Recent months’ Black Lives Matter protests have drawn the electronic music community’s focus to matters of race and dance music. The timing was right for Inperspective Records boss Chris Inperspective to launch an initiative called the Black Junglist Alliance (BJA).
The BJA lists its mission as “uniting Black artists, professionals and creatives from the world of jungle/drum & bass.” On August 1st, 2020, they inaugurated a YouTube channel called Black Junglist Alliance TV with an exclusive premiere of “Strip” by RAM Records signee Chords. Of the channel, BJA member Caldey Muffett said, “Many other genres of music have a online platform that solely reflects their community through culture, experience and knowledge e.g. SBTV or UKG,” according to Resident Advisor.
Putting it Inperspective
Chris Inperspective (real name Chris Walton) is no stranger to standing up for the overlooked. After founding Inperspective Records in 1997, he began hosting a still-running event series called Technicality in 1999 to “represent the underrepresented in D&B.”
In recent weeks, Walton has set his sights on the racial disparity plagued by drum and bass, a genre rooted in black culture. After posting a viral video outing Hospital Records for unsavory business practices, he argued that “black people should own black art” in a DJ Mag interview.
Follow the Black Junglist Alliance via Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Image credit: Cathy Magnien
