Back When It Was Rap Initiative

The campaign will bring Back When It Was Rap to life as a unified, multi-platform preservation of Southern hip-hop’s roots—centered on DJ NABS and the broader community he helped shape. This moment is time-sensitive: a foundational chapter of Atlanta’s radio, nightlife, and touring culture remains largely undocumented, even as authentic artifacts and first-person stories are still available to secure and share.

The initiative will deliver a connected set of public-facing experiences that do not yet exist as a cohesive whole: a documentary film, a digital exhibition tracking hip-hop’s Southern roots, a podcast series, a traveling immersive experience featuring genuine artifacts with a live DJ booth, and a commemorative book (with the project budget also supporting a pair of books). Funds will also cover project management, compliance, administration, and promotion to reach audiences.

Major donors will help complete specific components within the overall $295,000 campaign and will be recognized through meaningful alignment across the initiative’s public platforms and community reach.

This campaign matters now because a foundational chapter of Southern hip-hop history is at risk of remaining undocumented at the moment it can still be captured with authenticity and depth. DJ NABS has spent over four decades shaping Atlanta’s radio, nightlife, and touring culture—mentoring artists and helping propel hip-hop from regional roots to global influence—yet much of that legacy has been “quietly” carried rather than formally preserved.

The opportunity is immediate: the archive exists and the stories are waiting. Delaying means losing momentum to secure, organize, and share genuine artifacts and first-person history in a cohesive, multi-platform body of work that ensures Southern hip-hop’s cultural revolution endures.

If this campaign succeeds, Blue Ridge Collaborative will bring to life Back When It Was Rap as a multi-platform initiative that preserves and elevates Southern hip-hop’s roots through the lens of DJ NABS and the broader community he helped shape.

The campaign will unlock a connected set of public-facing experiences that do not exist today as a unified whole: a documentary film, a digital exhibition tracking hip-hop’s Southern roots, a podcast series, a traveling immersive experience featuring genuine artifacts with a live DJ booth, and a commemorative book celebrating thirty years of culture, craft, and community. Together, these projects will make Southern hip-hop history accessible, engaging, and enduring for audiences across formats and places.

The campaign will deliver a defined slate of creative outputs: a documentary film; a digital exhibition tracking hip-hop’s Southern roots; a podcast series; a traveling immersive experience featuring genuine artifacts with a live DJ booth; and a commemorative book (with the project budget also supporting a pair of books). Funds will also support administrative, compliance, and project management needs, plus promotion to reach audiences.

Blue Ridge Collaborative will track and report progress by production milestones and completion of each deliverable—documentary production, publication of the book(s), release of podcast episodes, launch of the digital exhibition, and readiness of the traveling immersive experience—along with campaign spending aligned to the stated budget categories (production, administration/compliance/project management, and promotion).

Major-donor partnership will be structured around the campaign’s overall goal of $295,000 and the tangible components a donor can help bring to completion—production of the documentary film, books, podcast, digital exhibition, and the traveling immersive experience, alongside the administrative/project management and promotional work required to deliver them.

Recognition and relationship-building will center on meaningful alignment with the initiative’s public-facing platforms and community reach. Blue Ridge Collaborative will work with major donors to connect their support to specific elements of the multi-platform initiative and to steward an ongoing relationship grounded in preserving and sharing Southern hip-hop history through arts, culture, and education.