Sophia Michaels
As is often the case with these types of events, there was more than one story of sexual assault, rape, or misconduct told during Freaknik. For example, Dupri and Campbell have spoken about how the party went too far in their documentaries. Dupri also said that he and Campbell were “the only ones who knew” of the sexual assault that took place at the party, while Howard said that she and Dupri “hated each other a lot.” Additionally, Geraldine L. Porras said that she and her husband “were the only ones who knew” of the misconduct that took place at the party. Porras also said that she and her husband “were the only ones who knew” of her death by suicide by as early as 1995.
It’s difficult to discuss something like Freaknik without bringing up the fact that these events happened, and it’s even harder to discuss it when social media is so quick to bring up recent events to overshadow the past. It’s important to remember that the party was still a popular event in the ’90s, and people were still capable of being wild.
Content warning: this article contains mentions of sexual assault, rape, and misconduct.
Hulu is giving the infamous Atlanta street party Freaknik the documentary treatment and it has plenty of people talking already. The streamer announced the project, formally titled “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,” on April 6, which will see well-known music figures Jermaine Dupri and Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell as executive producers and Geraldine L. Porras as showrunner.
According to the documentary’s logline, viewers will soon see how it “recounts the rise and fall of a small Atlanta HBCU picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted ATL as a major cultural stage. Can the magic of Freaknik be brought back 40 years later?” A release date has not yet been announced.
Though “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told”‘s description seems to affirm that the documentary will, indeed, highlight the positive and negative aspects of Freaknik, social media users were still quick to bubble up some of the more heinous things that occurred at the rowdy street event after it grew in number in the ’90s — namely numerous accounts of sexual assault, rape, harassment, and misconduct.
On April 10, one Twitter user wrote, “Freaknik was terror for many women, some that didn’t even attend. Hope those men get exposed that harmed women out there.” Meanwhile, another tweeted, “Y’all talking about the freaknik documentary gone show moms being freaks, but it’s also gone show y’all daddies being predators… Prepare for that.”
Hulu isn’t the first to attempt to shed light on the true events of Freaknik. In 1998, MTV’s “True Life” released an episode named after the Atlanta event, which some Twitter users also called out in light of Hulu’s documentary announcement. “MTV followed people who attended freaknik on ‘True life’ in 1998 and One of the scenes was in fact a crowd of men snatching one woman entire outfit off,” a Twitter user wrote alongside a clip from the MTV series. “So yes, y’all concerns are valid but people need to see the reality of this event and not just the romanticized side.”
Shortly after Hulu’s announcement, Complex published an oral history of Freaknik on April 11, which includes detailed accounts about the good, bad, and the ugly from Dupri, Campbell, singer Adina Howard (sometimes referred to as the “Queen of Freaknik”), as well as a few attendees from the event.
In the years after Freaknik fell apart in 1996 (it attempted to rebrand as “Spring Jam” in 1997), people have tried to replicate the party atmosphere of the event to no avail. Elsewhere, in 2021, 21 Savage threw a Freaknik-themed birthday party in Atlanta, followed by a “sequel” in 2022. Saweetie also threw her own Freaknik birthday event in 2021.
