Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told (2024)

Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told

Alright Hulu, I have some questions for you guys and the people who made this documentary. Why wasn’t this broken up into three or four parts? I was going to do a “Deep Dive,” but the more I thought about it the more I had to say about how the documentary progressed, the people in it, and what I didn’t see. So, here’s a review.

First things first, this event was originally called Freaknic. I love that they started with reuniting the founders of Freaknic. They tell us where they got the name from and why we even have this as part of Atlanta in the 90’s history and nostalgia. Hulu and doc people, we did not get enough time with these founders. I wasn’t introduced to them properly. The only reason I know what schools they went to is because of their supers- one founder had on a Spelman sweater and that they came from the DMV area because they were affiliated with DC Metro club at AU. Not only did i want an actual origin story (which would’ve been a whole hour out of three) but two random things.

First of all, ATLANTA THE DMV IS WHY YOU HAVE A FREAKNIC PUT SOME RESPECT ON THAT!!! Second thing is that Jermaine Dupri said Georgia has four HBCU’s in an interview i watched. He incorrected himself by saying “well there are four very close.” No sir Alabama has like 8 North Carolina like 10 Georgia has way less than both so yeah If you wanna celebrate Freaknic right spend a little more time with them cause that answer is not sufficient! Where did they come from? What brought them to Atlanta? How’d all five or six of them come together? Those were my questions when watching this documentary and i think they just didn’t have time to go over it because it wasn’t broken up into parts

If this was broken up into parts, the next section I would have liked to see is the rise of Freaknic which would lead us into the 90’s. This is where we talk about sexual freedom as a theme, how Atlanta was introduced to the world through this event and how it grew beyond college students. This was the bulk of the current doc. During this section we had ONE woman, Rasheeda (hey girl!), talking about the sexual freedom of women at this time. Every other person who talked about the women at this event were men and that bothered me. I don’t want to hear what you saw these women do and tell me how you thought they felt because you are not a woman and I need more than just Rasheeda to tell me about that. Also, I noticed that in the 90’s spelling of Freaknic changed from Freaknic (in the 80’s) to Freaknik (in the 90’s). Why? It’s a small thing but it’s a big thing especially because you’ve explained the origin of the name of this event.

Moving on to when this becomes what it’s known for now and back to Jermaine Dupri, he said he had to have Luke be apart of this doc and Luke had to have JD agree in order for him to support it. Based off what I saw we didn’t even need them. For Luke and JD to be so instrumental in southern culture and music we got a snippet of both but I want an origin story. Luke just kind of popped in like “It was called Freaknik and I was freaky so I came.” There was a snippet BIG and Craig Mack on stage at Freaknik, some archival footage shows a man telling a woman through her car window that Luke is performing somewhere near Piedmont Park what no one told me in this doc is where did they get that stage from?? We went from a picnic gathering amongst southern college kids to basically a festival. Who provided this stage with a working microphone? NO ONE TOLD ME. That bothered me.

We mentioned music and the strip club in Atlanta, both of which we spent 2.5 seconds on each. Southern hip hop and Magic City are so integral to Atlanta culture and we did not explore that as long as they should have. Another reason why this should have been a series. I know JD said they will do a Magic City documentary but this would’ve been a nice catalyst to that documentary when it comes out. It seemed like the strip club was the place to be in the 90’s because it was strip club; that’s all I got from it and I had questions…

The last part of my fake Freaknik documentary would obviously be the downfall and end of it. I’m just gon’ say this shit, Freaknik got shut down because of the Olympics in Atlanta. That’s it. And I’m also gon’ say this shit didn’t have much to do with a bunch of Black people like they tryna make it seem or whatever. Here go the proof right here. They let this event run the city for all these years UNTIL the WORLD was coming to Atlanta. My thing is Atlanta was more concerned about how they looked outside them damn near then in they own house if that make sense to you. Do what you want while nobody watching but now that we got everybody coming over here we gotta clean this shit up man that’s what I got from it.

I also wanted one or two more stories from somebody who had gotten assaulted or knew somebody who did at Freaknik. This part made me happy cause when I was watching it I was like “if they don’t show us when they was really getting buck wild out there then another documentary gonna come out.” Did they do good showing us? No no they did not but they touched on it in an aiight way though.

I ain’t like how everybody was downing the man that bought the name, relaunched the event, and made it a festival again tho’. Then took an event that ended in chaos and destruction and made it a festival centered around music and having fun but health care, finance, environment etc too? He done took something small picnic amongst blacks was gone be fun AND educational by damn it! We know ain’t never gone be another freaknik like ‘95 but this is new age baby boy we couldn’t even do 95% of what we did back then now so leave bruh alone! In this imaginary part right here where you supposed to bring back founders and ask em bout what young man doing for the event THEY STARTED legacy. This wasn’t a JD and Luke event, JD didn’t even start coming to Freaknik until like ‘94 he ain’t got no ownership over that shit or Atlanta as a whole. I understand that’s how he talking but nope my nigga love JD tho’ widdit.

Just a few thoughts I had on the documentary we all was waiting on. I wanted more and for the format it’s in I didn’t get all that I was suppose to but if they do the Magic City doc (cough cough Hulu) then do it in sections. Take us through there. Answer ALL our questions. Have a gang of people tellin bout they time there and shit you know what I’m sayin’. On another note tho’, Jalen Rose coming to Freaknik is not one of them parts of this story where you supposed to put a spotlight on somebody dawg like what? That part right here had me baffled man…I’d rather hear about Luke journey to freaknik or founders journey through the 90’s with it as it grew.

Watch Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told For Free On Gomovies.