- -_ (jazzy music) - We focus on creating the culture, not the credit.

It is embedded in the root.

My name is Adan Bean.

I do spoken word.

I do hip hop.

The entire world knows where to go if and when they want the juice.

Whether behind the pen, the brush, or the lens, they come to Atlanta when they want the realness.

(dramatic music) ♪ Everyday (horns honking) ♪ One, two, three, four (guitar strumming) ♪ Don't be (indistinct) (air whooshing) (violin playing) (saxophone playing) (saxophone playing) - [Onlooker] Oh, yeah.

- [Director] All right, take one, mark.

(clapperboard snapping) (saxophone playing) - We have gathered in this place all unfamiliar and yet family.

All distant but unified.

This is an art church service invocation that has been designed for you and I.

This has been written to the tune of Dirty South, to Goodie Mob's Fly away, to a Midnight Train to Georgia.

This is a companion piece written by Pearl Cleage.

Long before Andre 3000 told a crowd in New York that the south has got something to say, you could hear our cries rise from deep within that red clay.

This has been directed by Kenny Leon, choreographed by T. Lang or Giwayen Mata drums, squalling captured on canvas by Dr. Fahamu Pecou or Charmaine Minniefield or Fabian Williams.

This city is a siren for the arts and so many of us have answered its calling.

This is all okra and sweet tea, banana pudding and peach trees.

We provide the soundtrack to any function even if that junction is spaghetti.

Confederacy, memorial mountains and mayors named Dre or Keisha.

Also a mayor named John who would strum his guitar in front of those Eddie's Attic bleachers.

Home of our king, the preacher, the thinker, the dreamer, his remarkable civil rights legacy.

We even Habitat for Humanity, right?

Like we peanut farmered the presidency.

This was produced using a 30% film tax incentive.

This has been lemon pepper wedded, waffle housed at every exit, home of the forever inventive.

It is a simple glaring fact that our content has been soaked in the cuisines at Busy Bee's and The Beautiful and Mary Max and Fat Matt's and Miss Ann's Snack Bar.

No counterling.

And this was actually constructed during a three hour wait in line at Slutty Vegan.

But, see, when a city that is too busy to hate somehow starts to find the time, when gentrification can become an act of violence and no one is listening to the victims of the crime, when you can judge a society by how it treats its least as it is often said.

I have seen stranger things here than the Walking Dead.

We are a city experiencing growing pains, expansion and border shifts.

Will court companies like Amazon or law enforcement and ironically be willing to destroy a forest in order to headquarter them?

But see, try as they might, they cannot condo our culture to death.

They cannot BeltLine our brilliance.

Marie Kondo, our indigent unhoused community.

That is tidy up the house list for some 2019 Super Bowl and then try to leverage our current identity for some future soul.

Hell no.

It's ATL, ho.

Home of the artisan and the educator, the athlete, the author, the painter, the innovator, the culinary chef, and the curator.

The politician, the preacher, the grassroots activist, the organizer, the leader, the scientist, the celebrity, the farmer, the speaker.

It's also home of those kids fundraising but you're not really sure if they part of a team but they at every stoplight and off ramp, right?

This is for every native Grady baby.

This is for all of us transplants.

This is Olympics '96.

LaFace Records.

So So Def billboards, Funk Jazz Kafé.

Back when Apache Cafe was Yin Yang.

Even then my friend, we did the damn thing.

See Atlanta truly influences everything.

They branded it so you don't forget it.

'Cause see, we focus on creating the culture, not the credit.

It is embedded in the root.

We do the work, they pluck the fruit, but the entire world knows where to go if and when they want the juice, the sauce.

We are the dispatchers of the drip, the high priest of the hip.

Whether behind the pin, the brush, or the lens.

They come to Atlanta when they want the realness.

There's something, something about this place that makes it safe for the creative endeavor.

It is fertile soil for the imaginative and the experimental.

It honors the efforts.

We house Hammond's and Wonderland's and Hollyweird's and cities of Ink and Stankonias.

We not at all New York.

We not trying to be California.

We south of the north, but yet we north of the south.

We are a city out of nowhere that is everywhere.

Just look around.

Our DNA has made its way to every nook, cranny, corner, marketing meeting, boardroom, and block.

We've been had something to say And the entire world has been watching and listening.

Whether they admit it or not, the south got something to say.

