The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and Ropeadope’s CEO, Louis Marks, and president, Fabian Brown. The pair are ringing in the anniversary of this multifarious label with a scrolling multimedia documentary, a series of panel discussions, and much more. For more information on Ropeadope at 25, click the link at the end of this article.
Ropeadope began with the singular goal of releasing DJ Logic’s Project Logic. A quarter of a century later, singularity remains the name of the game – it’s just that their aperture is wider.
Ropeadope stands alone among jazz labels. In fact, “label” fails to capture its multitudes. The record label-turned-clothing brand, media company, and musicians’ support network launched in 1999; 2024 marks its 25th anniversary.
Everyone from piano great Eddie Palmieri, to funky jazz favourites Snarky Puppy, to rising saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, has released something with Ropeadope. Read on for an interiew with Marks and Brown on this gigantic anniversary.
UK Jazz News: Take the temperature of jazz in 2024. What are you excited or cautious about?
Not yet a subscriber of our Wednesday Breakfast Headlines?
Join the mailing list for a weekly roundup of Jazz News.
Louis Marks: I’ll start with a caution. I’ve been doing this for quite some time, and I’ve never seen [the jazz landscape] flatten out like this, and become so separate from success to failure.
Spotify has taken over the revenue streams, and it’s flattened out to just top people who are active on social media and dropping singles on a regular basis, while people who have put out albums but not put anything else out for a year or two are just drifting into oblivion. So, I’m very, very concerned about where it is right now.
Fabian Brown: Coming off the heels of this pandemic, from the creative side, I think some of the artists are digging in a little bit more introspectively. Some of them have found a special place that’s not shallow; it’s real. They’ve put out some amazing, amazing albums.
But to Louis’s point, with it flatlining – the tech industry definitely has a chokehold, which forces artists to be a little bit more creative in how they’re connecting with their audience. It makes it more intentional, which I think is a great thing.
LM: I believe there are about 120,000 songs uploaded [to streaming services] per week. The thing that’s concerning is what gets lost in that process. I think a lot is getting lost just because there’s too much, or the system doesn’t really work to give people the kinds of things they want.
Let me throw just one example out there: Spotify’s Discovery Mode. Say I’m listening to the new Lakecia Benjamin record, but unless I set it up properly to play the whole album, they will slip Discovery Mode tracks into my listening experience. That takes the person away from what they want to hear.
UKJN: Historically, what has been Ropeadope’s methodology for fighting that glut, that confusion, that oversaturation?
LM: I don’t know if we ever thought about it as This music is better than that music, or This is the right music for people to listen to. I think we just thought about what is unique; let’s polish it up, and give it some shine, and tell people about it.
Twenty-five years is a long time. There have been times where we’ve only had a few albums in a year, and there have been times when we’ve released 70 albums in a year. How do we deal with the amount of music that’s out there? We’re at a chapter closing. After Covid, things got a little better, and then they tailed off.
What we’re going to do in the future is focus on albums that have that nutritional value, as Christian Scott says all the time. On albums that have what we call cultural relevance.
That could be defined as Obed Calvaire’s album, 150 Million Gold Francs. It could also be construed as [any] serious musician working through their process from song to song. Instead of saying, “Here’s a great song. I’m going to pop it out into the ecosystem,” I think a listener can have a nice experience by hearing all the elements that an artist works through in the studio.
FB: Working at Ropeadope for close to a decade now, at this point, a lot of [its growth is due to] artists who are on the roster sharing with their colleagues and friends, saying, “If you’re thinking about putting some things out, check out these guys over at Ropeadope.”
The quality doesn’t go away; I’m very shocked. In the A&R days, you’d have to go out and find this or that – that’s not a thing at Ropeadope. We’ve very fortunate to have a staple of artists who are like, “Hey, man, check out those guys,” so the quality is always there.
The inbox is always filled with great stuff. It becomes challenging, because you want to support everything, but there isn’t enough time nor manpower to do all that.
Louis has a phenomenal way of meeting people where they’re at, and seeing what they’re all about. Before you’re listening to the track, you’re [perceiving]: Can I work with this person? Is this person easy to get along with? Can I imagine myself having a meal or drink with this individual?
Oh, and by the way – they have some dope music. From my perspective, that’s what makes this whole thing beautiful: it’s a roster filled with some amazing, beautiful human beings who just so happen to be extra talented and articulate with what they want to share with the world. We’re the benefactors. We have an amazing catalogue because of that.