Mississippi Native: Charlie Braxton

"I am the sum total of the community that raised and nurtured me. I draw so much strength and inspiration from them."

What does it mean to call Mississippi home? Why do people choose to leave or live in this weird, wonderful, and sometimes infuriating place? Charlie Braxton is a poet, playwright and cultural critic from McComb, Mississippi. He is best known for his groundbreaking work on Southern hip hop, chronicling the genre’s rise in the late 90s and early 2000s, and covering Southern artists like Master P, Pastor Troy, Cee-Lo Green, Juvenile, Young Buck, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Outkast, Killer Mike, and David Banner in national outlets. Charlie is the author of the poetry collections Cinders Rekindled and Embers Among the Ashes. His forthcoming book of poems is called And the Earth Cried Blood. “As a child,” Charlie writes, “I always dreamed of moving to New York or Paris like my idol Richard Wright.” His own children kept him rooted in Mississippi, and later, “it became important to me to be able to write from where I am.” Today Charlie shares how his home state has shaped who he is today.

Charlie Braxton lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

Where are you from?

I was born in McComb, Mississippi, and lived there until I was three. At the age of three, I moved to Jackson and lived there until I was seven, then moved back to McComb. I stayed there until I graduated high school.

How long have you lived in Mississippi?

I have lived in Mississippi all my life, although I have spent brief periods of time in other parts of the country. I don’t count that.

What does “home” mean to you? How does Mississippi fit into that definition?

To me, home is the place where I am the most comfortable. It’s my safe space, my sanctuary, the place where family and friends (the people who molded me) live.

Charlie’s forthcoming collection of poetry is titled And the Earth Cried Blood.

How have you cultivated community in Mississippi? Who are the people who have made you feel rooted here?

Like I’ve said before, I have lived in Mississippi all my life, so I don’t think about how I cultivated community. Because the community that I grew up in was so tight-knit, it just sort of happens organically. I think that a better question for me is, in what way did my community shape and cultivate me? I am the sum total of the community that raised and nurtured me. I draw so much strength and inspiration from them.

What’s the weirdest question or assumption you’ve encountered about Mississippi (or about you as a Mississippian) by someone who’s never been here?

Wow, there’s many….let me see. Oh, there was this one time when I met a girl from New York who was a friend of one of my friends. When I greeted her, she looked at me and said, “You can’t be from Mississippi. Where is your accent?” I was like, “What do you mean?” She replied that I didn’t sound like someone from Mississippi. When I asked her, how did she think I should sound, like some character on the Beverly Hillbillies or Hee Haw? She said kinda. When I asked had she ever been to Mississippi, she said no and had no intention of ever going. Upon hearing that, the only thing I could say was, you should.

Charlie Braxton with author Kiese Laymon.

How has living in Mississippi affected your identity and your life’s path?

That’s a good question. Certainly one that I have never really contemplated. Let me see if I can answer it this way. Like I’ve said before, I have lived in this state all of my life, so the state is a natural part of me. When you grow up with such a rich legacy, like the one my family gave me, you sort of take it for granted. You don’t realize how you’ve been blessed. I have also had the opportunity to travel around the country and see how so many people up North or out West don’t have the same values as you do. Ironically, the more I traveled outside of the state, the more I realized how much of a Mississippian I am.

What is something that you’ve learned about Mississippi only by living here? In what ways has Mississippi lived up to your expectations?

How slow we are to change. We Mississippians can be stubborn as hell when it comes to accepting new ideas. Mississippi is the poorest state in the union. Yet it is rich in natural resources, and it is rich in human resources. Yet, there is a segment of the state’s elites who want to maintain the status quo. They want to keep the state as it is. They don’t want to see new blood come in implementing new ideas that could grow the state. That is one of the things that I think is holding us back economically. It is also one of the main reasons why so many young people get their college education here and leave Mississippi. We can’t afford this kind of brain drain.

