Bandcamp has been responding to the devastating global economic circumstances in a great way: waiving their fees for all artists once a month. It happens on the first Friday of every month, but this week, there’s a huge pressing social issue on many minds: Black Lives Matter.
Make no mistake: DJ culture and dance music are fundamentally based around, inspired by, created by, and derived from black artists and creators. If there’s any question, take a moment to read a bit more about Frankie Knuckles’ legacy, or watch this documentary on Larry Levan, or listen to Ron Hardy play a record backwards by inverting a turntable headshell and removing the tonearm weight.
Last month, we featured a ton of DJ Techtools’ community artists in our Bandcamp feature (you can still buy music from them today if you want to support). Today, we’re featuring a different list of Bandcamp creators.
This Google spreadsheet has 1,000+ black producers, artists, and labels and their associated Bandcamp pages. Let’s all buy music from these creators today and do our part in supporting independent black artists.
A Favorite: Omniboi.
I scanned through the above list and started listening to a ton of producers on it, and it feels like an ideal moment to feature one of my own favorites who’s a friend of the DJTT community: Omniboi. An incredibly talented producer and multi-instrumentalist performer, he deserves some recognition here on the DJTT blog.
Here’s a recent remix video he posted on YouTube:
Check out Omniboi’s Bandcamp page here to support him.
Do you know of other black artists and DJs who deserve support today? Let us know in the comments – or better yet, send an email to the spreadsheet creators (their address at the top of the spreadsheet).
