Jabee will be one of the first rappers to perform at OKC’s Opening Night
On the last day of 2016, Jabee Williams will mark a first.
Not only will the Heartland Emmy Award winner make his debut at downtown Oklahoma City’s Opening Night, but the respected hiphop recording artist also will wrap up 2016 by becoming one of the first rappers to perform at the long-running New Year’s Eve celebration.
“Being the first rapper at anything is always exciting to me, especially in Oklahoma because I get to kind of put my own stamp on it in a sense. It’s an accomplishment, not just for me but just for hip hop … in Oklahoma,” Jabee said by phone from a recent tour stop in Houston. “It kind of shows that our hiphop scene is growing and expanding — and people are noticing it and noticing that hip hop definitely has value here.”
Jabee will anchor the first stage in Opening Night’s 31-year history solely devoted to hip hop.
Spread across seven stages at five venues in downtown, Opening Night 2017 will showcase a variety of Oklahoma musical talents, including red dirt singer-songwriters Ali Harter and Susan Herndon, Motown cover band Moetowne Alex and the Nightview Band and Latin pop outfit Orquesta d’Calle, as well as the uproarious improvisations of OKC Improv, the comedic magic of Michael King and the playful shenanigans of the Bricktown Clowns.
The alcohol-free, family-friendly festivities begin at 7 p.m. Saturday and continue through midnight, when the raising of the giant lighted ball at Bicentennial Park and the glittering of fireworks will mark the start of 2017.
“It’s a chance to showcase some of the best that Oklahoma City has to offer in terms of artists and performers and musicians, all in one night in a really great, celebratory capacity. You can’t get better than that,” said Lindsey Pendleton, communications director for the Arts Council Oklahoma City, which organizes Opening Night.
“Ultimately, it’s celebrating the end of one year and the start of a new year, and he (Jabee) has had such a fabulous year. … So, it’s just really exciting to be a part of that rise for him.”
Celebrating with hip hop
Although Opening Night has occasionally incorporated urban music — an “Afro-American Cultural Review” at Opening Night 1991 was planned to bring beats and rhymes to Park Avenue — Arts Council OKC Executive Director Peter Dolese said hip hop has not been featured at the New Year’s Eve event in recent memory, and never to the extent it will be showcased this time.
“We’ve never actually had a group of performers who are all hip-hop performers and a stage dedicated to hip hop. We’ve just never had that before, and I’m glad we’re doing it. … And it’s time that we did. It’s timely, it’s wise, and there’s an audience for it,” he said. “Now, we actually have a local scene of performers of a quality that warrants representation.”
Along with Jabee, L.T.Z., Sativa Prophets and Yung Tray will perform on the rap stage in the upper lobby of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
“Having rap for the first time is an opportunity to reach out to a whole new group of people in Oklahoma City, a younger demographic, and really just expand what community means and how to reach out,” Pendleton said.
Opening Night Director Katelyn Carter said Jabee is a perfect pick to bring rap to the event since he is such a community-minded Oklahoma City native and resident.
“A lot of his music talks about being from Oklahoma City. He’s very involved in trying to kind of grow the rap and hip-hop community here in Oklahoma City. So, I think somebody who’s so inclusive and so willing to really brag about Oklahoma City is just a great addition to Opening Night,” she said.
Wrapping up a big year
Thousands of people are expected to ring in the New Year at Opening Night.
The Arts Council OKC estimated that as many as 75,000 people attended the 2013 event, one of the biggest on record.
“It’s definitely huge for me and huge for my friends. To be a part of something as big as what they’re doing, what they’ve always done, I’m honored,” Jabee said.
“They’ve always made sure to include me in whatever they could … where they think I would fit and they think that it would be good. And not even just that, but like putting me in places where they’re like, ‘We’ve never had hip hop before, let’s try it out. And let’s try it out with Jabee.’ I just appreciate them doing that.”
After playing many club dates in support of his new album, “In the Black Future, There’s a Place So Dangerously Absurd” — also known as simply “Black Future” — he said he is looking forward to performing a more family-friendly set with added freestyle and crowd-participation elements. He plans to bring his 2- and 4-year-old daughters with him to Opening Night.
“Hip hop is a big part of pop culture. … It still has a bad rap in some circles, and I don’t think by any means, especially in Oklahoma, that it’s even to the point to where it’s respected across the board yet. I think it’s because of those stigmas. You can still ask somebody, ‘What do you think about hip hop?’ and they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s violent. It’s this, it’s that,’ and they’ve never even heard one rap song. They’re just going off what they’ve heard about it,” Jabee said.
“I think that people are finally seeing that hip hop is fun. It’s a culture not just for young people or not just for black people. … It’s for everybody. I think that Oklahoma City and all these different groups and organizations are kind of like seeing it, too, that it has value. You can have a rapper, you can have a hip-hop show, and it be fun and it be for the family.”
He said he recorded “Black Future” hoping to take it to a wide audience, including middle and high school students. His third full-length release includes collaborations with Chuck D. and Brother Ali, as well as several Oklahoma artists, including Allie Lauren, Meant2B, and Sardashhh. A poem by OKC writer Najah-Amatullah Hylton provides the album with its title and thematic thread.
“The message was simply kind of a manin-the-mirror message. You know, look at yourself. Assess yourself,” he said. “On top of that, I wanted to just motivate people that we all want a future. We all want a bright future. We all want a tomorrow … and the only way to get it is to help people, love people and take care of people — each other. We all want the same things in life. Nobody wakes up in the morning and goes, ‘How can I mess my life up?’ You know what I’m saying? Nobody wakes up in the morning and goes, ‘How can I end up in jail today?’ We all wake up in the morning and we want something better for ourselves and for our families and for our kids and for our future.”
Jabee’s stellar 2016 included strong reviews for “Black Future,” a show in Bricktown’s new venue The Criterion and a headlining gig at the Plaza District Festival, so his future looks bright.
“Since 2016 started, everything’s just been kind of going and going and going. It’s been fun. I’ve had all these great things happen. I released the album, and I really can’t even think of one bad thing I’ve heard about it, which is good,” he said. “I think just to be able to end the year doing Opening Night, being the first rapper doing Opening Night, it’s just another thing that I can add to the list of awesome things happening in 2016 for me.”