(saxophone playing) - Greetings, my name is Adan Bean and joining me on this endeavor is my partner in crime, DJ Opdiggy who you saw just now on the saxophone.

That piece right there is entitled, it's a spoken word piece called The South Got Something To Say.

And I thought it would be fitting to kinda begin with that just to kind of set the table, set the stage because it's my love letter to this incredibly influential city that has had a remarkable impact on me.

You hear a lot of me like kinda name checking particular visual artist or dancers or directors.

Also like cuisine, like our food as well.

Like I wanted to touch on the restaurants.

Some did not make it through covid and whatnot but I just kinda wanted to immortalize them perhaps in this piece.

And I thought that it was just a good opportunity to kind of speak to all of these areas of culture that have impacted me but also kind of create that important necessary vibrancy that attracts so many people to this city and ultimately changes us.

That's as I said, kind of a love letter.

But also anything you love, right?

It does not mean that it doesn't come with standards and accountability.

So there's criticisms as well, right?

So I wanted to also talk to the fact that there's some things that we do that are happening that aren't cool, right?

Like there's just the wealth and equality, housing injustice, people being priced out of their homes, out of neighborhoods, and it's ultimately changing the character.

And so, I wanted to speak to that.

I wanted to speak to the issue of Cop City.

And so there's a line in there that has kind of been updated and revamped because when I wrote it, it didn't have that in there.

And so yeah, it's kind of a living text that I like to update as necessary.

So, no need to drag that further.

But yeah, that is called The South Got Something To Say.

Hopefully you found something in there that resonated with you and you found a love for the city in it there.

As I said, my name is Adan Bean.

I do spoken word, I do hip hop, and I'm excited about this next tune I'm 'bout to get into called Curb Appeal, yeah?

That's what that's called.

(record scratching) Yeah, let's go.

Oh, diggin'.

(upbeat music) - This is about the unhoused.

♪ Yo, yo ♪ Be as it may ♪ Home of the castaway ♪ The city whispers.

♪ We fast and pray, the sinner Saturday ♪ ♪ The Saints of the Latter Day ♪ From the Fabulous Fox ♪ We like a block away ♪ Cortland and Pine where misfortunes align ♪ ♪ The great disparity between your portion and mine ♪ ♪ Such a orbit design but of course with the time ♪ ♪ That passes it has to start warping our mind ♪ ♪ This familiar ugly ♪ The former beauty ♪ Amidst these redlined neighborhoods, you'll find the ruby ♪ ♪ There are hidden gems in plain sight ♪ ♪ In this vicious world, Rufus Wainwright ♪ ♪ Limboing the poverty line, your life can become a fine ♪ ♪ Panhandle for dollar signs ♪ Feeding me can get you fined ♪ Medicaid was free base or some kind of wine ♪ ♪ There's missing rungs on that ladder ♪ ♪ To teach us that they want us to climb ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes - Yeah.

♪ Birds have nests ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ - Yeah.

♪ Foxes have holes - Yeah.

♪ And birds have nests ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest.

♪ - We all said it live.

♪ I don't do handouts, I do not carry cash ♪ ♪ I get you next time, this is all I have ♪ ♪ All those declines to help, they ring hella hollow ♪ ♪ A hungry belly whiff, only prior to swallow ♪ ♪ Pebbles on the street leave impressions on my cheeks ♪ ♪ Today's newspaper serve as tonight's bed sheet ♪ ♪ I'm trying to make ends meet ♪ Locked in a dead heat of survival ♪ ♪ But yet I'm racing with these lead feet, but uh ♪ ♪ It is just as well, the streets of Pratt and Bell ♪ ♪ Prior to heaven, but after hell ♪ ♪ Poverty's paradise, the favorite Valhalla ♪ ♪ Somewhere between the inshallah and the our father ♪ ♪ The park is my kitchen, my living room's a bridge ♪ ♪ My bed is a bench and the trash can is my fridge ♪ ♪ Midtown, Fourth Ward, southwest too strong ♪ ♪ The scabs of the city been picked at for too long ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes, birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ The poverty stricken, the inadequate, the indigent, ♪ ♪ The hapless, the penniless, the destitute ♪ ♪ The only difference is these guys rock a tie and suit ♪ ♪ Corporate camouflage, the three-car garage ♪ ♪ The McMansion expansion, the alternate garage ♪ ♪ The five bedrooms, the curb appeal, the class struggle ♪ ♪ The economy will commonly burst your housing bubble ♪ ♪ The suburban sprawl, the gaudy high rises ♪ ♪ Lock in the mortgage rate 'fore they increase the prices ♪ ♪ Empty developments and vacant subdivisions ♪ ♪ CeeLo told you that that gate could become a prison ♪ ♪ Listen, nothing's wrong with you when yours went along ♪ ♪ But a cast becomes a hassle ♪ If that's where your heart is drawn ♪ ♪ A house ain't a home once the bank forecloses ♪ ♪ When you listen, a roof can sometimes expose you ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes and birds have nest ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes, birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where can rest ♪ ♪ Foxes have holes, birds have nests ♪ ♪ The son of man has no place where he can rest ♪ - DJ rest (record scratches) - You wanna rest?

