In announcing the album, Motown Records chairman/CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam said, “Fire in Little Africa is a powerful and timely project that provides a platform and outlet for the incredibly talented and thriving music community of Tulsa. Carrying the legacy of the Black Wall Street community, Fire in Little Africa is a body of work filled with purpose and prolific storytelling. I am honored and privileged to have Motown/Black Forum partner with Stevie ‘Dr. View’ Johnson, the Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center to release this impactful hip-hop album.”
Johnson, PhD and manager, Education & Diversity Outreach at the Woody Guthrie Center/Bob Dylan Center and the album’s executive producer, commented, “Fire in Little Africa has evolved into a communal hip-hop movement. We’re excited that we get to share the flavor, history and legacy of Black Wall Street with the world in collaboration with the amazing leadership of the Motown/Black Forum family. There are Black Wall Streets across the diaspora and we unequivocally know that Fire in Little Africa will inspire many people. In the words of Steph Simon, ‘everything is us.'”
The album was recorded over a five-day period in March 2020 in studios set up at the Greenwood Cultural Center as well as other sites, including the former home of KKK leader and massacre organizer Tate Brady. The home, now an event venue called the Skyline Mansion, is owned by former NFL first-round draft pick and Tulsa native Felix Jones. The making of the album will also be the focus of a documentary film due later this year. And two podcasts, featuring artists, community leaders and other guests, are available: Fireside with Dr. View HERE and Fire in Little Africa, hosted by Ali Shaw and Doc Free HERE.
Open since 2013, the Woody Guthrie Center is based in the Tulsa Arts District. The Bob Dylan Center, housed on the same block, is slated to open within the next year. Both establishments are part of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the primary funder for Fire in Little Africa.
Fire in Little Africa also marks the first new material issued through Motown’s relaunched Black Forum label. Initially bowing in 1970 with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam, Black Forum returned in February with a reissue of King’s Grammy-winning speech. Last month, Black Forum/Motown re-released activist-writer-singer and former Black Panther Party chairwoman Elaine Brown’s 1973 album Elaine Brown/Until We’re Free.
