You might think you know UNAPOLOGETIC. How could a Memphis music fan not know the likes of Cameron Bethany, AWFM, and PreauXX — or producers like C Major, Kid Maestro, and IMAKEMADBEATS? And yet there’s always more simmering below the collective’s surface than what its public-facing (or face-masking) side reveals. For example, at 10 p.m. this Friday, August 30th, at Bar DKDC, some talent whose faces may seem new to UNAPOLOGETIC fans will top the bill. And yet, paradoxically, they’ve been involved in the organization’s background for years, part of what’s always “simmering below the surface” there.
Take Nubia Yasin, whose first appearance on an Unapologetic release was in 2019, contributing to the track “Eve & Delilah” on the collective’s showcase album, Stuntarious, Vol. 4. It’s telling that her contribution to that track was, as she notes, “the poem at the end,” a spoken word passage, for that has been what her most public work has been centered on ever since … until now.
Moreover, her writing has been unflinchingly political, from her poetry to her more overtly activist work, including a stint as “chief storyteller” for the Black arts nonprofit Tone and her 2020 TEDx talk on gentrification. As she told Memphis Magazine in 2021, “Because I’m a Black woman, all the intersections that I exist in don’t allow me to be apolitical.” And her response to politics, and much of the world, has always been through the written word, which “informs everything,” as she said in 2021. “I’m multidisciplinary for sure. I do visual art, I do installation work, I do film, but the writing portion informs all of it. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to read. And I’ve been writing since I had the motor skills to hold a pencil.”
Nubia Yasin (Photo: A.C. Bullard)
And yet, ironically, her writing originally went hand in hand with her voice. “I was actually a songwriter before I was a poet,” she says now, “and I stepped away from singing because somewhere along the journey it just started feeling too audacious. Like, there’s something really bold about opening up and singing. So I stopped doing it when I was in my early teens, and pivoted more towards poetry because I felt more confident in that. It wasn’t until 2022 or 2023 when I worked as IMAKEMADBEATS’ assistant for a year, and I was just surrounded by music all day, every day, that my urge to do it just got bigger than my shame about not being perfect at it.”
Returning to music brought things full circle, in a sense. “When I was a kid, my first dream ever was to be a singer. I did choir, all those things. But I have a pretty unorthodox voice — it’s pretty deep for a woman vocalist. As I got older and deeper, I felt really, really insecure for a really long time about my singing. But over time I got prouder of how different I sound, and now I’m in a place where I’m really excited to share that with the world.”
Working with “MAD,” UNAPOLOGETIC’s founder and key producer, directly informed her return to singing, as the tracks that will be playing under her at Bar DKDC were collaboratively created by the two of them. The final product might surprise casual UNAPOLOGETIC fans, its reference points being more indie rock than hip hop. In truth, the label has always been eclectic, from Aaron James to Cameron Bethany, with many releases trading heavily on the poetry and wit of the lyrics. Yet Yasin follows her own star, her musings flowing over meandering melodies that might suggest The Smiths — if fronted by Nina Simone — or equally unpredictable destinations.
Speaking of long traditions at UNAPOLOGETIC, Eillo first showed up on my radar during my 2018 group interview at their old studio, when IMAKEMADBEATS quipped, “this young guy, 16 years old, he’s actually the son of Quinn McGowan, who is part of Iron Mic Coalition. He’s an intern here, and he’s amazingly talented.” By the following year, he was performing on the Stuntarious, Vol. 4 group project and was even name-checked in that album’s recurring comic book-like narration, where an arch villain decries, “And this child, Eillo, has continued to outwit you!”
Today, Eillo laughs at that moment and the talent who played the villain. “That was my dad on the vocal,” he chuckles. “He would be a super dope voice actor.”
Over five years later, Eillo is no longer the “child,” having proven himself on countless contributions to recording sessions. In 2021, he was listed, with MAD, as coproducer of “Depression and Redemption” on MAD Songs, Vol. 1. Later, the multi-instrumental parts he brought to Aaron James’ Nobody Really Makes Love Anymore were key elements of that album’s musicality, and his other flourishes, like the jazz piano outro to PreauXX’s “Regret” in 2022, could be breathtaking.
It all has flowed from Eillo’s fingers, who grew up in a creative, musical world. Not only is his father an especially savvy rapper; he drums and is a comic artist. His recently departed mother, Adrian Liggins, was a self-taught pianist and a well-respected soul singer under the stage name Mahogany. “She was an amazing singer songwriter,” Eillo says of her now, and credits much of his musicality to her support over the years.
This Friday, that musicality will be on full display as an attraction in its own right. “I want to do all the things that I love about music,” Eillo confides. “So I’m going to be doing some raps, doing some singing, some original songs, and doing some, just, playing — just playing and building a vibe. I’m a huge believer in having the music speak for itself. I’m not the best with words, like talking to people and stuff like that. But when it comes to music, that’s the stuff that I want to speak for me. I guess it’s the purest way I can express myself.”
A crowd at a previous Juneteenth Festival (Photo: CBJ VISION)
Tone’s been busy. The arts nonprofit organization is dedicated to “elevat[ing] Black artists as innovative thought leaders, courageous storytellers, and risk-taking problem solvers through intentional exhibitions, conversations, concerts, and artist development, “with the goal of “shift[ing] the culture of Memphis through groundbreaking art, media, and communication that centers Black experiences in our city’s past, present, and future.”
To accomplish that goal, Tone has to keep a lot of plates spinning. The latest exhibition at their Orange Mound gallery, which opened on June 8th, is called “Invisible Man.” The theme for the group show, featuring artists from inside and outside Memphis, is deconstructing concepts of masculinity. “We’ve chosen that name because the essence of the exhibition is inspired by Ralph Ellison’s book Invisible Man,” says curator Kylon Wagner.
Tone’s annual Juneteenth celebration has become wildly popular. This year, it will stretch into three days, from Friday, June 14th, to Sunday, June 16th. It will feature the biggest lineup of entertainment yet and give attendees a preview of the latest developments in the organization’s grand opus: The transformation of a derelict Purina animal feed factory into an innovative center for Black arts, wellness, and entrepreneurship called Orange Mound Tower.
Sitting in the freshly renovated offices of the Tone gallery in Orange Mound, Tone executive director Victoria Jones says sometimes her organization’s ambitious agenda of community transformation can feel overwhelming. “It’s been going, it feels like hyper speed some days. We at Tone internally have really had to focus on building capacity so we could take on the project — not just take on the development of the project, but once it exists in its full capacity, actually grow into that larger space. And so, we have been working on capacity building for our staff, which has led to some really great partnerships with the Mellon Foundation, where we’ve been able to get everybody an honorable salary, wages, and healthcare. Obviously, that’s gonna change the morale of a team! So that’s been really exciting. We have had an opportunity to work with folks like the Memphis Music Initiative, who led the [office] renovation back here for us. … It’s a strong, solid team right now. We’re really learning our systems differently. Because we’ve been such a young, kind of scrappy organization that we were just like, ‘Ooh, let’s try this. Ooh, let’s try that.’ But now we’re learning what it means to actually build out systems, plan for the future, and see those things through. We’re learning what accountability structures could look like, and that’s been giving us space for our imaginations. I think that was a fear for me — and that could be my own Aquarius nature — that systems would block some of that imagination work. But we’ve understood, with the systems we’re beginning to implement, it actually gives the imagination space to grow and see the visions through.”