Charlie's two previous collections of poetry: CINDERS REKINDLED and EMBERS AMONG THE ASHES: POEMS IN A HAIKU MANNER.

Do you ever consider moving away someday? Does a sense of duty keep you rooted here? Do you have a “tipping point”?

As a child, I always dreamed of moving to New York or Paris like my idol Richard Wright. Back then, I thought that the only way a Mississippi writer could make it was to move to a bigger city. What kept me here were my kids. I wanted to be no more than a phone call away from them if they needed me. Plus as I grew up, it became important to me to be able to write from where I am. I wanted to be the inspiration that I didn’t have coming up.

What do you wish the rest of the country understood about Mississippi?

I wish people understood that Mississippi is the motherlode of American pop culture. There is literally no form of American popular music that cannot trace its ultimate origin back to this state. This is the birthplace of the blues, which is the root of all American popular music. Some of the greatest musicians in the world were born here. The same can be said for literature. Mississippi has produced more great writers per capita than any other state in the country. Yet we’re considered the uncouth, uneducated country bumpkins. Go figure!

Charlie with his cousin and Civil Rights Movement veteran Hollis Watkins.

Do you have a favorite Mississippi writer, artist, or musician who you think everyone needs to know about?

I really wish that more people knew about the works of some of the writers whom I consider Mississippi masters. Writers like Jerry Ward, Virgie Brock-Shed, Sterling Plumpp, Al Young, Etheridge Knight, John Otis-Williams, David Brian Williams, and Angela Jackson. Right now, I am really proud of some of the younger Mississippi writers like Kiese Laymon, Angie Thomas, and Jesmyn Ward for achieving national accolades for their works.

If you had one billion dollars to invest in Mississippi, how would you spend your money?

That’s easy, educations and the arts.

What or who do you want to shamelessly promote? (It can absolutely be a project you’re working on, or something you are involved in.)

I have a book of poems coming out in a month or so called And the Earth Cried Blood. Plus my books Cinders Rekindled and Embers Among the Ashes are currently available.

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Charlie R. Braxton is a noted poet, playwright and cultural critics from Mississippi, the land where the blues begin. He is also one of the leading hip hop journalists of the 1990s. Charlie has written extensively about East Coast, West Coast and Mid-West hip hop, including cover stories on Biggie Smalls, Too $hort, Tupac Shakur, Westside Connection and The Fugees. He is best known for his groundbreaking work on Southern hip hop, chronicling the genre’s rise in the late 90s and early 2000s. During this period Braxton writings played a key role in covering Southern artists like Master P, Pastor Troy, Cee-Lo Green, Juvenile, Young Buck, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Outkast, Killer Mike, David Banner and countless others on a national level. As a cultural critic, Braxton has appeared in a number of documentaries and talk shows that examine the state of hip hop culture and Black music in general, some of the most notable are the documentaries, The Dirty States of America which aired on MTV and Electric Purgatory: the Plight of the Black Rocker that aired on the Ovation Network. He has also appeared on the docu-series The Evolution of Hip Hop that aired on Netflix and The No Limit Chronicles which aired on BET. He has also appeared as a commentator on CNN, BBC’s Radio One and NPR’s Louder Than A Riot Podcast. In 2012, Braxton co-authored the book, Gangsta Gumbo (Camion Blanc Press, 2012), a history of Southern Hip hop with French writer, Jean-Pierre Labarthe. The book was published in France. In addition, Braxton has written book reviews for The Washington Post, The L.A. Review of Books, Art Today St. Louis, Valley Voices Literary Journal, The Hattiesburg American and The Clarion Ledger. By connecting Southern hip hop to the broader history of Southern music, Braxton played a key role in helping the world to understand the beauty of the modern-day Southern culture. He has lectured and taught about hip hop and/or African American culture at Millsaps College, Estrella Mountain Community College, University of North Alabama, and Jackson State University.