i wanted to open a record store as a gallery of alternative rap thinking, a record store that would operate as an outpost for independent artists, looking to stoke their Great Fires and recklessly. i've needed a salon, a dojo, a library, a cookout. i've needed an alternative to surveillance and internet.
when i tour america and visit record stores for work, digging, and i note the owners and people who work most of these places do not look like me and are not practitioners of hip hop as an art form or culture, i recognize the failure of the modern artist to invest in our own infrastructure. as a rapper, instead of complaining about x-record store, i thought it'd be more beneficial for all of us to open my own : )
in biddeford, maine i found an ideal location and after a few months of soft work we are coming in soon on the opening of soulfolks records. more as it develops.
part of my vision for the shop is building out a studio in the front to record, utilizing proximity to the records and tapes as inspiration for boundless (re)creation. in addition to having a performance space in the back of soulfolks, the studio enables us to record live sets to tape, a series i'd like to start shipping out for our homies across the world. this exquisite tiny temple to the tympanic in the front of soulfolks records is called afrolab 9000.
on this blog named for the temple in the Green, i'm going to talk shit, draft plans, and stay the course to further development. soulfolks records is my first foray into developing my ideas passed the regular and into a territory that's totally foreign to me. i have no investors and i'm not looking for any. my goal is a successful 3 year campaign as an independent record shop and to take the experience from this project to open a book store or grocery store in a major metropolitan area post-Trump presidency.
thanks for fucking wit me.
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