In contrast to the digital releases, Ropeadope consistently offers vinyl releases as well. Can you discuss the importance of keeping vinyl alive and available?
We put out some releases in vinyl, some of the hip hop, DJ Logic, Charlie Hunter. It’s straight up economics but vinyl sales having been going up steadily. I think they’re up 100% this year, but still 100% of a little bit isn’t that much. All of our fans ask for it. Everyone was asking for vinyl proving there is still a demand for it. I think people like holding on to something tangible. Even if they don’t have a record player, some people just like to have the art around.
A unique characteristic of Ropeadope is the freedom you give your artists, such as allowing them to retain full ownership of their masters. Was a decision like that made after seeing how Columbia operated in regards to their artist management?
To be honest I wasn’t being completely altruistic. It was more like “How are we going to compete with Columbia?” They are going to own all the artist masters so we decided to let the artists keep their masters. The music business is like dog years. It seems like 2007 was twenty years ago, and at the time not too many labels were letting artists keep their masters. Now it is totally commonplace, but at the time it was something that gave us a leg up on the competition.
Ropeadope has such an amazing artist roster. How do you consistently sign artists, especially hip hop acts that end up being so well embraced by the jamband and jazz scenes?
When we started at Atlantic Records the big gripe they had was that we were all over the place. We put out a jazz record, a gospel record, a salsa record and a hip hop record all in our first year. We were being pushed by the head of Atlantic to define ourselves but now in 2009 ten years later the iPod changed everything. In 1999 we didn’t have iPods, but now that everyone is so used to the shuffle button, everyone listens to everything.
The City Experiment albums are a very unique and interesting concept. How did that idea come about? What cities are being featured in the future?
I was living in New York and I missed Philadelphia. The idea was Aaron Levinson’s, he produced all the experiment records. It was an idea that he had one night because I told him we needed to bring all the different scenes of the Philly sound onto a record, which then produced the album. It was easy to get Ahmir (a.k.a. ?uestlove) Thompson, he loved the idea of doing a jazz record, and then Christian McBride, who he went to high school with, was added and they were excited to be together. Then Uri Caine was added to the mix and it became one of those magical albums. It is the biggest selling album we ever had. It sold close to a quarter of a million copies worldwide. From there we went with the concept of bringing people together from different genres that don’t necessarily know each other, to celebrate the music of a city in an obscure way. We pushed it through Detroit, then Harlem. The key was always the musicians being thrilled to play together. It was always about the theme, the musicians, the experiment, the vibe they would create in the studio. It was really about bringing people together who never played with each other into a unique situation. It inspires them to be more creative and that’s why it was successful. We have a list of places that span the globe, we were close to doing Tokyo and London but the financial realities put everything on hold. It’s at the top of our list though, once we get back into the position of doing studio records.
Ropeadope’s clothing line aims not only to be stylish, but also progressive in its community involvement. Can you talk a bit about the decision to start up the ReNew Orleans brand and how it managed to earn so much money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina?
That was easy in that as soon as it happened, like the rest of the world we were blown away. We had strong ties to the city through Jazz Fest, we had done tons of parties as well as through the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. On a human level we were appalled by the situation. This was one of the occasions where we were guided by the sincere desire to help out. The day that Katrina happened I sent out an email to everyone at Ropeadope stating that we needed to put out a t-shirt to raise money for Katrina. We had it all out in one day and I think that’s when the internet and blogs started kicking in. We were surprised by the success. Within two days we had about 1000 orders and famous people were buying the shirts. It was the right place at the right time. Everyone wanted to wear one from Dave Matthews to other musicians. All the moms wanted to have them too. We gave the shirts to our favorite musicians who wore them on stage. We didn’t do any advertising, or publicity. They still sell like crazy and the shirt is featured in the New Orleans Museum of Modern Art. The things that you’re most excited about and you think are going to be the biggest never work out. It’s always the random stuff that works out the best.
How did you become involved with All Good Music Festival and begin to curate shows?
We were doing their t-shirts and designs and they asked us if we’d be interested in doing a stage. My first reaction was not positive. It did not seem all good to me. I looked at the map and the bands and didn’t understand why we’re doing it. It seemed like they weren’t trying to do anything other than have a good time. But it’s a beautiful spot and the people were so cool. They gave us a stage and we started inviting people and it turned into a really fun party for us. Then of course thousands of people came and it turned out really well. It led to some of my favorite musical experiences and experiments of my life and we did the festival for a few years. It’s the stuff that you don’t really plan for that turns out the best. This is the one summer we are not doing it.
Your Baby Loves Music events are quite unique. How did you come to be involved?
I had kids. I had my first kid seven years ago and the first thing that you think of is that children’s music is awful. Baby Einstein was teaching classical music to kids and I had enough jazz friends, so I said let’s do what they are doing with classical music for jazz. I put together Baby Loves Jazz which was a sick band with John Medeski and Sharon Jones and some others. The record did really well. I met this girl from Philly who wanted to do the same thing with clubs and we started Baby Loves Disco.
Saturday and Sunday is family time and there are only so many things you can do. There’s the park, the circus, the zoo, and I wanted to do something else. We came up with doing the idea of parties and night clubs and it took off. Through word of mouth and mommy power it’s incredible. You think hippies can spread the word, moms are ridiculous. As the music industry was going down the kid’s music business was going through the roof. There was an insane level of excitement at meetings for kid’s music. I did Baby Loves Hip Hop with Prince Paul, Diggable Planets and Chali2Na of Jurassic 5. If you put musicians in a different position where they are recording an album for kids, it takes the stress off them and everyone has fun. We have Baby Loves Jambands in the mix for 2011.
Your children’s books have received much praise and are quite popular. Have you thought about writing for an older, more mature audience?
No. I won a bunch of awards, but out of respect to real authors I don’t see myself having the skill set. I keep a constant journal of Ropeadope and that story is on a different level, things won’t happen like that again because the music industry is so different now. I would like to write my life story to show people what the fuck happens if you have the balls and the tenacity to take the path less traveled. I started as a music lawyer and I was not happy. I jumped off the path and it’s been a struggle financially and it is hard to stick to your gut and do what you want to do in life. Maybe I’d write it down for an older audience to give them inspiration, because when you go to college there is no class on how to do your own thing. That’s probably the extent of what my writing career would be.
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