Freaknik's sociocultural legacy in the Black community in the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s was something you just had to be there for. Still, the legendary Atlanta street party's legacy, cemented by spring breaks at historically Black colleges and universities, will live on forever. Moreover, a new Hulu documentary on the event titled Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told will hit your screens on March 21. Directed by P. Frank Williams, it will debut at SXSW soon, and features a star-studded cast of firsthand voices. These include rappers Killer Mike and 21 Savage, as well as entertainment industry moguls, Freaknik founders, historians, and much more.
In fact, other celebrities featured as talking heads include Rasheeda, Erick Sermon of EPMD, Jermaine Dupri, Cee Lo Green, Lil Jon... the list goes on. Uncle Luke, real name Luther Campbell, also appears, and he executive produced this Freaknik documentary alongside 21 Savage and Dupri. Actually, folks may remember that, not too long ago, Savage actually celebrated his birthday by replicating the historic gathering. As such, we've had plenty of subtle and overt examples of how this influence reached the next generation of Black youth.
Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told Documentary Trailer: Watch
"At its heart, Freaknik is a music documentary," P. Frank Williams shared with Variety. "Luke is the soundtrack of Freaknik, [Dupri’s] So So Def label is directly correlated to Freaknik and 21 Savage is the new school. They’re fascinated with the wild stuff we did, the clothes and the music of that era. The legacy of Freaknik really started in ‘83, I don’t know if people realized that. It was about kids trying to find a place for Black joy. Freaknik wasn’t just about the party. Our goal was to show how it affected politics, culture, race, there was a lot with sexuality, gender.
"The turn up, the cars, sexuality, joy, the daisy dukes... that’s the candy of it," he continued. "But there’s also some vegetables in it, which is the Black empowerment. Police brutality was part of it, Black cultural realization, young women realizing their sexuality, young men too. Freaknik is really a coming of age story about a generation who was trying to find a voice in a world that didn’t accept them. But this is a place they created for themselves. Freaknik is the ultimate personification of that." For more news and the latest updates on this doc and its featured MCs, come back to HNHH.