Photographer Page

Graham Dickie

Three young boys stand on a street in Jeanerette, Louisiana.

Baton Rouge barber and occasional rapper Devin Williams, known as "Cutz by Devin," trims hair in a spare room at his family's house, with the latest in Louisiana rap as a soundtrack. In Baton Rouge, local music pervades casual scenes like this one, often fuelling word-of-mouth discovery of the newest talents from the city.

Antwon Washington, known as "Tweezy Bandoe," records a song in the bedroom of a friend’s Baton Rouge apartment. The recording engineer had driven up from New Orleans earlier in the day, toting all his equipment in the trunk of his sedan: a pair of speakers, a laptop, a microphone, and headphones. In recent years, the availability of smaller and cheaper audio and video gear, plus easy access to distribution platforms such as YouTube, has made the rap music business more accessible for young artists, contributing to a grassroots creative boom in Louisiana that allows for spontaneous, improvised sessions like this one.

A young girl walks out of a room at home in South Baton Rouge.

Rapper Keon Wilson, known as "One Feezy," studies his lyric book inside his home studio, in "The Bottom," a South Baton Rouge neighbourhood. Wilson has been making music for decades but his career was paused after he was arrested in 2008 on charges he preferred not to discuss. Following his release from prison in 2020, he took on some new musical projects.

In this image, birds pass over Port Allen, Louisiana, home to many emerging rap artists. Many rappers photographed for this project spent significant time in jail or prison. "Seen in this light, the music is a kind of profound release within a profoundly flawed system, and Louisianans have very sensitive ears to honesty in music," says photographer Graham Dickie.

Keith Cage and Roxann Thomas-Jones stand in The South, a historic neighbourhood in Baton Rouge. Thomas-Jones was a dancer and rapper during Louisiana hip-hop's adolescence, performing onstage with other artists. "I liked to dance, it kept me in shape, it kept my mind occupied, it had me thinking about other things other than what kept me depressed," Thomas-Jones says, adding that rap music in Louisiana “comes from our lifestyles, what we've been through, how we grew up, our goals in life.”

Chaddley Johnson poses with his two children, Chad Love and Chasity. Johnson operates a studio out of his North Baton Rouge home.