Red-Carpet Premiere of Let the World Listen Right:
Freestyle Hip-Hop in the Mississippi Delta

What: Red-carpet world premiere of Let the World Listen Right: a film about the life of Jerome "TopNotch the Villain" Williams, a hip-hop artist in the Mississippi Delta

When: Sunday, January 7th. Half-hour documentary begins at 7 p.m., with an artist meet and greet at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The historic Clarksdale Cinema, 11 3rd Street (at Sunflower),
Clarksdale, Mississippi 38614

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Please join University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate student filmmakers Brian Graves and Ali Colleen Neff, Mississippi Delta hip-hop artist Jerome "Top Notch the Villain," and a group of Mississippi Delta singers, guitarists and rappers to celebrate the release of Let the World Listen Right, a half-hour documentary celebrating the work of young inheritors of the Delta blues legacy. Let the World Listen Right traces the daily life of Mississippi Delta rapper Jerome "Top Notch the Villain" Williams and his group Da FAM (For All Mississippi) as they struggle with hardship, solidify friendship and express community values through improvised rhyme, song and celebration.

Drawing from the deep well of documentary film on the Delta blues by ethnographers Bill Ferris, Alan Lomax and others, University of North Carolina student filmmakers Ali Colleen Neff and Brian Graves sought to document contemporary practitioners of Delta musical traditions. Neff, a UNC Folklore M.A. student who has been working with hip-hop, blues and gospel artists in the Delta since 2004, invited Jerome Williams (A.K.A. Top Notch the Villian), a Mississippi hip-hop artist, to collaborate on the half-hour piece, which follows Top Notch through the Delta's cultural landscape. Filmed over the course of a summer in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Let the World Listen Right provides insight into the rich musical interactions of the Mississippi Delta while documenting the dreams and struggles of young people in the region today. The piece is tied together with hip-hop performances by Top Notch and Da Fam as well as performances by blues artist Terry "Big T" Williams and gospel singer Martha Raybon.

The red-carpet film premiere, a first for Clarksdale, will take place at the historic Delta Cinema at 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 7th. A meet-and-greet with the artists will take place in the cinema at 6:30 p.m. Semi-formal attire is encouraged, and donations for the hip-hop artists featured in the film will be accepted.

For more information, contact Ali Colleen Neff at (919) 259-1591 or alineff@email.unc.edu

Let the World Listen Right is an excellent film reflecting a contemporary freestyle hip-hop artist drawing from the traditional Delta blues. In the lives of TopNotch the Villain, Da FAM, and the blues and gospel singers in the film, we see a compelling portrait of contemporary music in the Mississippi Delta.
--William R. Ferris; Folklorist, filmmaker, author and Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also the advisor to the film