Between 2017 and 2018, the artist and videographer Dione Roach travels to Cameroon via the Italian NGO COE (Centro Orientamento Educativo) to animate painting workshops inside the central prison of Douala. “I didn’t expect to find so much chaos, but I expected to have quite a strong experience. It was still quite shocking to see how overcrowded the prison was. There were people everywhere. ‘was humanly very intense,’ says Dione Roach to RTS. In prison, she also organizes dance and music events. On this occasion, she discovered a group of rappers called La Meute des Penseurs.
She then decided to launch a musical project aimed at producing an album by the rap collective and succeeded in getting the COE to finance the construction of a recording studio in the prison as part of their activities aimed at promoting reintegration. social of prisoners. The recording studio was born in October 2018 and the collective’s first songs were recorded by a volunteer sound engineer.
>> To see: the clip “Offline” of Jail Time, DOX ft. Vidou H
Show more
A welcome occupation
When she arrives at the prison, Dione Roach is surprised to find that many inmates are sitting around doing nothing. His project therefore offers them an occupation and that is what makes it successful. The recording studio sees hundreds of artists parade. All musical genres are represented hip-hop, R&B, afro-sound, world music, gospel. The project evolves into a multimedia label that offers a platform and a voice for artists in prison or ex-convicts.
In December 2021, a new Jail Time Records recording studio is built outside the prison. The new studio is essential for the reintegration of ex-convicted artists into the community. The goal is for artists in prison to be able to continue cultivating their musical talent once released.
Since the start of the project, nearly 500 tracks have been recorded, twenty of which can be found on a first compilation that has just been released. Five singles have been released in the past two years and the latest, released just before the release of the compilation, is by a singer named Jeje, as the prison is co-ed. “The women’s section is on the other side of the prison, separate from the men’s section. There is also a section for minors. It is clear that it is easier to work with the men, because the studio is on their side of the prison. For women, we need special permits. It’s more complicated,” says Dione Roach.
>> To see: the clip “Fils du terre terre” (freestyle) by Jail Time Records, Stone Larabik
Show more
A compilation like an immersion
The compilation is called “Jail Time Records Vol 1.” and offers 24 titles for an immersion journey in the daily life of prisoners with interludes during which we hear the noises of the prison or the telephone calls of the prisoners to their family.
When one discovers the album, the eye is directly attracted by the visuals that accompany the releases of the Jail Time Records label, because the clips were also shot inside the prison. Many groups have tried to recreate the dark and fascinating atmosphere of prisons, with varying degrees of success, but never have music videos managed to convey this setting as well as in the videos of Jail Time Records.
The project continues to expand. Dione Roach is currently replicating the experiment in a prison in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
Radio subject: Michel Ndeze
Adaptation web: ld