Juneteenth
1862 was not a good year for the United States. The Civil War was raging, and things were not going to plan for President Abraham Lincoln. In the East, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s army was menacing Washington, D.C., and Lincoln was firing a succession of failed generals. Things were going better in the West, where General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign to deny the Confederacy access to the Mississippi River had led to the capture of Memphis. But the cost was great, and Grant’s forces were getting bogged down laying siege to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
In early September, the two armies fought to a draw at Antietam, Maryland. It was the single bloodiest day in American history, with more than 27,000 dead, wounded, or missing. But it halted Lee’s invasion of the North, at least temporarily. On September 22nd, to capitalize on the victory, and give his abolitionist supporters the moral crusade against slavery they craved, President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. Effective January 1, 1863, all slaves in the Confederate territories would be henceforth free. As the news of liberation spread, many enslaved Black people in the West ran away and flocked to newly liberated Memphis, altering the city’s demographics forever.
But many of the enslaved, who had been purposefully kept ignorant by their masters, didn’t know about the emancipation. Even after the Confederacy surrendered in April 1865, slavery continued in then-remote places like Texas. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas, to begin the military occupation and Reconstruction, and informed the people of Texas that “In accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” In the years that followed, the more than 250,000 Black people liberated that day started calling the holiday Juneteenth. The National Museum of African American History and Culture calls it “our country’s second Independence Day.”
Since it was founded as The CLTV, Tone has made Juneteenth their day of celebration. “We don’t have that many holidays that center our experience in general,” says Jones. “We have had to create Juneteenth. I think it’s our first opportunity to begin to truly celebrate freedom, even before it’s been fully won — ’cause I feel like we still got a little ways to go. It’s an opportunity for us to take a pause and go all the way up for what our ancestors had to go through, what our elders have walked us through, and what we can do in the future. It feels a lot like a real opportunity to celebrate this baton that’s been passed generation to generation. … Slavery didn’t happen a super long time ago, as much as we want to feel like it was some distant experience. My grandmother was raised in a home with someone who was enslaved as a child. The way that affects my family, and the ways I understand generation to generation what had to be sacrificed for my bloodline to be where it is right now, I don’t know of another holiday that would give me room to reflect on that, celebrate that, lift that up, love on the ancestors that had to go through that, and imagine what we can still be working on and doing going forward.”
In 2021, the festival debuted at 2205 Lamar Avenue, a long-vacant, blighted post-industrial site that featured a tower visible from all over the historic Orange Mound neighborhood. “That was the first festival,” says Jones. “We’d done one Juneteenth celebration before that. It did not include a festival. We outfitted this space to do a big gala. Then, after Covid, we thought we needed to bring it outdoors. What could an outdoor celebration look like? Should we try a festival? Can we do a festival?”
The 2021 Juneteenth festival was an unlikely success. Jones recalls a bartender, hired that first year, in a panic wondering how they were going to accommodate thousands of people in a place with no power and no working bathrooms. Unapologetic, Tone’s partner in the Orange Mound Tower project, provided the entertainment. The gathering went a long way toward putting Tone on the map of Memphis arts orgs. “It’s grown substantially each year,” says Jones. “Even with the rain that hit last year, we saw a huge boost in attendance and participation from the artists and headliners we had selected. It’s been a fun growth to watch.”
One of Tone’s goals for the festival is to make it a sort of Black homecoming, attracting people who have left Memphis to come back. “We’re wanting to name Memphis as the cultural beacon of the South, but wanting to do that in connection with other cities,” says Jones. “If we’re thinking about the emancipation of Black folks and that entire experience, the thought that the country as a whole can reckon with any kind of post-racist experience and not have that reckoning happening here in the South is null and void.”
When designing the celebration, Jones says the organizers asked themselves, “How do we participate in and help launch some of those efforts to offer up space for Black folks to be healing, and inviting folks from the South to participate in that? And then essentially hoping that the festival and we can become so large that it’s a true beacon back home, an invitation to come back home, if it’s for the weekend or if it’s for longer. Come back home; help build this new future with us. Juneteenth really gives us that opportunity. We are watching folks pull up for that weekend and get a taste of Memphis. It’s folks who might not have been here for a long time and are like, ‘I didn’t know this was happening here. I didn’t know these folks were here. I didn’t know this community was here.’”
Appropriately, for a Black homecoming celebration, Juneteenth 2024 kicks off with a game of Spades. How did the card game get so popular in the Black community? “I don’t know,” says Jones. “I just know I ain’t never been to a function without it.”
“It’s a game about making do with what you have. You get that hand, and how can you make it jump?” says Willie McDonald, Tone’s development director. “The gala didn’t feel like the right first touch point for the weekend. So just trying to figure out, how do we welcome folk? What we have been seeing in attendance lately is, folks are coming from outside of the city to join us. … Our Juneteenth celebration happens under the banner of a family reunion, and Spades is an essential family reunion activity.”
The Friday night Spades tournament will be held in the Tone gallery, amid the artwork of the “Invisible Man” exhibit. More than 150 people have signed up so far. “We’ll have a whole new, larger crowd to experience that exhibition,” says Jones.
“It was live last year,” says McDonald. “There was some controversy in the room.”
On Saturday night, the celebration moves across the street to Orange Mound Tower for the gala. “It’s in one of the smaller warehouses,” says Jones. “This year, the is theme is revival. I’m imagining reviving the tower. And so the theme will be ‘Sunday best.’”
The seated banquet will include a keynote speaker and entertainment from Beale Street musicians and the Tennessee Mass Choir. “The way it’s sectioned off, it gives us three or four different room opportunities. We gonna have some unique experiences in each room,” says Jones.
On Sunday, the party kicks into high gear, with a vendor marketplace and Black-owned food trucks. One new addition this year will be a carousel with actual horses. Since the event commemorated by Juneteenth happened in Texas, many enslaved people found out about their emancipation from Black cowboys who spread the word on horseback. The Black rancher tradition has recently been in the spotlight, thanks to Jordan Peele’s film Nope, and Beyonce’s country-flavored Cowboy Carter album. (Peele is currently producing a documentary about Black cowboys.) “That’s a real part of Juneteenth tradition that I don’t think we get to elevate as often, that it was a Black cowboy letting a lot of the enslaved folks know,” says Jones. “We’ve been trying to find unique ways to tie Black folks on horses into the experience. It’s the symbolism of freedom and mobility.”
The star of the show on Sunday is the music. This year’s lineup is stacked with talent, both from Memphis and elsewhere in the South. McDonald says the nature of the event helped attract some big names. “The significance of us having this Juneteenth in Orange Mound, being the oldest neighborhood established by emancipated Black folks in the United States, and the funding from that going toward the larger capital campaign efforts for establishing a hub for Black innovation.”
