

fascination beyond a falsify often

forced to find options i don’t follow

just anybody i’m fortifying my

conscience

gotta triple check it keep the record i

don’t trust it got metro thinking and

metric how it’s measured whoever seeing

is better like it

better yet throw an emoji under that you

know how i get slightly controllable

when i’m swiping through quotables so

not sociable more unsatisfied even

uncomfortable copel with polarizing

atonement i’m hoping i could

i don’t wish somebody would i know that

he would i know that he would

i know that he would i don’t wish

somebody would when i know that he would

i know that he would

i know that he would i wish somebody

would because i know that he would

mr bones need to leave me alone said

it’s lit outside but i’d rather be at

home on my own

mr bones need to leave me alone said

it’s lit outside but i’d rather be a

home on my own

mr bones need to leave me alone said

it’s lit outside but i’d rather be at

home on my own

but the bulls need to leave me alone let

it slid outside but i’d rather be at

home

now welcome to the everlasting never

having a second chance

and i hope everybody brought in with

them

we will get them

mr balls need to leave me alone said

it’s lit outside but i’d rather be at

home on my own

mr bones need to leave me alone said

it’s lit outside but i’d rather be at

home on my own

mr bones need to leave me alone said

it’s lit outside but i’d rather be at

home

on my own mr bones need to leave me long

said it’s lit outside but i’d rather be

at home on my own

thank you