HBCU Homecoming

Megan Thee Stallion Is An HBCU Icon

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In July 2019, the phrase “hot girl summer” went viral on social media, spawning tons of memes, tweets, and posts, all thanks to the song by the same name, written by Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion (born Megan Pete). Writing a hit track is hard enough — but writing a track that acts as a permanent pop culture reference point while also shouting out your respect for higher learning (i.e. And who gon’ tell him that my bitch is getting her degree?)? Well, that’s basically impossible. But not for Meg.

In 2021, two years after releasing her Billboard-topping hit, Meg crossed the stage at Texas Southern University, one of the nation’s largest historically Black colleges and universities, scooping up a bachelor of science degree in health administration. She’d also foreshadowed this moment in her hit track “Thot Shit,” confidently rattling off “2021, finna graduate college,” and even took fans along for the ride with her as they celebrated her with a new viral hashtag, #MeganTheeGraduate. It was the same year she won Best New Artist at the Grammys, making it even more remarkable that despite already achieving career success, she prioritized getting her degree. And it wasn’t easy.

Meg started her studies at another HBCU near Houston, Prairie View A&M University. However, her initial plan to nab a nursing degree while on campus was put on pause when she decided to pursue a rap career, uploading freestyle videos online. Still, even after she left Prarie View she continued to study at community colleges before deciding to return to Texas Southern University. Somehow, while performing and topping charts, she found a way to take five classes in one semester, according to Rolling Stone. “Every time I had an assignment or something due, one of my managers would just pull me to the side and be like, ‘Hey Megan, you know you got to do this presentation today.’ Or ‘Hey Megan, you know you got to turn this assignment in today,’” she told the magazine. Around that same time, she tweeted to her fans (aka Hotties) reminding them of the endless possibilities education could offer them: “My college experience has been a roller coaster! I started at PV went to some community colleges in between and I’m ending at TSU. Don’t get discouraged! You can chase your dreams and your education at the same time.” Reading the thread of responses, you can see Meg’s impact. One follower responded, “You’ve been one of my biggest influences in continuing with my education while also trying to pursue my music career. I hope to get there one day, thank you so much Meg!” Another shared, “Congratulations to #MeganTheeGraduate working and being in school is NOT easy by any means. To have someone at the height of their career showing people that education is STILL valuable is something that needs to be celebrated.”

And Meg’s push for access to higher education didn’t stop with herself. In 2019, she hosted a beauty pageant with a $2,500 scholarship prize because, “I know that tuition ain’t no joke,” she told the New York Times. “So if I could do something to help somebody else, then I thought that would be nice.” She also worked with the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment to give out two $10,000 scholarships to women of color. Her alma mater TSU even started Thee Megan Fund, a scholarship pool to assist more hot girls in graduating. She’s also shared that her ultimate goals is to use her degree to open assisted living facilities, hiring new graduates so they can get the job experience fresh grads rarely receive. In February 2022, she launched the Pete and Thomas Foundation, named in honor of her parents. The foundation provides scholarships, school supplies, and resources to help students in under-served communities.

In 2023, she collabed with Frito Lay to fund at $150,000 scholarship for HBCU students at Texas Southern University. That same year she surprised students at her alma matter with a home coming performance while recognizing the award recipients.

For Meg, keeping her late mother – who passed away in 2019 from brain cancer – and her late grandmother in the back of her head allowed her not to give up while working towards her degree. “Before they passed away, they saw me going to college and they were really hard on me about finishing college, so I was like, you know what? I’m not just doing it for myself, I’m doing it for them too. I want them to be so proud,” she told Rolling Stone. Chatting with Billboard, the Texas emcee explained why her family ties were also the reason she wanted to get her degree from an HBCU. “I feel like I’m making all of the women in my family proud,” she said. “All the women in my family went to HBCUs. I’m just going down the legacy of doing the same thing of fully college-educated women. I definitely just had to keep making them proud, and I had to make myself proud. I had to prove to myself that I can finish it, and I did even in the middle of my chaotic life. I just also wanted to show the Hotties that you can do whatever you put your mind to. So I’m super proud to have graduated from an HBCU.”