The biggest name performer is neo-soul legend Erykah Badu, who will be doing a set under her DJ name Lo Down Loretta Brown. Memphis hip-hop legend, Three 6 Mafia founder, and secret engine of popular culture innovation Juicy J, whose accomplishments are too numerous to list here, will be on hand to deliver a highly anticipated performance. Also on the bill is New Orleans rapper and record label owner Curren$y, fresh off his 2024 collaboration with Trauma Tone on Highway 600.
Hitkidd (Photo: Kam Darko Visuals)
The official headliner is Memphis’ own Hitkidd. The producer of GloRilla’s song of the summer “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” and Campsouth Records mastermind is no stranger to the OMT stage. “He was at last year’s Juneteenth, and probably my favorite performance of the night,” says Jones.
“It was epic!” says McDonald. “[Last year] the main stage rained out, so our entire crowd stormed the north warehouse, and it made the second stage turn into the main stage. We had to get barricades up in like 10 minutes. Then we got Hitkidd standing up on top of tables and Slimeroni and three other female artists going HAM. It was the moment.”
The Architects of the Future
One person who attended last year’s Juneteenth festival was Germane Barnes. He’s an associate professor and the director of the Community, Housing & Identity Lab at the University of Miami School of Architecture; a Rome Prize Fellow; and the winner of the 2021 Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize. He was at the festival at the suggestion of Chicago-based artist, professor, and entrepreneur Theaster Gates, a pedigree which impressed Jones and the Tone board of directors. “His practice is based around building out culturally informed spaces, spaces that have the cultural references that resonate for the people that they’re designed for,” says Jones.
Germane Barnes (Photo: Courtesy Studio Barnes)
The architect was intrigued the moment he saw the tower rising over Lamar. “He walked with me all the way to the top of the tower the first day that he came,” says McDonald. “He stopped and took detailed photographs on every floor. He attended the gala. He hung out with us the whole weekend. Then he leaves, and we don’t hear from him for a couple weeks.”
When Barnes recontacted Tone, he asked permission to use the Orange Mound Tower project in a class he was teaching at Ohio State University. “He’s got these grad students, and he had them do renderings of the tower. So we fly out to Ohio, and we’re looking at these CAD renderings. They’re splitting the tower open like an egg, showing us cross sections. They’re throwing all kinds of different facilities into it, just giving us perspective on what it could turn into. Some of these would be featured in the space where we’re hosting the gala. There’ll be an installation showing the progress of the tower that we’re sharing right now.”
Jones says, “The work we got to do with those students was so important. That’s our first time learning how to give feedback to architects. He’s pushing us, ‘Speak up, do you like this? How do you feel about this?’ … We got a lot of positive feedback from the students as well. Most of their coursework is for projects that don’t even exist in real life, so to know this could affect and touch an actual community was meaningful.”
Orange Mound Tower (Photo: Chris McCoy)
Barnes formally came on board as the architect of record for the Orange Mound Tower project in early 2024, thanks to a grant from the Memphis Music Initiative. “Germane got on that first call with us excited, and that felt good, really affirming that this is a dream project,” says Jones. “He’s never gotten to do a project of this scale, and so for him, this is an opportunity to touch a big project that, as he describes it, would usually be reserved for a 70-year-old white man. Him being able to come in as a young Black guy and flex what he can do, we know he knows that in a space this Black, it’s just gonna be incredible. He’s teamed up with local firms LRK [Looney Ricks Kiss] and APA [Aaron Patrick Architects], and they’re creating an architecture dream team for us.”
While Unapologetic remains an ownership partner, Tone has taken the front seat in development work. The Tower team also includes Brent Hooks, an accomplished project manager with more than a decade’s worth of experience in large-scale urban development and complex project coordination. “His extensive background in civil engineering and construction management ensures the successful delivery of high-quality projects, contributing significantly to the team’s success,” says Jones.
Veteran developers Bill Ganus and Darrell Cobbins serve as development consultants. “They’re just so deeply familiar with the landscape of Memphis, and they’ve really been helping us identify some moving parts. We want such a unique approach to tenancy, and how we’re imagining these kind of communities forming around the art and culture, food and agriculture, small business, and health and wellness. [Darrell] has been encouraging and inspiring as we’re imagining how we can truly build out communities around these concepts, not just getting folks to sign leases, so that they can also participate in imagining what the space could look like.”
With almost $4 million invested in the project’s design phase, and another $7 to $9 million on deck, Jones expects to be ready to move Tone onto the 10-acre site sometime in 2025, along with other tenants who will sign up for space in the massive warehouse that will be rejuvenated in the first phase of the project. “We’ve broken it into digestible chunks to make our fundraising job a bit easier,” says McDonald.
Jones says Tone is trying to build an infrastructure for Black freedom in Memphis, to retain talent, and to attract new people and new innovation to the city. “What does it mean if we’re able to actually build the infrastructure in our image in ways that are more thoughtful, more innovative than the structures that we’ve seen around New York, L.A., even Atlanta? You don’t have to force a fit here. You can actually build it to be what you want it to be. Once that infrastructure is developed, or at least in those beginning phases, we’re inviting folks in. Hey, this platform is here. You ain’t gotta go nowhere. Matter of fact, we need you not to go anywhere! Go see the world, but keep your home here, so we can build this city together.”
Visit tonememphis.org for a full schedule of Tone’s Juneteenth events and for more information.
There’s plenty of summer and animal fun to be had at the Memphis Zoo. (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Zoo)
It sure feels like summer! The hot, humid days have moved in with full force, but that doesn’t scare us. Yet as we all sit inside next to our struggling AC units, it’s easy to forget all the cool things going on in Memphis. The city attracted more than 11 million visitors last year, and for good reason: Memphis is a place people want to see. So get outside and re-familiarize yourself with all the great places and people that make Bluff City unique. Whether it’s restaurants, museums, or a night out on the town, there are plenty of reasons why here at home remains a great option for remaining summer plans.
Free Art and Museums
A staycation saves money, right? Save even more with these free attractions.
• The Dixon Gallery & Gardens is free through the end of 2024 with 2,000 objects in its collection and a glorious spread of botanic brilliance.
• The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is free Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon, and also for family-oriented Community Day events.
• The National Civil Rights Museum is free for Tennessee residents with state-issued ID Mondays from 3 p.m. until closing.
• The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is free for kids 6 and under. Shelby County residents with ID get in free on Tuesdays from 1 to 5 p.m. And it’s free for everyone from 1 to 5 p.m. on Family Day, the second Saturday of each month.
The Memphis Zoo (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Zoo)
• The Memphis Zoo is free for wee ones under 2 years old. Tennessee residents get in free on Tuesdays from 2 p.m. to close.
• Access to the Metal Museum grounds, including its sculpture garden and gift shop, is always free.
• Walking and driving tours of Elmwood Cemetery are free, and it’s pretty quiet as well.
