Hip hop originated in The Bronx, but found its way to Tennessee by the mid-1980s. DJ Spanish Fly, the Godfather of Memphis Rap, has been active in the Memphis music scene since the beginning. Dr. Langston Wilkins is assistant professor of folklore in the departments of German, Nordic, Slavic+ and African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a co-convener of this series.

Tennessee 101 is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Tennessee, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.