Jackson Free Press

I often brag to out-of-state friends and colleagues that all the genres of music were either birthed or perfected on Mississippi soil. From Jimmie Rodgers to Faith Hill, B.B. King to Grady Champion, and from Leontyne Price to Brandy, it's safe to say that our musical roots run deep.

As we prepare for the grand opening of the Farish Street Entertainment District, you can look for us to embrace our musical history and proudly put it on display for the rest of the world to see. Even within the two blocks of the entertainment district, you can feel the spirits of the performers who once graced those venues. Anyone who was anybody in the '20s, '30s, '40s and even the '50s showed up at the Crystal Palace or the Alamo to throngs of eager Jacksonians. In those times, music was a refuge from the harsh realities of the depression, of war, of Jim Crow. You could always look to Mississippi to give you original music by original artists who worked hard to perfect their craft.

It is doubly important that we recognize those musicians who came after the pioneers—those who bridged the gap between "those" times and "these" times—the folks who carried on the rich tradition of Mississippi Music. Look up the Wyndchimes, the Composers or Mississippi's first two rap groups, The Ice Cold Rappers and M-Town Posse, and you'll see that our state never stopped its musical innovation. Do your homework, and you'll see that the most sampled song in hip-hop history was "Get up and Dance" by Freedom. KRS-One used it; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five used it. Where was Freedom from? Jackson, Miss. A few of its members still reside in Jackson and are still involved in music.

Today, we still carrying a musical torch at home and on foreign soils, whether it's me traveling to the Czech Republic or Ghana, Bobby Rush going to China or David Banner going to Australia. While the names Crooked Lettaz, 3 Doors Down, or LeAnn Rimes may scream out "Mississippi" to you, there are still others like Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross, Saving Abel and Platinum rapper Soulja Boy who you may not know are also Mississippi natives. And a new crop of artists is springing up all over the state.

Mississippi can celebrate Big K.R.I.T, a Meridian hip-hop artist who just inked a major deal with Def Jam, the most prominent label on the planet. Check him out on YouTube. He promises to make us proud. We can also congratulate M.L., a Jackson-born and bred R&B singer/producer who recently won a national contest sponsored by R&B songstress Monica.

Other states have nothing on us. Be proud. And be supportive. These artists can't flourish without your cheers, your screams and your dollars buying their product. We need you showing up to the shows and letting these club owners and promoters know that you support local music; that you support original music; that you show the respect to these artists that they deserve for the hard work they put in. They deserve to be compensated for their craft and not given pennies for their art while out-of-town bands or cover bands rake in big-dollar gigs.

If the Mississippi music tradition is to continue, let this be the day to drop the gauntlet and unleash a new generation of musicians on the world: the Storage 24s, the Creep Lefts, The Jason Turner Bands, the Skipp Coons, the Pyinfamouses, the Compositionz, etc. Despite what the naysayers think, Mississippi has something to say.

And that's the truth ... sho-nuff.