As always, you should check with the venues first before you go. And as you visit these places, you might be tempted to buy a membership. Go ahead. Find the level that works for you and enjoy it year-round. — Jon W. Sparks
Hit the Town
A night at home curled up under a blanket to watch a movie or read a book is probably my ideal night. In fact, I’d say it’s so ideal that I do that practically every night, but, apparently, it’s good to shake things up a little every now and then. So this homebody did just that and dragged herself out of bed for a night out on the town. Sure, it was for a writing assignment, but I got out of the bed and that’s a start.
With a friend in tow, the night started at Bardog Tavern for dinner and drinks. I ordered something with rum that our server recommended — couldn’t really tell you what else was in it because I heard the word “rum” and that was enough for me. Turns out the name of the drink is James’ Cock, and I sucked it down like a Coca-Cola, so do with that what you will.
After that we headed to Blind Bear, a speakeasy I’d never heard about before, mostly because I rarely leave the house after 7 p.m. Then it was time for the Flying Saucer and, like, Beale and stuff. (I had a bit to drink at this point.) I think we headed to Paula & Raiford’s Disco after, waited in line for about 10 minutes, and then gave up and ordered a Lyft. But, yeah, it was nice to shake things up a bit for a bit of a “staycation,” but the best part was being able to fall asleep in my own bed. — Abigail Morici
Be a Tourist For a Day
More than 11 million people came to Memphis on vacation — on vacation! — last year. That’s roughly the population of Belgium. Why?! The crime! The heat! The potholes!
Daily Memphians might miss the mystique of the city’s cultural treasure trove that draws all those tourists each year. The Pyramid’s funny. Barbecue is routine. Beale is for tourists. Don’t get us started on Graceland.
But if you’re staycating this year, try (at least) vacating your house or your neighborhood. Go find out what makes Memphis a destination. Go reconnect with that everyday magic. Do it all while staying within your staycation budget, too.
Here’s a brief list of classic (and free!) tourist spots to hit for your Memphis staycation:
• Graceland — Brag that you’ve never been? Go. See what you think. Free walk-up admission to the Meditation Garden daily.
• Beale Street — Go for the people-watching. Stay for the music and a Big Ass Beer. Are your feet 10 feet off?
• Big River Crossing — A one-of-a-kind walk with Insta-worthy views of the river and the city. Free daily.
• Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid — Fish pond, gator pit, and massive aquarium? Check. The place is a tourist magnet for a reason. Free daily. — Toby Sells
Be a Homebody
Staycate means staycate. No need to go figuring out car trips to some semi-distant place or to rush out to some favorite or fetchingly rumored juke joint in the evenings just because you’ve got some spare time.
Stay home. Sleep late. Alternatively, get up early in the morning when it’s still cool enough and take long walks on your property or in your neighborhood.
Give yourself at least one good substantial grocery visit. Then put it to use. Cook something new, for yourself or guests. And back in that fridge somewhere is an item you bought backaways with some purpose in mind you haven’t got to yet. Do it now before the food goes bad.
Fix up that spare room you’ve been using as a warehouse space. Change those worn-out bulbs. Take care of those overlooked potted plants. They’re thirstier than you are!
Homebody starter kit (Photo: Jackson Baker)
You bought those books. Now read them. Ditto with those magazines that are lying around. Forget about social media for a while. If you’ve got to turn on the computer, then use it to catch up on news you missed.
Look at yourself in the mirror and take inventory. I don’t need to tell you that you’ll see something that needs changing. Change it. Or at least start the process.
For a little while, everything is in your hands. Enjoy the fact. — Jackson Baker
The Memphis International Restaurant Tour
Eating out at a great restaurant is my favorite thing to do on a vacation.
Eating out at a great restaurant is also my favorite thing to do on a staycation.
You can experience other countries by staying home and visiting Memphis restaurants that specialize in various types of food from across the globe. Sort of “Around the World in 901 Days.” Maybe choose cuisine from a particular country each day of your staycation. Some places serve lunch, which usually is cheaper. And if you don’t know what to order at these places, ask your servers what they’d recommend. Here are some restaurant ideas:
Taking a trip around town to try exotic food is less expensive than airfare to exotic places. Not to mention lodging. You can go home to your own bed. And you don’t have to worry about passports. — Michael Donahue
A Night at the Shell
There are a lot of places to see live music in Memphis: the Beale Street club packed with tourists, the Orpheum Theatre’s Gilded Age grandeur, the Green Room’s intimate sounds. But the best place in Memphis for a night of music is the Overton Park Shell.
Built in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project designed to help workers during the Great Depression, it is one of a handful of band shells from that era still standing.
PreauXX at the Shell (Photo: Chris McCoy)
I was recently reminded of how lucky we are to have a place like the Shell when I saw PreauXX play there on July 1st. It was one of the super hot days we’ve been having this year, so I was expecting to be uncomfortable, at least until well after the sun had set. But the towering trees of Overton Park provided enough shade that a steady breeze made it quite pleasant, especially after a couple of days spent indoors hiding from the heat. We found a spot near the front of the stage and set up our camp chairs next to a young mom corralling her toddler.
My wife LJ stayed with the chairs as I checked out the food trucks, which were parked next to the new, greatly improved bar facilities.
We were chowing down on some barbecue tacos when PreauXX hit the stage, backed by his friends from the Unapologetic crew. The young mother was joined by her partner, and, after ignoring the music in favor of rolling on the lawn, the toddler threw his energy into dancing. (Really, it was more of a body-wide twitch, but he was trying his best.) When AWFM joined in for “Slide,” folks were streaming down the hill to do the title dance. This stage has hosted everyone from Elvis to Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, but for this night, PreauXX was the king. — Chris McCoy
Drag Shows at the Atomic Rose
Thanks to the phenomenon known as RuPaul’s Drag Race, we’re able to appreciate the art of drag without leaving our homes. And while watching hours of Snatch Game makes for the perfect staycation activity, so does supporting your local drag performers and artists.
Voted as the number-one best drag bar in the South by Time Out, Atomic Rose is the top destination for your staycation entertainment fix. The club recently went viral, at the height of Tennessee’s anti-drag controversy, when local drag queen and activist Bella DuBalle informed the audience of the severity of the bill and what it meant for the drag community. But the clip that circulated around TikTok only gave viewers a tidbit of the magic the nightclub possesses.
Drag at the Atomic Rose (Photo: Drew Parker)
DuBalle is known as Slade Kyle outside of drag and says one of the things that makes the club so special is that it is a true melting pot, inclusive in multiple ways encompassing all genders, races, and sexuality. This diversity is showcased in one of their most iconic events known as the “War Of The Roses,” which Kyle describes as an eight-week drag competition, featuring a large and diverse pool of performers.
And if you happen to swing by after War season, the club also offers Friday and Saturday shows, as well as a drag brunch on Sunday. Friday and Saturday shows start at 10:30 p.m., and Sunday brunch service starts at 11 a.m., with the show starting at 12:30 p.m. — Kailynn Johnson
SPORTS!
