Musically, New Orleans is best known as the birthplace of jazz, but that might be changing, says New Orleans native Lawrence Parker, who is producing the inaugural NOLA Summer Jam 2010, a hip-hop, fashion and art festival. Says Parker, “The goal of the NOLA Summer Jam 2010, which is going to be an annual event, is really to show our radio stations, our corporate America, our sponsors, that hip-hop is on the rise in New Orleans.”

With upbeat, anthem-like songs—such as Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”—taking over the airwaves, do you think that hip-hop is heading in a more positive direction?

Aquaforce

It has to get like that. All the best music that’s still respected today—the vintage Run DMC, Beastie Boys, all the R&B soul artists—those songs, they were about reality, but they were more uplifting, about upbuilding your community. New Orleans has been looked down upon for a very long time as far as the crime rate, and stuff like that. After Katrina, a lot of people got outside of New Orleans, started seeing how other cities were operating and building their communities, and now a lot of those people are coming back. Now we have so many people with the same mind state—it’s just coming together perfectly. We want to stay as positive as possible.

What’s distinctive about New Orleans hip-hop?

What’s distinct about New Orleans first is our food. What we’re eating and putting in our bodies could possibly be like our own style, our lingo and how we are. Just growing up with the Mardi Gras Indians, with Carnival, with the second lines. All that caves into us as a people, and that most definitely plays a major part in how we do music, as far as the rhythms, the uptempo, the dance moves, and how we sing and talk on tracks. We have our own complete style. It’s a fact because you get artists like Beyonce, all the artists from Atlanta, a lot of artists from New York, that come down here, soak up our community, and bring it to their areas. They utilize it, and bring it to a bigger market. Now is the time for us to really capitalize on our own styles. We get a lot of people taking our music, bringing it other places, utilizing our style to put themselves on the map. We want to start controlling some of that. If you just listen to a Beyonce song, you can tell that it’s strictly New Orleans bounce music.

What songs are going to represent the summer of 2010?

“Get Up And Dance.” I know for sure that’s gonna be a hot song from Plane Jane, y’all look out for that. From Aquaforce most definitely there is gonna be a song called “The Rebels.” Kashflow, it’s gonna be “Fly Like Me.” These are songs that you will see in every presence on the Internet and radio. They are really good songs, feel-good songs that you can dance to, or just ride to. It’s all positive. It’s getting back to the essence of hip-hop, which is dance, uplifting your community, and just painting a picture. If you can’t get to where Plane Jane is, you can just listen to their music and see exactly what they are talking about.

Why integrate fashion and art into the festival?

I produce music. I’ve been producing music in New Orleans for a long time. I produced Soulja Slim, B.G., a lot of local artists. With music comes fashion because the artists need to worry about their images. A lot of local people in the city have created their own brands, so when we have someone down that’s performing—like a national artist—I try and make sure that our local designers get that major artist to wear his brand. We can utilize that photo to promote their brand outside of New Orleans. The fashion goes right along with the music. It’s the whole culture of creating, of creativity and the arts, something that’s natural and you were born with it–you can just walk up to a wall and paint someone’s face. Hip-hop—you’re born with it; you just have the gift of putting words together. And fashion—you just know what’s going to look right on a person when you see them. All that creativity, that’s what we’re all about with our events.

What else do we need to know about Summer Jam?

Bring water guns. [Laughs] Bring water guns. Bring water balloons. We just went to Party City and bought a bunch of water guns. We’re going to give out some water guns. Prepare to get wet because it’s gonna be hot and humid, so we want to try and keep everyone cold. Make sure your ears are open. Open your ears up because there’s going to be a lot of music, a lot of music from a lot of local artists and I really want you guys to check them out. If you like them, you’ll be able to walk up to them and tell them you like their music. A lot of them will have their CDs on hand. Just try and support our local artists.

NOLA Summer Jam 2010, presented by Supreme Street and Traffic Boutique, will take place this Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m. at Washington Square Park. The festival will feature Dom Kennedy, Stalley, Aquaforce, Kashflow, C.O. The Hustla, A Levy, Bzy Bee, Dappa and many more. Admission is $10. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Sickle Cell research and Gulf Aid.

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