Meg’s been putting those smarts to great use. Earlier this year, she linked a historic deal with Warner Music Group, that will allow her full rights as an independent musician while also having access to the music company’s global services, ranging from radio promotion to marketing worldwide. Now, all Meg’s music is released through Hot Girl Productions – her independent music and entertainment entity. The deal also gave her full creative freedom over her music releases.

Going from Grammy winner to graduate may have not been an easy task for the Head Hottie, but she’s continuing to use her HBCU education to inspire her fans, beyond her music. As she told her millions of followers after her commencement ceremony: “I want y’all to remember that you can do whatever you wanna do and be whoever you wanna be, cause look at me!”

How HBCU Bands Create A Homecoming Soundtrack That Brings Generations Together

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Bands at HBCU Homecomings are a cornerstone of the celebration, embodying the spirit, culture, and tradition of these institutions. Known for their high-energy performances, intricate choreography, and powerful music, HBCU bands play a vital role in creating an electric atmosphere that unites alumni, students, and the community. They do more than just perform; they tell the story of the school’s history and pride through every beat, step, and melody. These bands are a source of inspiration, showcasing the rich heritage and artistic excellence of HBCUs, making Homecomings an unforgettable experience that goes beyond just a football game.

There are always different experiences at Homecoming when you ask the “bandheads”, those students that were in the band and love nothing as much as band performances. Jabari Johnson, a former member of the Mighty Marching Hornet Band of Alabama State and certified “bandhead”, says the approach to Homecoming from the band’s perspective is about celebrating across generations. “It’s dependent on how the different Student Government Associations would like to incorporate their festivities, along with the time constraints the bands have now. The mentality of the band at Homecoming is not as aggressive as ‘Classic’ games due to tradition.”

HBCU Classic football games are special matchups between historically Black colleges and universities, often featuring long-standing rivalries and celebrated traditions – like Grambling vs. Southern in the Bayou Classic. They typically are held at neutral site venues and are large events in their own right, but have a different vibe than Homecoming. For Homecoming, there are a great number of people you have to account for, and to a degree appease, because of the number of people that come back to celebrate and the personal nature of what Homecoming represents. Johnson went on to add from his experiences as a member that most bands, including his, would “pay homage to the ‘old school’ within the show, possibly [with] an Alumni Band, spell the University’s name, a ‘special guest’ performance, or old school dance routine, and then get back to battling in the stands.”

Just like HBCUs in general, each band comes in different shapes, sizes, and styles. While the focus is often on the big-name bands like the Human Jukebox at Southern or the Marching 100 at Florida A&M, the band still shows out at Homecoming for smaller institutions too. I recently spoke with Torre C. Goodson, Interim Director of Bands at Clark-Atlanta University, about the “Mighty Marching Panthers” perspective during such a festive and important time for HBCUs. When asked about the mentality and approach of the band at Homecoming considering what it represents to HBCU students and alums, Goodson spoke to that same unique balance of the past and present at Homecoming as Johnson.

“Football Homecoming is a cornerstone of the HBCU experience; our primary mentality is that we have a legacy to honor, enhance, and elevate. There’s a two-pronged approach to our contribution to the Homecoming experience: enhancing the current students’ collegiate experience and providing the alumni with an opportunity to reminisce on an integral part of their life. We make it a point to prepare music that is relevant to the current atmosphere and culture as well as providing consistency for the returning alum. It’s a very busy week for the band in general: there are on campus events to perform for, alumni take the time to come back and engage with the current students, and it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of those that came before us.”

There is also a concerted effort to bridge the gap with that engagement musically. As Johnson noted, there’s an “old school” element to Homecoming shows, but the bands will also mix in hits from today. Hugh Douglas spoke with us for our previous piece about how the football team loves hearing the latest songs from the band while playing and how that impacted his play. I guarantee you this year because of the popularity, Kendrick Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us” will be blaring through instruments all Homecoming season

Whether at the biggest programs or smaller Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Director Goodson’s perspective reminds us how the bands play a central role in the Homecoming experience, embodying the spirit and pride of their institutions. Though these schools may not have the vast resources of larger universities, their bands are no less passionate or impressive. These ensembles pour heart and soul into their performances, delivering electrifying halftime shows that blend traditional marching band precision with vibrant, contemporary music. Their performances are a source of pride for the entire community, uniting alumni, students, and local supporters in a celebration of culture, history, and school spirit.