We can never get enough Grizz action at the FedExForum. But they’re out of season (unless you’ve made the pilgrimage to the Las Vegas Summer League to watch Kenny Lofton Jr. hoop). Luckily, there’s another pleasant Downtown destination to get your fix of ’ball. AutoZone Park is home to the Redbirds and 901 FC, but it’s sometimes apparent that Memphians take the stadium for granted, evidenced by the quite noticeable number of empty seats during baseball and soccer games. It’s still hot outside, but an afternoon or night out at the ballpark is an excellent way to shake up a routine and try out a new experience in town.
Even if you’re not into sports all that much, there are plenty of additional perks that come tacked on to a game. A personal favorite of mine is an all-you-can-eat series at Redbirds games, which, for just a few extra bucks, gets you a pass into a roped-off section that provides drinks, snacks, hot dogs, and an endless supply of the featured entrée (anything from brisket, to nachos, to my personal favorite: hot wings).
901 FC’s Bluff City Mafia (Photo: Memphis 901 FC)
Other enticements include specialty nights for $1 hot dogs or $2 beers. And when those nights line up, oh man. Kicking back with a few brews in what can either be a pleasant or a raucous atmosphere, depending on the matchup, is a reliable recipe for a fun night out. And if there’s a fireworks show afterward, well, all the better. Don’t sleep on it, Memphians! — Samuel X. Cicci
Tend Your Garden
If you time your work hours right and stay hydrated, summer gardening can be a breeze — and yield delicious rewards. Why else would the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture host its Summer Celebration of ag workshops and activities in Jackson only last week? The summer means heat to some, but for others it’s known as peak growing season. While that might sound dangerously like work, once your garden is up and running, tending it can be the perfect break from both screen time and chair time.
Early mornings can be sublime even in July, especially with an eyeful of blooms and fruits of the vine. It’s also a good time to water those roots before the blazing sun can bake the water droplets off the leaves. And yet, assuming you’ve done your homework and have a little mulched, irrigated, squirrel-protected paradise outside your door, there’s still more awaiting the horticultural staycationer: a world of garden clubs and nonprofits to liven up the typically solitary pursuit of the perfect bloom.
Take a break from the screen and tend your garden. (Photo: Alex Greene)
You don’t have to be a master of the pursuit to join the Memphis Area Master Gardeners, and it can be a great way to learn from expert volunteers who offer classes, working closely with the local UT extension service. There are also long-established neighborhood garden clubs, like the Cooper-Young Garden Club with their annual garden walk, and even community gardens if you prefer your plant-tending to be more sociable. Check out memphiscitybeautiful.org for a registry of every community garden in the city. — Alex Greene
August 17, 2018, was a historic night in the Bluff City. A new space in the newly renovated Crosstown Concourse, The Green Room, was about to enjoy its inaugural concert — the culmination of years of planning. A sizable audience had gathered to hear the music of celebrated avant-garde pioneer John Cage, and a hush fell over the room as the lights dimmed. Then Jenny Davis, a flutist in the genre-defying Blueshift Ensemble, stepped up and began to play … a cactus.
Jenny Davis (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Around her was a scene from a gardening shop. Cacti of different sizes were arrayed on a table, and Davis was systematically plucking the thorns of each plant as if it were a drum. Each movement resonated over the sound system; the cacti were outfitted with microphone pickups. It was as if we’d all shrunk to the size of geckos, immersed in a world of desert greenery, every brush of the needles an arpeggio.
For lovers of unusual sounds and textures, Davis’ performance was captivating. But it also marked the beginning of an avant-garde renaissance that is putting Memphis on the map of all that is strange and fascinating in 21st century music. It was only fitting that Davis was making the sounds, as that night foreshadowed the extent to which she, as programmer of Crosstown Arts’ musical performances, would be making waves. As it turns out, she’s only one of a host of players and presenters who are introducing Memphis audiences to sounds well off the beaten path. Beyond that, she sees no need to define what the music is. It’s here to stay, whatever you call it. “The avant-garde realm is hard to describe,” Davis says. “It becomes kind of tricky. Maybe it’s not even necessary to always describe something as being in one genre or another.”
The Cactus in the Room: A State of Mind
As Davis notes, playing Cage’s “Child of Tree” that night was a prescient grand opening. “That was the first concert we ever did in The Green Room,” she notes, “which I love. We christened the room with some John Cage!” In keeping with that, the space has become a key venue for musicians who want nothing more than to be listened to, and it’s likely rooted in the context of that first show. As part of the 2018 Continuum Festival, also organized by Davis, attendees could learn of the different states of mind that most avant-garde music demands, with talks on “Suggestions on How to Listen to Contemporary Classical Music” or a “Mindful Listening Workshop” based on composer Pauline Oliveros’ sound and meditation activities.
The seriousness suggested by such presentations is often belied by the sheer playfulness of the music. Beyond cacti, for example, the John Cage tribute also included his “Imaginary Landscape No. 4,” in which players adjusted the frequencies and volumes of 12 transistor radios. Whether whimsical or disturbing, the one thing that most avant-garde, experimental, or “out” music has in common is the need for deep listening. While B-Side Memphis or the Lamplighter Lounge have also cultivated scenes for strange music, The Green Room and its big sibling, Crosstown Theater, have set the standard of spaces that encourage silence.
Art Edmaiston, a veteran saxophonist of more conventional R&B, soul, and rock ensembles, has played enough noisy bars in his storied career to really appreciate silence. “You know, people wander into bars just to have a drink, and then they’ll say, ‘What is this? Why is a guy dragging a music stand across the floor? What’s going on with the flame thrower?’” he says with a chuckle. Such a crowd may not be tuned in to the subtleties of experimental music, and that can impact the playing itself. “The other thing is how quiet some of the music can be,” he notes. “We’re all listening. If you’re not in a listening environment, which means the crowd has to be quiet, then it’s hard for us to communicate, almost telepathically, and everybody’s going to miss what’s going on.”
What’s Going On
Edmaiston is a key figure in the local music landscape, and his involvement in the free improvisational group SpiralPhonics is indicative of just how much is happening on the cutting edge here. As he describes it, just having a venue for avant-garde music has made all the difference. “It’s hard for our little group to find places,” he says. “Revenue and venue, it’s all kinda in there together. You’ve got to find people. Listeners needed!” That has usually required staying on the more accessible side of the street. “Playing commercial music, you have a structure and vocabulary applicable to that situation. If you come in playing like Albert Ayler on [a track like] ‘Take Me to the River,’ you’re not going to be called back. So throughout most of my career, I was trying to assimilate, trying to be a studio musician. I’ve had a life of doing that, but never lost my desire to be on the more artistic side of things.”
When drummer Terence Clark proposed collaborating in a more improvisational context, and they joined forces with guitarist Logan Hanna to form SpiralPhonics, the mere existence of a venue helped them to manifest their vision. “We only played sporadically,” he recalls. “So we booked The Green Room in order to make us get our stuff together.” Ultimately, the gig not only brought their group into focus; it led to their debut album. “The Green Room being a listening room, that’s the spot to do it,” says Edmaiston. “That’s where we recorded our Argot Session. It was a live performance that we recorded there, and we couldn’t have done it anywhere else. It would take a lot more tries to get good takes and a quiet environment somewhere else. Your head space has to be right.”
