Виральный челлендж Dear West V. объединил рэп-сообщество Западной Вирджинии и привлек внимание к местной культуре

When Leeshia Lee got the idea to challenge artists to write a lyrical love letter to West Virginia, she had no idea it would create so much buzz. This spring and summer, the Dear West V. challenge went viral on social media. Submissions came in from all across the state. “Clarksburg, Huntington, Charleston, hollers and hills that I’ve never heard of,” Lee said. “It was just great to see so many people take pride.” Lee is from Charleston and is the cultural reporter with Black By God: The West Virginian. Black By God is a community news organization that centers Black voices from across the Mountain State. “It is a way for us to change the narrative on how our stories are told,” Lee said. “It highlights the culture of Black people in West Virginia.” Lee is also a former radio host, and over the years, she’s developed relationships with rappers, producers, and DJs from across the state. “I decided that I wanted to challenge the artists in West Virginia all to write their version of a love letter to the 35th state.” For the Dear West V. challenge, Lee chose a hip hop beat and all of the artists wrote a song to that same beat. “I wanted to showcase the talent that is in West Virginia, because I believe there are thoroughly a lot of hidden gems here,” Lee said. “And on a large scale, mainstream scale, West Virginia doesn’t get the recognition that it deserves.” For the challenge, Lee enlisted the help of Myles Satterfield, who goes by the artist name Myles T. Myles T is a hip hop producer who grew up in Charleston. He remembers listening to Lee’s radio show as a kid. “Some of the local rappers, they were on the radio. And I was like, ‘Man, that’s cool. How do you do that?’” Myles T said. Myles T is also the son of Crystal Good, a renowned Affilachian poet, and the founder of Black By God. “My mother was a poet as well, so I was like, ‘Okay, you gonna write poetry, I’m gonna write raps,’” Myles T said. “But then eventually I gravitated more towards production.” As a self-described nerd, Myles T says producing allowed him to explore his fascination with computers. When he was in college studying cyber security, he kept honing his skills in music. “That was how I was paying rent. I was selling beats online to pay rent in college.” These days, he lives in Los Angeles, working in cyber security and in music. He’s produced beats for industry heavy hitters like Big Sean and Wiz Khalifa. When Lee got the idea for the challenge, she reached out to Myles T. “I asked him for a beat. And he sent me a couple but I chose the one beat,” Lee said. Word about the Dear West V. challenge spread on social media. Artists wrote verses to Myles T’s beat, recorded themselves performing their songs, then submitted them to Black By God. They received over 100 submissions. Lee says many of the love letters expressed a sense of appreciation. “I think that [in] the majority of the love letters, people paid homage to the neighborhoods that raised them.” As Duke Johnson out of Huntington rapped: See, I was raised here, the son of a African and a gringo. Held it down from Moneyton to Mingo. I’ve been in the projects, the trailer parks, nice houses, and hollers. Met a lot of good folks that do what they can for a dollar. Kind to our neighbor, respect in our behavior, and we finally realizing that the coal ain’t gonna save us. “There were some really deep moments in there too, where people talked about a lot of the loss that they saw, or a lot of the judgment that they got from their area, or how they don’t feel seen, or they don’t feel heard,” Myles T said. “There was so much in some of these verses.” “Some of them were really, really political, talking about the environmental issues, the pharmaceutical industries…incarcerations,” Lee said. Like Monstalung of Morgantown: Dear West V, we have to do better Places like McDowell got me writing this letter High cancer rates throughout the state The water’s bad, you can tell by the taste They are cutting funding and programs for the people Caging us up and calling us illegal Nothing new, we’ve seen this sequel Flipping the words and saying it’s not equal Yo, shaking my head at the audacity Like we ain’t surviving floods and catastrophes So tell your family, tell your squad That more than ever we need Black By God Josh Mei, aka Spike Yee, is another artist from Morgantown who submitted a song to the challenge. “He referred to himself as AppalAsian,” Lee said. “And his love letter was very eye opening.” “Growing up Chinese American [in Morgantown] in the 90s, you know, wasn’t the best experience. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the best,” Spike Yee said. “I still had a lot of self-identity issues.” As a self-described socially awkward kid growing up in a traditional Chinese household, Spike Yee found inspiration in how hip hop artists presented themselves. “It was like the bravado, the confidence that you have to show. These are all things that I really wanted as a child,” Spike Yee said. It wasn’t until he got to college in Athens, Ohio, that Spike Yee started rapping. He began attending a monthly freestyle rap battle. At first, he was nervous to take the stage. But eventually, he found his stride. “That rush became addicting. And so I started going back every time and I would just…keep battling. And then I started winning.” Spike Yee is back in Morgantown now and is a known quantity in the hip hop scene there. He heard about the Dear West V. challenge through social media. “I thought the beat was super dope, and I wanted to contribute a verse to the concept of a love letter to West Virginia. Just for myself.” For Spike Yee, it