9th Wonder at RiverRun

Hip-hop producer 9th Wonder was headed to Dewey’s Bakery this evening during a visit back to his hometown of Winston-Salem. 9th Wonder AKA Patrick Douthit was in town for a screening of the rough cut of The Wonder Year, a documentary made by Kenneth Price, at UNC School of the Arts’ Main Theatre as part of RiverRun International Film Festival.

Douthitt, who has produced tracks for the likes of Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige and Drake, makes his home in Wake Forest, owns a studio in Raleigh and teaches beat-making at Duke University in Durham. He talks in the film about wanting to return to Winston-Salem when he gets to be in his forties and said he has discussed with his mother the possibility of one day working for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

After the screening, RiverRun Executive Director Andrew Rodgers asked Douthitt why he still chooses to make his home in North Carolina.

Douthitt responded that he can focus on his work and home life in North Carolina, in a way that isn’t possible in a place like New York or Los Angeles where there is a lot of diversion and distraction. And real estate is more affordable in North Carolina.

“I can leave all of that and come home,” he said. “And have peace and quiet. I can still walk around Wal-Marts and nobody know me. Normalcy. Dixie Classic Fair comes around this time of year. I know what to expect.”

An audience member asked how Douthitt balanced work and family life.

“Sometimes I come home at 4; I’m up at 9,” he said. “I can do that for weeks.”

Douthitt said he feels that he receives more respect from Duke University than NC Central University, where he taught previously. He said that he finds generally that historically black colleges and universities are ambivalent about hip hop, similarly to how respectable blacks tried to distance themselves from jazz in previous eras.

“The media has done a great job — and we’re talking about black people — of separating the generations,” he said, adding that he could see that if he was an administrator watching Waka Flocka Flame on BET, “I don’t want that.”

Yet Douthitt is confident hip hop will get its due.

“In the 1600s they thought Shakespeare was vulgar,” he said. “Biggie’s a time capsule of his time…. Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z — they’re all poets, if you think about it.”

One audience member asked Price if he ran into any challenges as a white filmmaker tackling the subject of hip hop.

Douthitt volunteered an answer instead.

“The crazy thing about hip hop is hip hop is one of those things that joins us,” he said.

He pointed at Price.

“A lot of my fans look like this. Period.”