Others note the resurgence of “out” music as well. Chad Fowler, a saxophonist, woodwind player, composer, and producer from Arkansas, studied at the University of Memphis in the 1990s, and the experimental music scene here at that time had a profound impact on him. Having then left town, he was surprised upon his return over a decade later. “I felt, when I first moved back to Memphis six or seven years ago, like there was a real dearth of creative music happening. It was kind of disappointing. I felt it had been stronger in the ’90s. However, since then it feels like it’s changed. A lot of it is due to Jenny Davis and Blueshift. Crosstown and B-Side have made a huge difference.”
The scene’s personal impact on Fowler is in turn reflecting back on the local environment. Having ultimately settled back in Arkansas, he’s nevertheless a regular in the avant-garde music world of Memphis, even as he also increases his profile in the New York experimental scene. His Mahakala Music label, focused on experimental jazz, has built on associations he forged in the ’90s Memphis scene, with players like Marc Franklin, Chris Parker, and Kelley Hurt, and Anders Griffen often appearing on Mahakala releases today. But he’s also used his and others’ connections to New York, Chicago, and New Orleans to create ensembles of world-class players from elsewhere, often bringing them to Memphis.
Dopolarians at The Green Room (Photo: Jack T. Adcock)
As Fowler notes, “It’s kind of weird because the same people might be on, like, a New York Times best of jazz year-end list but then also playing in a room the size of a closet for a tiny crowd in Brooklyn. We might get better audiences in Memphis for the same music.” He points to a gig by one of Mahakala’s “all-star” groups, Dopolarians. “With the Dopolarians show, I think William Parker was blown away by how great the energy was when we were there in The Green Room — by how many people came out, how engaged the audience was. It was a good experience.”
Collaborating with William Parker, a highly respected free jazz bassist and co-organizer of the Vision Festival, “New York City’s premier live free jazz event,” according to TheNew York Times, has been a boon to Fowler and Mahakala, arising quite organically from Fowler’s earliest free jazz experiences. Parker played on the debut album of Memphian Frank Lowe in 1973, as Lowe’s star was rising. Ultimately, Lowe would join Alice Coltrane’s band and enjoy a solo career of some renown, yet would still return to Memphis and jam with the likes of Fowler, Franklin, Chris Parker, and other University of Memphis students. Now, Fowler carries that inspiration back to New York on a regular basis, often playing with William Parker in various ensembles and recording projects. Mahakala’s star is now rising as well. “The first record we put out was on Rolling Stone’s end-of-year jazz roundup list,” says Fowler, “and since then, pretty frequently, we’ve been mentioned in Jazziz, JazzTimes, DownBeat, and all the go-to jazz publications. It seems the label is becoming one of the most respected of the genre, even though it’s very new.”
Lately, the links between Memphis and leaders of free jazz from the Northeast have only strengthened, as when drummer Ra Kalam, aka Bob Moses, who’s been on the cutting edge of the free improvisation world since the ’60s, relocated to Memphis permanently. Edmaiston recently played with the drummer on a New Year’s Eve show and was surprised at his embrace of more traditional R&B. Edmaiston recalls, “Ra Kalam told us, ‘Hey man, that was ‘Cleo’s Back!’ I recorded that in 1967 with Larry Coryell and Jim Pepper. We used to play it all the time!’ So that was kind of wild. He can play inside, but he’s developed into something else. When he plays himself, he says, it’s like he’s got to be in Europe to be expressive. Over here, less people want to hear that. Over there, he’s celebrated for it.” Yet now, with improvisational music on the rise here, that’s changing. On January 18th, Ra Kalam will be holding a master class and concert at Nelson Drum Shop in Nashville.
New Music, from Punks to P-basses to Piccolos
If there’s an uptick in free jazz and improvisational groups like SpiralPhonics and Fowler’s various projects, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, since Jenny Davis and Jonathan Kirkscey founded Blueshift Ensemble, a loose collection of Memphis Symphony Orchestra players with a penchant for experimental music, an Iceberg has orbited them — for that’s the name of a composers’ collective that collaborates with Blueshift every August to bring their works to life. “I like to have some new stuff along with some more familiar sounds, and that’s a nice way to introduce new things to audiences,” says Davis. “Blueshift’s work with Iceberg New Music, the composer collective out of New York, encapsulates that idea, too, because it’s a group of 10 composers, some of them more on the experimental, avant-garde side of things and some whose works are more lyrical and tonal, so you have the whole spectrum of what’s going on in new classical music today.”
Other avenues have long been available for the edgier side of the classical world, though they tend to be tucked into programs that showcase more traditional works. Conrad Tao’s “Spoonful,” commissioned in 2020 by the Iris Orchestra in honor of Memphis’ bicentennial, was a New Music tour de force, pivoting from cacophony to explosions of orchestral texture to delicate piano lines in a heartbeat and even a sample of Charley Patton’s “A Spoonful Blues.” It lost none of its power by being sandwiched between works by Haydn and Brahms. And many such experimental works continue to percolate out of the classical world.
A more hybrid approach was concocted by David Collins’ Frog Squad, when they premiered his arrangements of the music of Erik Satie at The Green Room in 2021. Turning the composer’s original sparse arrangements into showcases for a more jazz-oriented octet represented a perfect balance between accessibility and “out” music, as the players took solos with the abandon of a free jazz group, even as they remained grounded in the composer’s classic works. This year, they’re set to release a similar treatment of Horace Silver’s music and an album of all originals.
Misterioso Africano (Photo: Courtesy Khari Wynn)
Frog Squad’s bassist, Khari Wynn, is a virtuoso in his own right. While best known as one of Public Enemy’s go-to guitarists, his real passion is a kind of Afrofuturism first pioneered by his hero, Sun Ra, yet channeled through a thousand other influences he’s absorbed over the years as he plays under the name Misterioso Africano, or a few years back, The Energy Disciples.
But there’s plenty of experimentation coming from less-schooled musicians as well. Goner Records has long waxed enthusiastic for musical risk-takers, and in recent years they’ve brought many edge-walking groups to the city, from the surrealist big band sounds of Fred Lane to the free improvisational textures of Wrest to Tatsuya Nakatani’s Gong Orchestra. The latter wowed music fans gathered at Off the Walls Arts last year, part of that gallery space’s increased staging of “out” musical events under its roof.
The label has also played host to some of the city’s more rock-adjacent groups who test the boundaries of conventional musical ideas through combinations of electronic music and guitar noise, from Aquarian Blood to Nots to Optic Sink, who all offer servings of noise and synth madness to variations on the big beat of rock. Yet other, less-punk groups are dipping their toes into strange waters at the same time. Salo Pallini’s new independently released album advises it be filed under “Progressive Latin Space Country,” and while that obscures the heavy dollop of rock in their sound, it does capture their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach. They’ll be playing a record release show on January 20th at — you guessed it — The Green Room.
Some of these artists are also featured in the annual Memphis Concrète festival of electronic and experimental music, also centered in and around Crosstown, set to resume this June after some Covid-related setbacks.
