Southern Miss Alum Carlton Wade to present at Sept. 25 Honors Forum

University of Southern Mississippi alumnus and Hattiesburg native Carlton Wade, a hip-hop journalist who has written for XXL and The Source, will be the featured presenter at the next Honors Forum, set for Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m. in Stout Hall on the Hattiesburg campus. Admission is free.

While a student at Southern Miss in the late 1990s, Wade honed his journalism skills as a writer and copy editor at the school newspaper, The Student Printz. After graduation he went to work for the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Miss. while also freelancing for several major publications, producing outstanding features on major rap and hip-hop music artists.

He became the first and only Southern correspondent for The Source, one of the country's best known rap magazines, for which he wrote an important piece on the New Orleans-based rap subgenre known as “bounce” music. He has also been a contributing writer for Yahoo.com, Sister2Sister.com, Launch.com, BET.com and music mogul Russell Simmons' now defunct OneWorld.com.

Wade has also interviewed and done cover stories on such well-known rap artists as Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, U.G.K., Lil' Jon, and T.I. Over the years Carlton has prided himself on chronicling the early careers of artists from Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans and elsewhere in the South who later rose to national and international prominence. He was among the first to write about Lil' Jon, for example, as well as Chamillionaire and Paul Wall.

Recently he teamed up with music entrepreneur Jack Frost to produce the first documentary on the history and evolution of Southern Hip Hop, titled The Takeover: What You Really Know About the Dirty South.

Honors College Dean David Davies, one of Wade's journalism professors at Southern Miss, says he's looking forward to having his former student back on campus to speak about his career.

“He was one of the best writers I ever had in class, and I've been thrilled over the years to watch him rise through the ranks to become one of the country's best-known writers on the subject of Southern hip-hop culture and rap music,” Davies said

For more information about this event, contact the Southern Miss Honors College at 601.266.4533.