The BlackSon And BlackCity Are Generating ‘Free Power’

Entrepreneurial Mychael Carney helped his poet-rapper sibling, The BlackSon conceive of music as a business. Their BlackCity collective has grown into a model of community-minded and empowered economic self-sufficiency.

Rapper The BlackSon and his comrades in the BlackCity collective recognized that they’re operating in the shadow of the Nashville music industry’s consolidated resources, power and influence. So they chose to look elsewhere, searching for a business model more in line with what they’re about: self-sufficiency and the building up of a Black cultural community that’s been undermined in myriad ways.

The BlackSon, born Sean Smith, and a couple of his friends made the turn from spoken-word poetry to rap in their mid-teens; Smith’s older brother Mychael Carney took his sibling’s output seriously enough to build a home studio and help him get organized, setting up a limited liability company and helping to create branded BlackCity merch. “At the core of all of this is entrepreneurship,” Carney explains. “That was the seed that was planted early on.”

Smith mentions the mid-’80s, pioneering southern hip-hop outfit Rap-A-Lot Records and Roc-A-Fella, the self-started New York venture that catapulted Jay-Z, as templates they studied. But Carney points out that they’ve also treated BlackCity like a self-owned version of a pro sports organization in a small market. “A lot of the small teams complain about resources or whatever it is that makes it to where they can’t find proof-of-concept or continuity or success,” he elaborates with conviction. “But then you have these outliers, like the San Antonio Spurs. They don’t make excuses; they make it happen. They make it happen consistently.”

Wimana

Imo Wimana Chadband, known to the creative world as Wimana, is a music enthusiast, songwriter, poet, author, and screenwriter, with 10+ years’ experience working in the creative world.
His love for hip-hop/rap music and writing was discovered in his years at High School, and the rest is as they say, history. Wimana’s passion for journalism and writing would lead to him releasing several creative projects personally, as well as provide writing services professionally for clients globally.
He has written and curated content for various blogs and websites with his unique writing style, and continues to expand his arsenal to give readers the best experience through his work.