Member-only story
Prior to the lockdown and maybe it is still going on, you could walk through Times Square and there would be some African American guys offering you their music CD free. Once you took it they would ask for a donation.
These men have a dream. They create their music somewhere to pursue it. Maybe they rented a studio or they used their own basement. In either case, they took the time to compose, practice, record, cut a CD (no label usually) now they want you to listen to it.
I did not get to New York often and obviously now I don’t go, but the message of the incident is real. There is creativity and real desire to share talent in the urban neighborhoods including New York.
My last time in New York last year, I was preparing to start a program on radio and I was looking for bumper music. I could even showcase the CD, however, there was nothing marketable on it. It was rap, hip hop which is fine, but it was inspired by the gangsta rap roots and filled with misogony and more. I just could not use it. All was not lost, I did give them twenty dollars for it before listening to it.
Free speech vs marketability
These artists needed to understand the difference between free speech and marketability. Their music was not marketable in any…
