The New Orleans Hip Hop Archive | Mystikal, Mannie Fresh appear in historic Tulane University project

The NOLA Hiphop Archive was founded in 2012 as an effort to collect, document, and make accessible to the public the oral histories of New Orleans’ influential rappers, producers and DJs who helped to create and popularize hiphop and bounce music traditions in the city and beyond. Founded in 2012 by Tulane graduate student, Holly Hobbs, the Archive currently holds more than 30 videotaped interviews with the city’s hiphop and bounce artists and pioneers, including Mannie Fresh, Mystikal, Partners N Crime, Dee-1, Ricky B, DJ Raj Smoove, Nesby Phips, Nicky da B & Rusty Lazer, and Queen Blackkold Madina, star of the Academy Award-winning Katrina documentary, Trouble the Water. In conjunction with materials from the Where They At bounce exhibit, the community-accessible NOLA Hiphop and Bounce Archive will launch with the support of the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in Spring 2014. That means that beginning in the spring of next year, the previous collected interviews––along with Where They At interviews and materials––will be accessible to the public both online and in person at the Amistad Research Center free of charge. The Kickstarter initiative will be used to assist in the collection of an additional 30 new videotaped oral histories, to be completed by the end of 2014, as well as the creation of a digital viewing station, housed in the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. A donation of any amount toward our successful goal will help to further document and provide support and recognition for these important members of our creative community and beyond. Holly Hobbs is currently completing her PhD at Tulane University and writing her dissertation on post-Katrina hiphop and recovery in New Orleans.