Q&A: Kyle DeCoste on American music and the Charles Hiroshi Garrett Fellowship

Kyle DeCoste, a lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts, is the inaugural recipient of the Charles Hiroshi Garrett Fellowship from the Society for American Music.  

The fellowship will support DeCoste and co-author Alex Blue V of McGill University as they complete a forthcoming book on country rap music. Their research explores how the genre reflects the intersections of race, place and sound in the United States and the history of Black musical traditions in American popular music.  

DeCoste also plans to bring those discussions into the classroom, helping students better understand U.S. history through music. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.

What does receiving this fellowship mean to you?

DeCoste: This is the first Charles Hiroshi Garrett Fellowship awarded by the Society for American Music. Receiving national recognition from the leading academic organization dedicated to the study of music in the Americas is an honor. It is especially meaningful because the fellowship commemorates Garrett, a beloved scholar who shaped the study of American music in countless ways.

Garrett served as editor-in-chief of The Grove Dictionary of American Music and produced influential scholarship on jazz, popular music, humor and social justice. He was a generous mentor who supported the individual research of both Alex and me, as well as our collaborative work. We feel honored by this fellowship and grateful for the opportunities it provides.

Beyond its symbolic significance, the fellowship has funded our fieldwork and allowed us to hire a research assistant. It has been rewarding to involve an emerging scholar in the project and provide hands-on fieldwork experience.

What questions are you and your co-author exploring through your research on country rap?

DeCoste: At its core, we’re trying to answer a simple question: What is country rap?

Although the genre is the focus of our book project, there is no clear consensus. We examine how country rap functions and how artists and audiences define it. The genre generally combines elements of country music and hip-hop, but people disagree about its origins.

Some artists trace the genre’s roots to the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, citing Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Others point to Southern hip-hop of the late 1990s and early 2000s, including artists such as UGK, 8Ball & MJG and Nappy Roots. Some define the genre of country rap by the race of its performers, viewing it as rap made by white artists. Others see it as a broader genre that includes any rapper whose music centers on rural rather than urban life.

We want to understand how country rap has developed over the past several decades and what the genre means to both artists and audiences.

How do you expect this work to influence your teaching at Tulane?

DeCoste: I teach about 200 students each year, so bringing my research into the classroom gives me an opportunity to see how students respond. Like conference presentations and public lectures, those discussions help me think about how to communicate my work to broader audiences.

Our research on country rap informs all the courses I teach at Tulane. By the end of the semester, I hope students leave with a deeper understanding of American history and music’s role in shaping it.