The bands at these smaller HBCUs often become the highlight of Homecoming, showcasing their talent and creativity in a way that resonates deeply with everyone in attendance. However, there is a pressure that comes along with the expectation to be one of the most memorable parts of the Homecoming experience, and Director Goodson spoke to how they try to embrace that pressure.

“There is definitely an extra pressure to perform. Homecoming is a time where the alumni-people who have done this before and given their blood sweat and tears to do so and are able to observe and revel in their collegiate experience. As a bandsman, there is tremendous pressure to not let the alumni down. These are people that come and give back to the program and the University, and you always want your stakeholders to feel pride and see the return on their investment. But when it comes to the Mighty Marching Panthers, we stay ready so we don’t have to get ready. The pressure is palpable, but it’s not anything we aren’t prepared for.”

HBCU bands at Homecoming are more than just musical ensembles; they are a vital cultural force that brings together generations of alumni, students, and communities in celebration of tradition, pride, and excellence. Their electrifying performances, marked by precision, creativity, and energy, elevate the Homecoming experience beyond a football game, turning it into a dynamic display of artistry and unity. From the pulsating rhythms of the drumline to the high-stepping majorettes, HBCU bands embody the spirit of their schools, carrying forward a legacy of empowerment, resilience, and joy. Their presence at Homecoming showcases the rich cultural heritage of historically Black colleges and universities, creating memories that resonate for a lifetime.

DJ R-Tistic Breaks Down How HBCUs Predict Party Pop Culture

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Nobody has a better front-row perspective to the growth and development of pop music — and how it affects pop culture — than DJs. As the party controllers, they are the ones who set the vibes, yes, but they also get to see trends as they play out in real time. Sometimes, they’re even the ones sparking those trends.

In much the same way, so much of American culture has come from the Black experience: jazz, rock & roll, hip-hop, and dance music all started in music halls and underground venues catering to a Black American clientele that was often barred from more mainstream spaces.

One of the spaces that Black folks were kept out of was higher education. And so, as we found juke joints and empty rec rooms to develop jazz and launch hip-hop, Historically Black Colleges and Universities became cultural hot spots, where new movements in politics and art were nurtured and primed to change the course of American history.

In looking to gain some new insights and perspectives on how HBCUs have impacted America’s various party scenes, there was no better resource to turn to than LA native DJ R-Tistic. A veteran of the DJ scene, playing everything from local weekly residencies to corporate gigs to Coachella, R-Tistic has seen every kind of party imaginable. And, as a graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — also known as Florida A&M or FAMU — he’s got the unique experience of seeing how Black student life can have an outsized impact on social and cultural standards, even hundreds of miles away.

Can you tell me a little bit about what your experience at FAMU was like and how that has informed your approach to your craft today?

I didn’t start DJing until I got there and I was… Plugging in my laptop. Initially I didn’t even plan to be a DJ. It was more so, it just happened throughout time. But I would say it influences it in so many ways because the main thing is that everybody’s coming from somewhere different. So at that time, this is the mid-2000s, when I feel like everybody’s music was so different. You can argue and say that it’s still different sounds now, but overall we know it’s a lot more similar. Back then, St. Louis had Chingy and J-Kwon and Nelly versus LA having Snoop and Game. And even The Bay sounded different from LA back then.

My first time doing a New Orleans party, they were like, “But you from LA. You don’t know our real music. All you know is Lil Wayne. We wanna hear Webbie.” At a HBCU, I think everybody comes in as a freshman kind of arrogant because it’s like, you coming from whatever city you came from. You think your city’s the best. I got there playing Bad Azz and Eastsidaz and Suga Free, and they’re like, “Why you playing this happy music?” Harlem dudes are playing all Dipset. And even Harlem and Brooklyn going at it, talking about Dipset versus Jay-Z or the Philly dudes and D Bloc. So I feel like it was just the fact that we had so many different styles, and we got to really meet people and see how they reacted to it.

I remember it was a group called Dude ‘n Nem, they had a song called “Watch My Feet.”

Juke, juke, juke, juke!

I would’ve had no idea what it was. It would’ve sounded foreign to my ears if I was just in LA hearing it because I was out there, and I heard, “Bang, bang, bang, skeet, skeet, skeet, and let me bang.” It made sense when I heard it. So it’s just the fact that you hear so many different varieties [at HBCUs].

