{"id":7767,"date":"2024-02-02T10:34:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T16:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=7767"},"modified":"2024-02-06T20:42:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T02:42:31","slug":"bark-out-chief-adjuah-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/bark-out-chief-adjuah-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Past, Present, and Future: A Conversation with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Chieftain of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons and Grand\u00a0Griot\u00a0of New Orleans (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We continue our conversation (read part one here<\/a>) with Chief Adjuah, formerly known as Christian Scott, by discussing the connections between Afro Indigenous music and R&B, rock, and hip hop. We also get into the social messages in his music and the origins of the Adjuah Bow, his custom made kamele n\u2019goni gravi-hybrid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: Although Maroon communities are undermined, their influence still impacts more prominent popular culture. One fascinating thing is how much Nation music goes into R&B. A great example would be \u201cIko Iko\u201d, which is on Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning<\/em>, but best known for The Dixie Cups\u2019 version. You have also incorporated more contemporary R&B music into your music in the past. Do you see a connection between Afro Indigenous music and the R&B things you use on an album like Stretch Music <\/em>(Ropeadope, 2015)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chief Adjuah: Yeah. Well, I would say that even if we separate Stretch Music out for a minute, I think the larger point in terms of the narrative disseminated to people about how the music grew in New Orleans is missing important parts. It has massive holes in it. [The narrative] is that all this music was born from slaves, they were having a bad time, and they had to sing the Blues. And then it grew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not what the hell happened in New Orleans. The reason this music was born there is because the African retention there is higher than in other places. It doesn’t mean it’s better. If they had been able to hold to their rhythmic traditions and play drums in places like Houston, Texarkana, or Mobile, Alabama, we would be having this conversation about those places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Orleans is special as one of the only holdouts in North America that specifically allowed the use of the drumming and other cultural elements that the Africans brought into Louisiana to persist. But it also has something else that is a much larger indicator of why you still have the music. It has a Maroon system, which means they went where they wanted. They did what they wanted. They were what they wanted. They spoke what they wanted to speak. They sang what they wanted to sing. The idea that this music just appeared out of people who were downtrodden and hopeless takes the power out of people\u2019s agency to create their own freedom. There was some radical shit that’s actually built out of people willing to take action to effectuate the reality they want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The culture held onto the skeleton keys of African expression, which eventually turned into Afro-American expression, and co-mingled with other contexts. Those people were the folks that came into Congo Square to lead the processionals. Sidney Bechet talked about his grandfather, Omar as one of them. People like Omar were the prototypical musicians who built and held onto the skeleton keys of expression. They were men who would cut your throat if you tried to infringe on their freedom. They weren’t playing around either. These are Maroon people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So to me, when we speak about [Afro Indigenous] music or when we speak about the Blues in Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta, or rhythm and blues, it is all from New Orleans. R&B and rock and roll are both from New Orleans. Other places look at that music and broadly characterize it as general American music. But the New Orleanian musicians and historians know they came from New Orleans. And they can prove it because all of the records were made here by New Orleanian musicians. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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