Where You From: Rural Rap

In Livingston, Montana—which has a population of 7,279 and is
almost all white, with nearly 40 percent of those whites living below
the poverty line (according to this documentary)—there is an
amazing rapper. His street name is Tommy 2 Tone. His life has not been
easy, he smokes Marlboros like a fiend, he has tattoos all over his
left arm, he is bald like a skinhead. Tommy 2 Tone has done some time,
has four kids, is dealing with meth, and is fully dedicated to this
formula: “My joy, my pain, my life/My beats, my words, my mic”
(D.Black, “Let It Go”). More incredible yet, despite the isolation of
his town and having had little to no interactions with black Americans,
Tommy 2 Tone is a solid rapper. He is not only good, he puts his whole
heart into it. This is not about a young man going through a phase in
his life; this is about a huge personal investment in an art.

Tommy 2 Tone is one of three rappers featured in the documentary
Where You From. What the rappers have in common is they are
white and come from rural parts of Northwest America—admittedly,
one of the rappers, Chris, is half white and half Filipino. The
documentary, which is directed by Sabrina Lee and photographed by
Matthew Buzzell, has a distinct aesthetic or mood (somber snow, rural
dusks, isolated farms); and the featured rappers (who are interviewed
in living rooms, bars, roads) are committed to giving a realistic
account of this slow and lonely world that is far from city
life—Bozeman, Montana, is 700 miles from a major city.

The importance of this documentary, which is a part of Northwest
Film Forum’s Local Sightings festival, is that it shows the real impact
of the internet on geographic space. The rural rappers and producers
are not just making shit up; they know how to rap, scratch, and program
fresh beats (one producer has a hardcore studio in the basement of what
looks like a farmhouse). With the internet, you can keep up with the
rest of the world wherever you are.