IMAKEMADBEATS at Continuum Fest with Delara Hashemi (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Meanwhile, more hip-hop-adjacent sounds are percolating through the city. Unapologetic, who have long celebrated strangeness and vulnerability in their edgy hip-hop productions, now have a dedicated studio space, and producer IMAKEMADBEATS is enthused about the possibilities for combining traditional beat production with live players free to create new textures in a more spacious setting. “We’re all electronic/hip-hop-based producers who play instruments,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “Finally having the kind of space that allows us to easily incorporate live instrumentation into our music is a game changer here. Because our minds are decades-trained to think of warping sounds in ways never done traditionally, but now we can combine that with traditional instruments in a space sonically set up to present it in an amazing way. Our producer engineers aren’t just band recording people or rap recording people. They are that and everything in between. We just needed space. Now it’s time to take off.”
MonoNeon and Daru Jones (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Of course, the kitchen-sink approach has also been perfected by MonoNeon, whose transpositions of Cardi B tirades into carefully pitched bass solos and whose jams in his YouTube offerings may be the most experimental music of all. While he often records at home, he’s also branched out with other producers, including his work with Unapologetic. Like most of these artists, he’s appeared at The Green Room and/or Crosstown Theater multiple times. So it is that we must give credit where credit is due, as Crosstown Arts sits squarely at the center of the avant-garde revival. As Amy Schaftlein, co-host of the Sonosphere podcast and radio show, notes, “Jenny Davis has been doing such an amazing job of getting great artists to come to Crosstown Theater and The Green Room. She’s continued in that vein of ‘Let’s try to get folks to Memphis who may not hit us on their tour.’” Often recruiting acts on their way to or from Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, Davis has brought a steady stream of experimental and jazz artists to town, the likes of which have not been seen in decades. This March and April alone, Crosstown will feature Deepstaria Enigmatica, Makaya McCraven, SpiralPhonics, The Bad Plus + Marc Ribot and the Jazz-Bins, Tarta Relena, Ami Dang, and Xiu Xiu.
All of which is making the city a richer, more connected community. As Davis says, “I like the challenge of hearing something new. And [it] can be jarring at first. But then if you go back a second time, you start to see the patterns and it’s like learning a new language. I think that keeps things interesting.”
For our final “regular season” Music Video Monday of the year, we’re featuring something a bit different.
Unapologetic has been spending the last few months building a new studio in Cooper-Young called Outerspace. Mastermind producer IMAKEMADBEATS teamed up with Tylon Monger for this video tour of the new musical mecca. As you would expect from Unapologetic, it’s not your average unboxing video, although there is some boxing. Or, at least some light wrestling.
We’ll be back next week with our Top Ten Memphis Music Videos of 2022, but in the meantime, here’s a trip to Outerspace.
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Andromeda, the main control room in Outerspace (Photo: IMAKEMADBEATS)
I had heard talk of a new project from the Unapologetic collective, so I called IMAKEMADBEATS out of the blue. No texting. We’re both aware that this is a dying art. “I’m actually pro-‘just calling,’” he says. “I want to take it back to years ago, when you just called people.” Still, it’s not every day you can ask someone you phone where they are and hear them say, “I’m in outer space right now.”
Of course, by “outer space,” MAD (as he’s called) really meant Outerspace, the new recording studio recently opened by Unapologetic. If that alone doesn’t sound too noteworthy, just take a look inside, as a few of us were able to back in August. The first public event at the facility on Central Avenue was a listening event for the new album by Aaron James, Nobody Really Makes Love Anymore. Back then, many rooms were still under construction, but the main control room and live tracking room were finished. To all of us gathered there, MAD said, “I wanted a space that, when I walked into it, could remove all the stresses I had to go through to get here. Just kind of wipe them off my shoulder as I enter the space. That’s why when you walk in here, you’re immediately slapped in the face with a vibe. Because that’s what I need, is to get slapped in the face with a vibe. It’s perfect for me and for us.”
Outerspace hallway (Photo: James Dukes | Facebook)
That vibe is in a colorful, electric, semi-science-fiction vein, practically daring you to innovate. And such an environment was of the upmost importance as the collective created their first standalone facility. MAD recalls its genesis in the pandemic. “I look back and think, ‘Wow, we did all of this [recorded work before Outerspace] from spare bedrooms in my house. That’s kinda crazy.’ But when 2020 hit us, my son was almost 3. He was growing up and needed more space. The pandemic sent us all into our own caves, in isolation. I began to consider, ‘How do I interact with so many people, yet keep my family safe and separated?’ The obvious answer was to find a new space.”
But why call it Outerspace? As MAD explains, “I’m a big comic book guy, and I love Watchmen. There’s a classic image from that graphic novel, of Doctor Manhattan on Mars. When he needed to silence his mind and get some peace, he would just go and sit on Mars by himself. So when I thought about putting a place together, I wanted it to be for me what Mars was for Doctor Manhattan.”
As the Unapologetic team progressed, the logic of their chosen motif unfolded. “So if you go to Outerspace, you fly into Andromeda, the main control room,” explains MAD. “And then maybe you end up on another planet. So we call our live room Another Planet. And if there’s life there, you expect to see water and vegetation. So our two isolation booths in the live room are called The River, for the water, and The Garden, for the vegetation.” True to its name, The Garden is festooned with roses.
But there’s more, all designed with considerable care by the group’s various members. As MAD noted on his Facebook page, “I felt like most studios were designed by engineers, for engineers. I just wanted mine to be overwhelmingly for artists.” And that’s what the various rooms convey. Butterfly, the smaller studio, is named after the colliding Butterfly Galaxies. Then there are the hallways, the dressing room, the bathroom, and The Shuttle. “The Shuttle is the room I’m most excited about,” says MAD. “Our room dedicated to visual media and visual arts. It’s stocked with high-end computer equipment, microphones, cameras, Go-Pros. It’s acoustically treated, but you can take off the treatment if you want bare, white walls.” At last, Unapologetic can integrate all their output under one roof.
“One day, just for fun, we tried to exercise this new assembly line,” says MAD. “You can record here, mix here, and shoot the video here. So PreauXX cut a song in Butterfly, then I began mixing it in Andromeda, and we bounced out a rough mix so they could shoot a music video for it in The Shuttle. Three or four hours later, PreauXX had a new song mixed, mastered, and filmed.”
The long-awaited Aaron James album Nobody Really Makes Love Anymore is set to drop this November. I’ve heard the Unapologetic folk singer/songwriter’s first magnum opus, and it’s as impressive as it is moving. Recorded during the pandemic, mostly in a makeshift tracking room built in a shed out back of Dirty Socks Studios (aka IMAKEMADBEATS’ house), James and ace producer Kid Maestro paint sonic pictures by punctuating the heartfelt songwriting with wild noise.
For the title track, available now as a single, James enlisted Unapologetic’s house video artist 35 Miles to produce an impeccable visual. It sure looks to me like there’s some lovemaking going on, but don’t take my word for it. Watch:
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Memphis, meet your new #1 lover man. His name is Cameron Bethany, and he just wants to hold you close.