♪ Aw, aw, aw yeah - Let's rest.

(record scratches) ♪ Yeah (record scratches) ♪ Yeah - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That right there was, as I said, it was called Curb Appeal.

It's a song actually comes out of this idea of dealing with just housing, housing inequality.

But ultimately, like the first two verses really deal with the unhoused community.

Atlanta, much like a lot of places in this nation, are dealing with a huge just homeless and unhoused population.

And so these people have stories.

These people have an entire, are part of communities in ways.

And so I wanted to write something that kind of spoke to that idea of curb appeal.

Also, a little bit of it came out of the housing bubble and back in like 2000 and I don't remember when that was.

2007, 2009.

And so I just wanted to talk like with that third verse, it was kind of a switch to say that like you have these people who are dealing with being indigent and what have you.

And I wanted to talk about kind of the soullessness around the desire of more and kind of the expansion and all the push around like McMansions which were a huge thing in the late aughts in that way.

So yeah, that's the kind of the sourcing behind that.

And I was really grateful to be able to partner with some organizations to shoot a documentary that kind of dealt with that idea of people who are housing insecure.

And yeah, it's kind of just something that is really near and dear to my heart.

So yeah, it's called Curb Appeal.

That's where that comes out of.

So when I think about like the kinda the value and worth of spoken word, it's something that is a fundamental building block to communication.

Spoken word is honest, obviously it is performance poetry.

So it's something that is not meant to live on a page, but it's meant to be living.

It's meant to be interactive.

It's meant to be brought to the people.

And so there's just this long tradition I think that you kind of see kind of where it bubbled up, I think a little bit in pop culture, maybe in like the late, mid, late nineties where.

But it has continued to thrive in ways in which you see competitive slams all over the country.

But also beyond that, to me, I come at it as an MC, right?

Like my first contact and my first idea around poetry really came out of me studying rappers who impacted me.

And so when I found myself kinda in between recording albums, I found myself connecting to poets and going to open mics because it stretched the way that I wrote.

It stretched the way that it taught me to think about approaching songwriting.

And so spoken word is really vibrant.

And continuing now in the city on Sundays, you can go to I think Apache still exists but in a different location now.

You can go there on Tuesdays.

You can go to spots in East Atlanta.

Wednesday, there's pretty much an open mic every single day of the week that you can attend.

And there's vibrant communities that are keeping the art alive, whether that be through workshops, whether that be through performance with bands, sometimes just acapella.

Even bringing it to the street.

So yeah, spoken word is just something that I think gives me this.

It enables me to kind of leverage perspective in a way where I can put my words even without music and see if they still hold up.

And so that's what I ultimately value about this work that I do.

'Cause at the end of the day, I'm just a writer.

And so I really appreciate all forms that I'm able to do that in.

So the thing that I think is incredible about the city of Atlanta when it comes to music, when it comes to poetry, when it comes to honestly any discipline of the arts, is that I have a good friend who always says this, George 2.0, who always says like, we'd be doing this even if you aren't watching.

And that's ultimately like what you see here in Atlanta is that no matter if venues come or go, or scenes shift and change.

There's always this kind of cauldron in which musicians and poets and artists are always kind of working, always kinda collaborating.

And I think even coming out of the pandemic, what you saw is kind of a restructuring and a reorganizing of that.

But it still persisted, it still continued.

And I think that will never ultimately change when it comes to Atlanta.

