Jermaine Dupri is clearing the air about what to expect from his upcoming Hulu documentary Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told.
The award-winning music producer sat with Tamron Hall on her self-named talk show and shared the premise of the upcoming documentary, which has been a trending topic since its announcement.
“I want to say this to all of those people out there. My vision of Freaknik is really a story about the South and Atlanta. It’s not really a story about what everybody keeps talking about,” he explained on Friday’s (April 28) episode.
“I don’t like that part because I feel like it’s a little disrespectful because I’m just telling a story of Atlanta, right? And how Atlanta was built into the place that it is today. People came to Atlanta through Freaknik and they stayed. I say that in ‘Welcome to Atlanta.’ … and that’s how Atlanta has become this multi-cultural place. Freaknik plays one of the biggest roles in that period.”
Although Dupri, 50, detailed the documentary as being more than a film highlighting the party activities of the annual picnic-turned-Black spring break festival, he added the inevitable fact that scandalous footage will be included.
“I can’t say that you won’t see freaking in this movie. It is called Freaknik. It is what it is,” he added. “Because it’s the 40th anniversary of Freaknik, it’s the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, and it’s the 30th anniversary of So So Def. So, it’s all tied in together.”
Since the documentary’s announcement, a group of prominent Black professional women have reportedly revealed their plan to sue Hulu in an attempt to block the release of the film. Some past attendees have also opened up on social media about their experience at the event and the possibility of their past coming to light. Others hope that the documentary will shed light on the festival’s undeniable history with sexual assault.
According to the streaming platform, Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told is scheduled to premiere in April 2024 and will revisit “the rise and fall of a small Atlanta HBCU picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted ATL as a major cultural stage.” Other executive producers behind the original project include Luther ‘Uncle Luke’ Campbell, Melissa Cooper for Mass Appeal, Eric Tomosunas for Swirl Films, and more.