Bethany is one of the original Unapologetic artists, adding a smooth neo-soul sound to the label’s eclectic lineup. Last month, he wowed the crowd at the Overton Park Shell with his Al Green grooves and a Sade cover that melted all the ice cream in the cones.
Bethany’s new single comes with an oh-so-smooth video by director Ryan Hoover. Shot in video and Super-8 by Andrew Puccio and Kyle Taubken in Downtown Memphis, “Love Is A Bill” invites you to come close and feel Cameron’s snakeskin jacket. He’ll take you out to dinner and introduce you to all of his cool friends. Then, it’s back to his place for a little one-on-one time. Have a seat in his parlor for an after-dinner brandy snifter. Would you prefer prosecco? Because your Cam Daddy’s got some of that, too — oh, it looks like you got a little bit on you. Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and into these loving arms. “Just don’t fall too hard/Without your credit card.”
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Last summer, President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday, making it the first holiday to be approved since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983. In honor of this year’s Juneteenth, a relatively under-celebrated and under-appreciated holiday, TONE is hosting a weekend celebration, complete with a Saturday night gala and a Sunday festival.
This will be the first time TONE will host these events in conjunction with each other. Kai Ross, a visual artist and marketing manager at TONE, explains that the first (and only, so far) gala was held in 2019. “A gala was always supposed to be the plan,” they say, but due to Covid, TONE wasn’t ready to bring it back until now.
This year’s gala at Beale Street Landing is Afrofuturism-themed, with a request for attendees to wear Afrofuturistic attire. “Come dressed in your best black-tie but put it in like 2060,” Ross says. “One thing about Juneteenth is acknowledging the past to look forward. So we kind of went with a sankofa concept.”
2021 performer Dame Mufasa (Photo: Courtesy TONE)
The gala will feature a keynote speech by artist and TONE board member Derek Fordjour, in addition to a reading by Afrofuturist author Sheree Renée Thomas. Chef Eli Townsend of Sage will cater, and an after-party on the Mississippi Queen Riverboat III will follow.Tickets have been sold out, but if you couldn’t get your hands on a gala or after-party ticket, worry not: The second annual Juneteenth Family Reunion Festival is free and open to the public.
In lieu of a gala in 2021, TONE threw its first festival on the 10 acres surrounding the Orange Mound Tower, the site of the community-focused development project led by TONE founder Victoria Jones and Unapologetic founder James Dukes, aka IMAKEMADBEATS. “We knew we had to do something outside and that was Covid-safe,” Ross says. “We started to think about the fact that a lot of us — even just staff — hadn’t seen each other in so long. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year. And we were like, ‘This is about to be a family reunion.’”
And the family-reunion theme stuck. “It was a very beautiful experience,” they say. “It’s very important to do this celebration in the first Black neighborhood in this country. Just to do it on those grounds is always a special moment when we think about it.”
This year’s festival will include food trucks, vendors, games, and live music. The packed set list, headlined by rapper and Memphis native Duke Deuce, includes the Memphis Youth Arts Initiative Drumline, Mante Carlo, Bodywerk, Talibah Safiya, Texas Warehouse, Hitkidd, and Lukah. For more information, visit tonememphis.org and keep up with TONE’s socials, @tonememphis901 on Facebook and @tonememphis on Instagram.
Juneteenth Family Reunion Festival, Orange Mound Tower, Sunday, June 19th, 5 p.m.-11 p.m., Free.
When PreauXX quips, “You a queen, got steez, got all o’ that/It’s been a hot girl summer, gotta check the stats,” on his latest album, God You’re Beautiful (Unapologetic), it’s one of those lines that captures a whole vibe, a whole story, a whole season. And in case you didn’t check our cover, that season is summer. If you’re searching for the joint to define your fun in the sun this year, look no further: God You’re Beautiful is it.
If steez is the perfect blend of style and ease, PreauXX himself has all of that, and yet this is more than a dazzling fashion statement or a “hot girl summer.” The rapper is working on many levels here, and, as with so many Unapologetic artists, they’re built on emotional risk. “This is my most vulnerable project,” he says. “I’m talking about the ups and downs of relationship woes. I wanted to cater to a different side. This isn’t even just PreauXX; this is more my Handsome Samson persona. This whole project is kind of tied up with that. That’s why, for these past six months, I haven’t been in my braids. I’ve had my afro out because that’s the persona, that’s Handsome Samson. I’m very luxurious, my skin glowing. I’m being who I am.”
This naturalism translates directly into his delivery, which is simultaneously unhurried, off the cuff, and carefully crafted. The Handsome Samson motif rings true partly because the melodies are like half-remembered choruses from Soul Train. Perhaps more than any other rapper, PreauXX has a sure sense of memorable musical lines, perfectly wedded to his lyrics.
“Choruses, man,” he says. “I really pride myself on writing these hooks that stick to you. And not only stick to you but are relatable to different things you may have gone through.” Assisting him on this melodic mission is a veritable squadron of musos from the Unapologetic collective. After PreauXX drops a chorus, then moves on to spit rhymes, the producers and collaborators keep the music’s haunting atmospherics flowing underneath him.
One such collaborator is Cameron Bethany, featured on two tracks, who weaves in such golden harmonies that you may wonder if his voice is a sampled radio hit. Uni’Q further lends both melodic beauty and considerable sass to the tracks, and, in the album closer, “So Relieved,” she shows that this saga of relationships is not just a bed of roses. Her dis to a former lover in turn draws out some very reflective lyrics from PreauXX himself.
“I wanted to speak on some stuff that I went through in my life,” he says of that track, “and also give another piece of vulnerability from me. Not just romantic love, but like the love my mom has for me, by still being there. And consider what these relationship woes may stem from. Because that’s how my relationship with my parents was. It’s a super vulnerable moment, in a different type of space, a different type of love.”
A number of producers worked on God You’re Beautiful, including IMAKEMADBEATS, but the most consistent beat-maker here is Unapologetic producer C Major, marking tracks with his audio tag, “Bitch, are you jealous?” His distinctive, stuttering-yet-flowing beats underpin many tracks, including the lead single “Eastend,” though PreauXX notes that the final track was a “spirit bomb” of work from many Unapologetic talents. Another mastermind was producer/musician Eillo, who, PreauXX says, “super texturized” the song “Regret,” in addition to adding a solo jazz piano outro to the track that is drop-dead gorgeous.
But the masterpiece here may be “Incarceration,” the synthetic pulse and drive of which is almost completely drumless, giving it a hushed urgency that matches its subject matter. “I made that beat on my phone,” says PreauXX. “Then IMAKEMADBEATS came in with the Moog and enhanced everything around it, creating an atmosphere around the taps. He was like, ‘We’re going to make this a whole other world.’ I wanted to compare being locked out of love to literally being incarcerated. It was the first song on this project, and it meant a lot.”
Ultimately, such metaphorical flights and lyrical reflections are wrapped in ear candy so compelling, so memorable, that God You’re Beautiful bears repeated listenings as we watch the season roll by. “Just put it on loud and experience it. It’s a whole world,” says PreauXX. “I dropped it right before summer because it’s just so top down, press play. This is definitely the summer project. That’s what it was meant for.”
