In a place with a history and a multicultural identity as deep and as complex as Oklahoma, it’s easy to see the vital intersections of art, outreach, and community activism and how they all work together to support the scene.
But it’s tough to think of anyone in Oklahoma that embodies all of those elements at once more than writer, educator, restaurateur, non-profit leader, and indisputable hip hop heavyweight, Jabee Williams, the OKC-based rapper whose music has helped to lift up the city’s Eastside and whose outreach work and open-book personality have made him a community force across Oklahoma City.
But even after seeing national success with his music, organizing major city festivals, becoming a fixture at public events and at Thunder games, and even being hailed as a world-changer by the legendary Chuck D, Jabee says that his main objective is still just to show up for OKC.
Jabee: I feel like I made it a point to make it part of my identity, you know, especially doing hip hop music, you know. But also, I understand, just from being here, I've learned a lot about Oklahoma City, and I've made it a point to know as much as I can and continue to learn.
And through that, you know, educating myself, I've learned how rich the Black history is here. And so for me to be in whatever position I'm in, or whatever position people see me in, you know, it's important that I honor those people who came before me.
Brett Fieldcamp: For Jabee, music, history, and activism all go hand-in-hand.
Born and raised on the Eastside, his family has deep roots in Oklahoma. His grandmother was herself an activist and a close friend to Civil Rights giant Clara Luper, and she helped to teach young Jabee about the struggles of Black History as well as the heritage and the healing power of music through spirituals and hymns on piano.
But it was his parents that taught him about the power and the possibility of rap.
Jabee: My first introduction to anything music was rap, you know what I'm saying, was hip hop. I don't know a life without it. We always had rap in our house. It was always hip hop being played in our house.
So, like, rapping was kind of just a catalyst for everything else. I think because I rap about the things that I care about, a lot of that is community. You see things and you see injustice or you see need. You can use your platform as a rapper to help, you know what I mean?
Brett Fieldcamp: Using that hip hop platform as a jumping off point, Jabee has leveraged his community force to organize one of the nation’s largest annual Juneteenth celebrations, to address hunger and food scarcity through his restaurants Scrambl’d and the former Eastside Pizza House, and even to co-found and direct LiveFree OKC, a non-profit outreach aimed at halting gun violence, an issue that tragically hits home for Jabee.
Jabee: You know, I know there's a need to reduce gun violence, because I've been around. My brother was shot and killed, you know. I've had so many homies shot and killed. I've been in houses that were shot at, you know what I’m saying?
And so, like, people always wonder why I be so, you know, passionate or crazy about this stuff. Because it's a part of who I am, you know what I mean?
Brett Fieldcamp: Part of that work is encouraging young artists to develop that same kind of platform through hip-hop with his class at the Academy of Contemporary Music and even free rap workshops for young children like the one he’ll be presenting at OKC’s Downtown Library on the morning of February 22nd, where he’ll be showing kids the excitement – and the cultural importance – of rap music, teaching them how to express themselves and to address the world around them in the same way that he has.
Jabee: It’s really just helping them with just, like, the basic fundamentals of history, like a brief history on hip hop, you know, freestyling, writing, you know, breaking down bars, rhyming words and stuff like that.
Brett Fieldcamp: But even teaching the next generation of rappers, running restaurants, planning this year’s Juneteenth on the East festival, and promoting his newest record “The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak,” Jabee says it’s still hard to think of himself as one of the city’s driving cultural forces.
Jabee: Nah, I feel like I'm regular, you know. But, you know, when you on the inside looking out, you never really know.
And I just try to, like, be a part of it. I mean, Oklahoma City is, you know, a big part of who I am, no matter where I am.
I tell people all the time, like, Oklahoma City is the greatest place on earth to me.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can next catch Jabee on stage at OKC’s Blue Note Lounge on February 22nd and headlining this year’s Norman Music Festival on April 26th.
For more, follow @mynameisjabee on Instagram.
* Song selection is Jabee's “Enough”
