“Da Movement” is Banned.
by BL Shirelle
One of the first things people tend to ask about Die Jim Crow is; "how do you all get access to record in these prisons??" The answer varies depending on the state, and in the past all credit is due to the once-very young, naive rockstar Fury Young for having the balls to simply ask. Though you may get a thousand Nos, they all are worth that one Yes. Access to incarcerated people is so limited, so fleeting, that creating an album in a prison is one of the more radical ideas in the social justice movement, let alone a record label dedicated to these artists. With that being said, we give thanks to the State Department of Corrections (DOC) agency which allowed us to record B. Alexis and The Masses. They took a chance on DJC and gave us access to the people. However, with that access came A LOT of censorship. So much so that we couldn’t live up to our name or our mission.
I remember we had a meeting with the DOCs programming staff after running into some hiccups around teaser videos for our projects. I went in there hoping to inspire them as the living embodiment of what DJC offers through the work we do, but with all their cautionary measures, I ended up trying to stop them from removing one bar off a B. Alexis song: “What’s the point of going on if there ain’t no second chances?...” They didn’t want their DOC to appear as a hopeless place, but that was B. Alexis’ truth after being sentenced to thirty years at the age of seventeen. I’m sure those weren’t her darkest of thoughts either.
In order to gain us access to this particular DOC, Fury had signed an agreement that granted the agency final approval of all the art coming out of their institutions. It was the only way to get in the door, and relationships with those inside had already been established. It turned out that as material got completed, the DOC were not fans of the content to say the least. They banned full songs like “Black Man” by B. Alexis, a tender and loving song uplifting the Black family with lyrics such as:
"Mansion in the hills? Nah the hood would be his preference / Closer to the power ‘cause the power where the people be / Know you need a queen, we the closest you’ll ever be / To the motherland / these umbilical cords span / Across oceans that connect us and fill us with the blood of kings, Black man stay true to yourself / Keep fighting for the dream, Black Man…"
“Just can't believe of all songs ‘Black Man’ was disapproved. ...Well, I can believe it, but pissed at the covert disregard and dismissal of it. My blackness is offended.” - B. Alexis
Every image we put out had to get approved by DOC. They would usually respond with something like, “the blur isn’t strong enough on their faces,” “there’s a visible tattoo you need to blur,” or “you can’t use this shot because an inmate is wearing a contraband necklace.” — would that “inmate” face repercussions? It got to the point where we realized we couldn’t get our artists' messages out in their purest form. We couldn’t uphold our values of Free Expression or Artistic Excellence due to the nature of our relationship with the DOC. So what were we to do?
Over the course of the pandemic and its aftermath, DOCs across the country have been short staffed and due to that shortage, institutions have barely been providing programming for their residents. During this time, a majority of The Masses were transferred to different prisons across the state. The pandemic pushed our releases back and in that time we realized it was going to be impossible to put out our artists' work in its intended form due to censorship. They had all waited patiently for a release; that as it stood in that moment had taken years to come out. We leaned in on one of our values: Activism.
The bottom line was, we were going to have to fight the censorship. Our artists’ messages were too important and honest. We had to let the world hear from those whom they haven't heard from in decades. We were only aligning ourselves with the DOC for the sake of their voices, but if they were still silenced anyway, weren't we a part of the problem? So we decided to move forward with The Masses debut single, "Da Movement." The lyrics were greenlit, the song had no profanity, we got approved to shoot the video with some willing participants in an undisclosed institution, and Fury went into grind mode; putting over 100 editing hours into creating a post-apocalyptic world in which The Masses are fighting for the future of humanity as we know it. The video turned out to be EPIC. Even though their faces were blurred, it was empowering, action-packed, and reflected the message of the song… "MANY A TONGUE ONE SOUND!” The guys were so proud of the video. It was gaining traction in its few weeks of being out, when the heavy hand of Corrections came hammering down.
The DOC had our guys in the holding tank trying to take them to the hole for a video we technically had permission to shoot. They were accusing them of throwing up gang signs and thought the music was gang related. How did they skew a message of unification and empowerment into that? Why were they deserving of solitary confinement just for putting out a song; one with a positive message at that? News flash ladies and gents; we are a very long way from abolition. When we spoke to the DOC, they alerted us that since we did not give them final cut of the video, our contract with them would be terminated. All imagery of the video had to be wiped clean from the face of the earth and they were sorting out who needed to go to the hole for their participation. Thank God no one went, but since we didn't want any of our artists to be retaliated against, we adhered to all demands made by the DOC. If you saw the video "Da Movement" by The Masses, you were a witness to history.
The Masses’ "Da Movement" is now banned. This represents the lengths the penal system is willing to go to in an effort to make us feel powerless. God forbid our folks actually feel strength in numbers, the thought of that is too much of a threat for them. While we felt a bit deflated by this outcome, we also understand the risk that comes with our work. If we don't have that we have nothing. The video for "Da Movement" is still around in the underground railroad if you choose to stand in solidarity with the mission. Hit us up (info at diejimcrow dot com). It's important to note our artists still have all rights to said song. While we lost this battle, this isn't the end of the war. We will continue to fight for our artists' freedom of expression. ✊🏾