We're constantly going to be a place where you can come to and be inspired and ultimately be part of that kind of conduit in which you inspire someone else to continue.

I think about mentors who have become friends who inspired me along my way.

And I have little homies coming up who I do the same thing for in this way.

And so, yeah, I think the other piece that I think is really important is that there's not a lot of like segmentation as well.

Like you will see, it is nothing to go to a show and see a hip hop artist, a trap rapper with a rock band, with someone who, you know, is playing jazz or polka and spoken word.

Like it's all gonna be under the same house, under the same roof.

And I think that that's just speaks to the remarkable diversity of the city, the diversity of taste and the ability to kind of give license for people to live authentically themselves.

And so that's what I value the most about the city of Atlanta.

That's what we got.

So the name of this next tune we're gonna do is called Pockets.

And it's something we actually haven't released yet.

I think we need to work on that.

But yeah, it's a tune called Pockets.

It came out of a very interesting place.

One it's featuring really talented homie named Bubby who was singing the chorus.

But the idea of pockets really came out of a deep idea and then went to a lighter space.

But just, there's the musician idea of just staying in the pocket, right?

It's you finding your groove in life and essentially kind of rocking with that and keeping that move.

And I felt that the beat had its own kind of pocket to stick into.

I think the kind of deeper context of it all though is to say that like when Dr. King, when he was assassinated, it was found that he had in his suit coat, he had a sermon that he was looking to deliver called Why America's Going To Hell.

It was also said that when obviously when Trayvon Martin was killed, he was found with Skittles and iced tea and those were kind of the remnants that were left with him.

It even said that Basquiat had two tickets to see Run-D.M.C.

when he was found to overdose.

And I just think that it was kind of a fascinating idea around like what are we when we leave this earth, like what was left with us?

What were we carrying with us?

What we're kind of dreams and hopes and things that we wanted to see accomplished and maybe did not get accomplished?

And so that's kind of like the added layer to this idea of pockets like what am I carrying and what can I let go of?

And so yeah, this is actually sounds deep, but it's actually kind of lighthearted song.

So let's just get into the groove.

Let's do it.

(record scratching) (hip hop music) ♪ Whoa - Yeah.

Again, this is Pockets.

Bubby on the hook.

DJ OpDiggy on the track.

That time to get it.

♪ Yeah ♪ What you reachin' for, why you need to reach, yeah ♪ ♪ Could you please get the hell up off of me, yeah ♪ ♪ Keep your eyes on your own paper ♪ ♪ You'll be worried out of pocket ♪ ♪ Call 'em back, drama ♪ Aw, yeah - Yeah.

♪ I'm just tryna keep my feet ♪ This smoke don't need no heater ♪ - Yeah.

♪ Why you always in your pulpit ♪ ♪ Keep on tryna to preach here - Yeah.

♪ I'm just trying to keep my feet ♪ ♪ This smoke don't need no heater ♪ - Yeah.

♪ Always hangin' with the dogs ♪ You got all the feel ♪ You can feel the temple shift ♪ ♪ You can feel the highs and lows ♪ ♪ Even if the plot thickens ♪ Listen, it got giant holes ♪ Ride the road with its bumps ♪ I suppose we'll take the lumps ♪ ♪ Just because the teeth are gold ♪ ♪ Doesn't mean that it's a front ♪ ♪ Given what we know now, ATL to SoCal ♪ ♪ Texas food if that's the mood ♪ ♪ We can even slow it down ♪ Jammin' verse in chorus ♪ It's so hard you can't ignore us ♪ ♪ Got an invoice from the ancestors ♪ ♪ Saying to pay it forward ♪ Best believe my steps is ordered ♪ ♪ So whenever I feel cornered, I'm a performer ♪ ♪ The symbols get to crashing like Brandy Norwood ♪ ♪ Somewhere 'tween a quarter water ♪ ♪ Cognac and an angry orchard ♪ You want heat, I bring the scorcher ♪ ♪ Look I heard you want it warmer ♪ ♪ In the pocket like gold diggas or Malcolm X tickets ♪ ♪ Quarterbacks like Phil Rivers ♪ ♪ Or politicians, big business ♪ Listen all things work together ♪ ♪ Sunny or stormy weather ♪ No go along to get along, we boppin' like whatever, 'ey ♪ ♪ What you reachin' for, why you need to reach, yeah ♪ - [Adan] Yeah.

