Roosevelt Franklin Is Not A [Music Industry] Puppet!

I was checking OH Word where I found the news of the free full length album from Roosevelt Franklin, not the puppet, but Mr. Len and Kimani.

Hashim Warren soon initiated a conversation on whether or not giving an album away for free was a good idea.  He was pushing the idea that free samples are good but that giving away a whole album for free devalues your product in the eyes of consumers.

You can peep the comments for various reactions including those of Mr. Len and Kimani, who don't seem to want to be limited to being product pushers, they're hung up on this "art" thing.  You know, when people start rambling on about doing it for the love of hip hop, I either expect to have to wade through a lot of purist nonsense or to have to turn down a request to write for free, but I'm convinced these guys really do love making and sharing music, though they were also inspired to put the album out for free after encountering multiple obstacles over an extended period of time.

Mr. Len commented:
Fact of the matter is this. I'm a b-boy. This whole industry has gotten everyone's minds twisted. All the hip hop cats forgot what the point was. WE WANT UPS!!!! . . . Me and Kimani are among the freshest to make music. It doesn't matter whether you agree or not. I gave you something in a way that no other artist dares to. This is pure. If you want to give me your money thats fine. You can send $9.99 to PO Box 242 Hillside NJ 07205. Otherwise accept the gift. It's given with love from 2 artists that care about this culture and don't need to sap you of your money everytime we have something to say. Let's be even more real while we're at it. No one actually sells music anymore. They all sell fashion and fantasy.

That's why I love Mr. Len.  I believe him when he says these things.  I saw a SXSW showcase that was a huge failure a few years back.  Far away from the main drag, the sound system was having problems, some macho dummies talked the sound guy into pushing up the volume and blew the system, so Mr. Lif and the Def Jux crew showed up, turned around, walked out.

Mr. Len was the only one after that to do anything.  He got up, played some records at a low volume and sat on the edge of the stage talking to the 9 or 10 hip hop heads that stuck around.  Very cool, very much in the moment, very much just being about the love of hip hop.

So go download Bare Food for free.  It's a unique album that's very dj driven in that it takes hip hop to places that it doesn't normally go cause you know the good djs listen to stuff that you and I would just pass over and then they turn it into gold.  I can't say it's going to be one of my favorite albums, but it's got a lot of humor and intelligence and I'm glad I got to hear it.  I wouldn't have checked it out if it wasn't free, at least not right away.  And I wouldn't have written about it if a discussion of whether or not it was a good idea to give it away had not occurred, so Hashim's objections helped because they led to a conversation.

For more on free distribution as a way to build an act, check the story of the Arctic Monkeys, a new rock band out of the UK.

For more on the love of hip hop, go put on some music that's important to you and ask yourself, does it matter if it was free or not?