ONE MusicFest Founder J Carter Talks Southern Music Hospitality
This feature is in our Summer '24 "Music" Issue. Click here to subscribe.
Before becoming the founder of popular festivals—Atlanta’s ONE Musicfest (taking place Oct. 26-27 at Piedmont Park) and Dallas’ TwoGether Land—Jason “J” Carter was a music lover first. A Harlem native who later moved to the South, the businessman’s first live music experience occurred during a Harlem block party during the era of Doug E. Fresh’s classic “The Show” single. His appreciation for hip-hop led to the birth of the aforementioned festivals, which place Black artists across all genres at the forefront.
A drone shot from 2023’s ONE Musicfest PHOTO BY SAM SHAPIRO (THE PARALLEL AGENCY)/COURTESY OF ONE MUSICFEST
I know you grew up in Harlem before moving down south. What was your first live music memory?
My first live music experience was really on the streets of Harlem. It was during the era of Dougie Fresh, who is from Harlem as well. And it was just a block party. That was when they dropped ‘The Show’. I was floored. There was this energy that I was feeling. I probably was 11 [years old]. I wanted it to be a part of my life. That's probably the first time I really fell in love with the idea of hip-hop and live music.
Before launching the festivals, did you already have a background in music and entertainment? Or did you go into the festival scene as a newbie?
Not at all. I was blind as a bat. My background is in business economics. I always had a love and a passion for live music. I had a creative agency and a brand marketing agency in the early 2000s. I wanted to promote while I had both these agencies going on at the same time and play with some of the brands that I was working with and plug them into some of the events that I would produce.
During that stint, I owned a live music venue called Sugar Hill in Atlanta for five years. That's really the moment I fell in love with the whole production of live music, the feel of it, the exchange between the audience and the artist on stage. At that time, I started exploring the festival landscape and realized that there really wasn't anything quite like a Lollapalooza or a Bonnaroo that spoke to urban music or Black experience. I thought that was a loss in regards to how festivals were being programmed. I mean, we weren’t in the audience or it didn't speak to our culture directly. So in 2008, I began trying to figure out how to build that, and what does that look like?
I want to discuss the meaning behind the word “one” itself. With our Black community, we have such a connection to music. It brings us together.
The event production company and agency was named Soul Fusion. Actually the event that kicked things off back in 2002 was called Soul Fusion as well. And the whole premise of that was erasing these social boundaries within our culture. A lot of times you would go to various clubs and hear very similar music, but they will cater to different audiences. I think there's so much to be gained culturally and with each other at these different intersections.
But what happens when your artsy fartsy, super uber-creative community intersects with the political space or with the pop culture? Atlanta just felt very segmented. We all listen to the same music. What happens if I can figure out a way to pull us all together? And what does that look like? So when you put all these different creators from different socio-economic backgrounds or professional spaces I think things happen. And so it really was a social experience experiment. I mean, we would have city council people and dope boys in the same space and was like, ‘Let's just see what happens.’ But we also played a wide range and breadth of music. At that time it was reggaeton, house, and west coast. And that's why we call it a soul fusion. It was just the fusion of culture and of different audiences. The event got wildly popular just because of that. Then I just really wanted to feed off that experience. A word that really symbolizes unity was ‘one’. We came up with One Music Fest, and it just stuck.
The ONE Musicfest sign PHOTO: BY YSA LOPEZ (THE PARALLEL AGENCY)/COURTESY OF ONE MUSICFEST
How is the energy of Atlanta reflected in ONE Musicfest?
I tell everybody this all the time. I don’t think there’s any other city in the world where ONE Musicfest could have been birthed. Coming from Harlem, that was the Blackest thing I could possibly think of as a child. But when I moved to Atlanta, my idea of Blackness exploded. In our community, it was nothing but people that looked like me. My chief of police was Black, the mayor was Black, your city council was majority Black, and the business owners were Black. It was just a different experience. I think it was the epitome of Black excellence and an opportunity. So Atlanta was the perfect breeding ground and birthplace of ONE Musicfest based on its history and what it stands for.
You officially launched TwoGether Land in May. What was it about Dallas that intrigued you to want to host a festival there?
We looked at a few different places over the years, and I think it was more so the region. It just didn’t feel like it was serviced. Houston gets a lot of things already. But Dallas is a huge market for live music. It’s one of the No. 1 ticket-selling markets in the nation for live music. There’s a huge population of Black and brown people, but there are no true hip-hop and R&B festivals that happen in Dallas. I just couldn’t figure out why. And no one really had an answer. So I met with everyone from the mayor to live music venue owners and promoters. So I said, ‘What do you all think about us bringing an extension to ONE Musicfest to Dallas?’ Everyone championed it. That’s when I thought we really got something here.
J Carter PHOTO: COURTESY OF ONE MUSICFEST
“ATLANTA WAS THE PERFECT BREEDING GROUND AND BIRTHPLACE OF ONE MUSICFEST BASED ON ITS HISTORY AND WHAT IT STANDS FOR.” –JASON “J” CARTER
J Carter and his festival partners PHOTO: COURTESY OF ONE MUSICFEST
Since ONE Musicfest stepped on the scene, there has been a wide range of festivals catering to our community. What do you think about having more diverse options?
I love it. I love that you actually asked that question as well. I don’t really toot our own horn, but we are 1,000% pioneers in that space. Back when we were conceptualizing what it could be, you had Essence Festival. But at that time, that was like your mom and dad’s expo festival experience. The only direction that I could get was some general market festival producers who gave me a little advice. But I really couldn’t find any mentorship. But we do see other festivals looking at how we program and taking a piece of that, but that’s what creatives do, right? You find inspiration. So if we can help move the culture forward, inspire culture and inspire growth in a space, I love it. I don’t truly look at it as competition because I do think that we’re very different in our approach.
Fans at 2023’s ONE Musicfest PHOTO: BY MARCUS MCDONALD (THE PARALLEL AGENCY)/ COURTESY OF ONE MUSICFEST
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned throughout this experience?
I would say build a great team. Initially, I didn’t have a choice but to have a small team just based on budget and finances. But if you get to a point where you can invest in having a great team, know what you do and don’t do well. Then find those people who do what you don’t do well exceptionally well, and hire them. By doing that, you’ll see steady growth as long as you’re giving good and clear direction to the team around you. But get out of your own way.