was a chance to explore his complicated relationship with the state. Growing up, I used to hate it here. Jaded by the state of conditions, and it would lead me to evade it in my later years. Amount of times I wanted out, without a shadow of a doubt. I had a paddle, but I couldn’t find a route. Everybody said to go, so now he’s out on the run. Headed west and saw the truth. Felt like the prodigal son. Headed east back to my roots. Feel like I’m one of the ones. Now let me hold it down in Morgantown. I’m second to none. “I left so many times, and you know, I always came back,” Spike Yee said. I spent so many years fishing for the answers. Like, when will it bite? Just need a chance to be myself and take control of my life. I feel serenity now. Take a look at how you raised him. Chinese kid in Appalachia. I am AppalAsian. In the land of almost heaven, watch for the throne. The state accepted me and made sure I ain’t stepping alone. It’s kind of crazy, never realized just where I belong. So here’s my gratitude for giving me a home, West Virginia. Another artist who submitted to the challenge is Nicole Johnson, aka CoCo Nicole. Growing up in Huntington, CoCo Nicole started rapping when she was in high school. “You kind of roast each other when you’re in high school, right? Like, you always have jokes with your friend group. So as a way of doing that with each other, we would kind of freestyle and rap,” CoCo Nicole said. “So I really took a liking to it back when I was in probably ninth, tenth grade. Just doing that with the girls.” She quickly discovered that rapping was a way to vent her emotions and document her life. Then in college, some friends invited her to record her songs. “I never tried to sing at first, I just always knew I wanted to rap…and it just kind of came naturally,” CoCo Nicole said. “When I started projecting and putting that on the microphone, I always loved the way my voice sounds.” As her confidence grew and her skills sharpened, CoCo Nicole started releasing her recordings and performing live. In 2024, she hit a career high when she opened for rapper Rick Ross in Ashland, Kentucky. But soon after that, she fell into a creative dry spell. “I was like fresh out of having my baby, and I was postpartum. I just wasn’t inspired, I had a mental block from music. And I just felt like I wasn’t ever going to do it again,” CoCo Nicole said. But then, her brother—who’s also a rapper—told her about the Dear West V. challenge. After seeing his submission and hearing the beat, she decided to write her own love letter. “I was like, I’m getting back out there. I was like, I want to write, I’m inspired.” Dear West Virginia, my words to you for birthing me. How could I not appreciate a state creatin’ queens? The type of women with ambition climbin’ hills of dreams. We found our way next to the river where the money streams. “I wanted to give thanks and give my love to West Virginia for creating the type of women that I know and I’m around, and even the type of women that raised me,” CoCo Nicole said. Childhood in a wild hood. Parents used to sacrifice, so we be all good. Taught us morals and respect that go a long way. I’ll take a country queen from here over anything. For CoCo Nicole, the Dear West V. challenge reignited her creativity. She’s since written and recorded a handful of new songs and has even performed live again. “The creative juices are flowing,” she said. For Leeshia Lee and Myles T, the response to the challenge was overwhelming. People from other states were following along online. So were people who Myles T says aren’t your typical hip hop fans. “We’ll be in the gas station, and people be like, ‘Oh, y’all the ones doing the contest.’ And it’ll be like an old lady that I was like, ‘I had no clue that you would even see this. How did this even get in your radar?’” Myles T said. CoCo Nicole says that the viral challenge galvanized the hip hop community across the state. “The Dear West Virginia challenge really woke people back up,” she said. “I feel like what Leeshia and Myles have done is kind of waking people up to wanting to have more events, you know, to do things.” Spike Yee agreed. “It kind of showed everybody…we all exist. And we’re all here doing something that we love,” he said. “This is such a uniting factor for a bunch of people from so many different walks of life.” Because the challenge was so successful, Leeshia Lee, Myles T, and Black By God decided to host an awards show this summer in Charleston. Tickets sold out, and everyone came dressed to impress for the black tie affair. Artists from the challenge were presented with a variety of awards. The categories included Most Heartfelt, Most Historic, and Best Female Performance, which CoCo Nicole was nominated for. In fact, she won. “I prepared a speech for just in case I won, but I got up there and I forgot all my words,” CoCo Nicole said. “I was like, ‘I hope I sound good!’ Oh my god, I was so nervous.” For CoCo Nicole, she hopes West Virginia’s hip hop community will continue to build upon the momentum that’s been generated from the Dear West V. challenge. She wants to see the Mountain State recognized as a hub for rap and hip hop. “We see it happen in so many other big cities. I mean, Atlanta, LA, Houston. You see it happen everywhere else, but I feel like we have enough talent here to where if we all just come together and start pushing each other, it could be big. It could be a great thing.” Through Black By God, Leeshia Lee and Myles T have plans to keep supporting West Virginia’s hip hop artists, with another awards show taking place this winter. This article is part of the Living Traditions project, featuring an assortment of stories and podcasts about folklife in central Appalachia.