Contraband was created to increase awareness and involvement in the modern day criminal legal system reform and abolition movement. I believe everything is political and one of my greatest learning points in residence with the Civil Rights Corps is that the key to the massive change of the criminal legal system is not one sided. It will take policy making, art, community organizing, movement lawyering and many other tools to attack this system. As a black artist I draw from my wrongful arrests in the south and the experiences of my Black Nashville community with MNPD. It’s my responsibility to infuse these ideologies into my work, while maintaining a high taste level because I ain’t fina make or listen to no boring rap.
Contraband speaks on my personal experience with the police, the harms of the prison industrial complex, the necessity of community, and the history of policing in America. To energize the fighters, to humanize the ignored, and to organize the people. When black enslaved folks escaped behind Union lines during the Civil War they were considered both free and “contraband”. Ironically, escaping oppressed conditions by way of contraband has been prevalent in many forms ever since. The hypocrisy and consistency of white supremacy. This EP is a local good and export, specifically created to support and import change in real time.

Contraband

Together

Contraband

Mike Floss