“What you know ’bout them hills?” Vicksburg native, Que Heffe, pays tribute to his roots

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — “What you know ’bout them hills?” Que Heffe declares on the opener of the Vicksburg native’s newest album, Cottonfield Hills. Over 16 tracks, Que Heffe takes listeners on a journey from his roots in Vicksburg to “the concrete grind of LA. Every song is a chapter, every bar a truth.”

“I’m a big historian, that was my favorite thing in school,” said Que Heffe. “I love to learn about the past so you don’t repeat it. The storytellers are the most important people, because we keep these things alive.”

Growing up, his mother was in a traveling gospel choir, which left him not only surrounded by music but also allowed him to be with his granddad 24-7 while his mother traveled.

“All they did was talk,” he said. “They were telling stories I will never forget. You don’t get them as a child, none of it made sense, but when you get older and actually experience life, you go, ‘Okay, this is what he meant.’ But if you don’t have those to rely on or fall back on, everything feels brand new or it seems like ‘it’s only happening to me.’ But when you realize you’re facing things that other people have met, it makes life easier.”

Over the 36 minutes of music, Que Heffe gives an authentic telling of growing up in Vicksburg—from roots steeped in slavery, to the hot, humid summers, and everything in between. “My city’s small, but it’s oh so big,” he says in the album closer, “Noah.”

Although the rapper has been out West for a decade, he still stays in touch with the city that made him who he is.

“I talk a lot with Alderman Mayfield about the problems in the city,” he said.

Not only is the album a love story to Que Heffe’s Mississippi roots, but the independent artist is doing things his way when it comes to sharing his story with the world. The album is not available for streaming; instead, Que Heffe is releasing the album on EVEN—a website dedicated to connecting musicians directly to the listener without the middleman of the streaming services, allowing them to pay what they want for the project.

“I’ve been making music professionally for about 10 years,” said Que Heffe. “A lot of the investment you don’t really get back with the way the game is set up with the streaming. When they made everything digital, they took the power out of the artist’s hands.”