I think over time, as the blogosphere moved in, that replaced that in-person experience.

In some ways it did. It is still different because even when I go back now, you’ll still hear more regional music. For FAMU specifically, it’s different only in that because of the cost of everything, I don’t think there’s as many out-of-state students as it used to be when I was there. Whenever I go to the Hood clubs out there now just to check in, I do hear a lot more of the southern music and just Florida music than I hear the other sounds. The blog area and social media and streaming, it did kind of homogenize things to an extent, but you still will get a different variety.

A lot of those artists had sounds that didn’t match where they were from. Even Kendrick. People argue now that “Not Like Us” is his first LA song. [Writer’s Note: Those people are SUPER wrong.] I get what they mean because “Swimming Pools” and those songs did not have a traditional West Coast sound. I think they grew up in the era where they didn’t really have as much of a direct connection to that regional sound. So they made music that appealed based on what they grew up watching on 106 & Park versus what was really local.

How did the melting pot aspect of going to an HBCU help those artists break through, then?

We had a showcase called “Rep Your City,” where each city had their own two minutes to play their regional song and do a dance. So Chicago did “Bang Bang Bang Skeet Skeet.” We might’ve did a “Wrong Idea” or something like that. We crip up. The Bay had a little hyphy moment. Everybody had their own little moments. And some people got booed. They booed us just because it was like, “What is this LA music?”

A lot of folks are still stuck in whatever their region is into. Freshman year, everybody gravitates toward what city they’re from, and that’s your whole identity. So I think that, that flattening happens at HBCUs because after a couple of years you start meeting friends from different places.

I always wondered what kind of role the HBCU college scene played in accelerating or even in breaking things. Because a lot of times people would come back from school, and they would know what song was about to hit even before it hit on a national level. It almost feels like that’s the spot where everything starts. As much as we talk about “Black people generate culture in America,” I feel like that’s the microcosm.

Yeah, for sure. I remember bringing K-Wang back to LA in ’02, ’03 first time I heard it and I couldn’t dance to it, but people just liked the beat. And then I didn’t hear it to get in LA until ’08. And now it’s crazy because it’s a whole line dance to it. I think a lot of times it did accelerate things, because I remember even in high school when my boy, his older brother was at Morehouse, and he told me, he was like, “Hey, Jay-Z got a song with Twista called, ‘Is That Your Bitch?’ And Missy’s on there too.”

I had a homie who went to Clark, and once he got to Clark, all he liked was Atlanta music. So he got back, he was playing Bone Crusher and Drama and Pastor Troy in LA. I realized that a lot of the major DJs around the country are from HBCUs, from Young Guru to Drama and Cannon and Jae Murphy.

There’s been talk of whether HBCUs are still relevant. Politically, there have been a lot of arguments against HBCUs that have gotten louder. What do you see as the primary benefit beyond music, beyond anything else, of having HBCUs as not just learning institutions, but as cultural centers, as places that are for us in the climate that we currently exist in?

It’s an argument that I feel like anybody who even questions why they exist, they’re already going to be turned off and not really open to hearing the true answer. One argument is always that the real world isn’t all Black, but nobody white would ever tell somebody white to not go to Harvard or Yale or any other school that’s 70% or 90% white. “Don’t go there because that’s not diverse.” You never hear that.

For us going into the real world, it made no difference. Once I graduated, I realized that it made no difference because the only difference between us and other folks is when it comes to cultural references. That means we might have a joke about The Wood, they might have a joke about Breakfast Club. But even with that, we can watch a movie. We can learn “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

It’s more so them just realizing that Black students might not have the same advantages to begin with. So I had classes where the actual professor called me one night at 1:00 AM on a Thursday, like, “Hey Ron, you didn’t turn in these four assignments. Hey, if you don’t turn those in, you might not pass.”

And that’s 1:00 AM on Thursday. I spent until 7:00 AM working on that and turned it in. And it’s like that type of experience wouldn’t happen at a white school at all. I doubt it would. Maybe it would, but I doubt that because it was a Black teacher who felt like I was his nephew.

Right. He was trying to get you through the class, graduated from the school, so that you’re in a position where, okay, if you’re going to sink or swim, but at least get you on that platform first.

Get on that platform. Yeah.