♪ Could you please get the hell up off of me, yeah ♪ - [Adan] Yeah.

♪ Keep your eyes on your own paper ♪ ♪ You'll be worried out of pocket ♪ ♪ Call 'em back, drama ♪ Aww, yeah ♪ I'm just tryna keep my feet ♪ This smoke don't need no heater ♪ - That's right.

♪ Why you always in your pulpit ♪ ♪ Keep on tryna preach here - That's right.

♪ I'm just keep my feet ♪ This smoke don't need no heater ♪ ♪ Always hangin' with the dogs ♪ You got all the feel ♪ You can feel the drum and bass ♪ ♪ You can feel the kick and snare ♪ ♪ Ask yourself if you like how ♪ Me and mine is living there ♪ We make sure we gettin' where ♪ ♪ Any place we got to go ♪ The pitching tone is optimal ♪ The group we use methodical ♪ The float so nautical, we maritime the paradigm ♪ ♪ Songs for the ride home, we goin' on the Black Star Line.

♪ ♪ You must be out half your mind ♪ ♪ Thinkin' I'ma stop a slouch ♪ My Gullah folks know it's dope ♪ ♪ The Geechees be like, here I'm out ♪ ♪ Irish lift they Guinness stouts ♪ ♪ I've been about them raw raps ♪ ♪ I'm making sure each song snaps ♪ ♪ In bell hooks, no cap ♪ Wing in a prayer, lemon pepper wet, all flat ♪ ♪ When breath becomes air ♪ There's a life still be on that ♪ ♪ In all black dressed in the skin God made me in ♪ ♪ Damn if I apologize for this rate against just take it in ♪ ♪ Maybe then you'll realize ♪ You and yours is just as fly ♪ When knife gets up, you can knuckle up and scream back ♪ ♪ So am I ♪ What you reachin' for, why you need to reach, yeah ♪ - Yeah.

♪ Could you please get the hell up off of me, yeah ♪ - [Adan] Yeah.

♪ Keep your eyes on your own paper ♪ ♪ You'll be worried out of pocket ♪ ♪ Call 'em back, drama - That's right.

♪ I'm just tryna keep my feet ♪ This smoke don't need no heater ♪ ♪ Why you always in your pulpit ♪ ♪ Keep on tryna preach here ♪ I'm just tryna keep my feet ♪ This smoke don't need no heater ♪ ♪ Always hangin' with the dogs ♪ You got all the feel ♪ Every man should try to learn before he dies ♪ ♪ What he's running from and to who and to why ♪ ♪ Every man should try to learn before he dies ♪ ♪ What he's running from and to who and to why ♪ ♪ I said every man should try to learn before he dies ♪ ♪ What he's running from and to who and to why ♪ ♪ Every man should try to learn before he dies ♪ ♪ What he's running from and to who ♪ ♪ Yeah (record scratches) - Again, my name is Adan Bean.

That is DJ OpDiggy on the ones and twos, on the production and on the saxophone.

This is Sounds Like ATL.

Thank you so much for having us.

(saxophone plays) ♪ We focus on creating the culture, not the credit ♪ ♪ It is embedded in the root ♪ Push you in, pull you out ♪ Your decision ♪ Come and get it ♪ Black widow, black widow ♪ So I'm countin' the days ♪ Walkin' on that water ♪ And it's wet just like Dasani ♪ ♪ First date, first base ♪ Why we in the club in the first place ♪ ♪ I was sitting ♪ Alone in my room ♪ Young Willie Beamen, it ain't no stoppin' this ♪ ♪ Shark in the water, I hustle harder ♪ ♪ You know the vibe ♪ West coast Africa and I know you wanna ride ♪ ♪ But I try to tell myself, it ain't all bad ♪ ♪ Try to tell myself that it ain't all bad ♪ ♪ It's not healthy never bein' alone, no ♪ ♪ It's not healthy that I'm staring at my phone ♪ ♪ If you want the peach, yeah ♪ If you want the nectar (melancholy cello music) ♪ Claimed my peace, I bet on self against the odds ♪ ♪ I want to stay in my lane ♪ I want to open up my eyes ♪ I don't need ♪ A silver screen ♪ To show me all those hopes and dreams ♪ (energetic harp music) (suspenseful music)