The Appalachian area conjures distinct images for most Americans. Spanning Alabama to New York, the mountainous region conjures scenes of finger-picked banjo strings echoing over foggy mountain vistas at its best and red-county trailer park poverty at its worst.
A new album release from the Kentucky-based June Appal Recordings label is seeking to challenge this limited perspective of one of America’s most overlooked regions.
No Options: Hip-Hop in Appalachia, the label’s first release in the genre, features 24 tracks from artists across the region, as curated by Jomo “JK” Turner with the support of his father, renowned Appalachian scholar William H. Turner, and ETSU ethnomusicologist Ted Olson.
With the support of an Appalachian Regional Commission grant, JK Turner helped curate the first Appalachian hip-hop collection of this scope.
“Hip-hop in Appalachia is a testament to the enduring power of music to forge connections and give voice to the marginalized,” Turner said.
Turner networked with scholars and artists from Georgia to West Virginia to represent the various textures of Appalachian hip-hop, from the ironclad delivery of the appropriately named WV legend Monstalung to incarcerated rapper Stunna T to New York-to-Tennessee transplant Sista Zock.
North Carolina’s contributions on the project come from our foothill gateways to Appalachia: Aberdeen’s Jetpack John$on and Winston-Salem’s Ced Bankz.
The tenth track of the stylistically diverse collection, “Don’t Get Hit” marks Jetpack’s raucous contribution. Over double-time trap drums, 808s and chants of “Imma get him,” the rapper boasts of his come up with a warning to his adversaries: “Imma let it flick/ brrt brrt brrt/ come up from the pit/ he lit, get rich…”
Two tracks later, Winston-Salem’s Ced Bankz follows that braggadocio with melancholic reflection on “Die Alone.”
He penned the blues-laden track while reflecting on his divorce and the loss of his best friend’s son. “I don’t wanna die alone/ put my heart in every song,” he laments in the chorus. “By His grace I’m holding on…”
However, Ced’s second contribution “Let Em Know” brings more self-confident energy toward the end of the collection. “Y’all want it? I’m gonna let y’all know/ Don’t give a fuck about my past…” he declares in the chorus.
“My past doesn’t define me,” he reflected to the Queen City Nerve. “I can get out of any hole. I can keep it pushing … you’ve got to stand 10 toes at all times.”
Mirroring the range of expression between these two North Carolinian emcees, No Options presents a diverse Appalachia. While many of the artists narrate stereotypical struggles with poverty and addiction, that struggle is juxtaposed by resilience and faith.
Alongside expected banjos and folk melodies lie 808s and snares. The album beckons listeners to tune their ears to a truer Appalachia, one that represents the vibrant multicultural contours of a region oft-cited and rarely understood.
