Cody ChesnuTT, Fela Kuti, and Barack Obama!!

Does anyone out there remember Cody ChesnuTT from his famed and heavily talked about debut The headphone Masterpiece released in 2004? The Headphone Masterpiece inspired the The Roots to cover Cody's song The Seed and there version with him singing the hook became an international hit for the band. Anyway, what folks don't know about Cody is that before that in 1999 he was signed with Hollywood Records with a band that he lead called The Crosswalk and in that year produced one of the best unreleased albums of the last 20 years, entitled "Venus Loves a Melody." Hollywood Records foolishly dropped the band and never released the album; the frustration led Cody into his home studio to produce the highly personal under-produced 4 track recorded album that is now fairly legendary. I must mention that Cody and I have an active business partnership and friendship, well our friendship is much more active as Cody hasn't been very active lately musically. I want to say for the record that those who have heard the Headphone Masterpiece would probably think that Cody is a masochistic, oversexed, pimp who yells at his kids and gets high all day. He is infact the opposite; The Headphone Masterpiece was a collection of short stories or observations of characters that Cody has met along the way during life. Alot of the characters are influenced by his own stories as well; like, the tune My Woman My Guitars is actually about his struggles at the time dealing with multiple woman and how it was breaking down his spirit. The pimp songs however are purely fictional observations of people that he has known. At this time in Cody's life he lives on a Farm in Florida with his wife and son and is a deeply pensive and spiritual man who is looking to find a space musically to communicate his new found learning and love for life and God in a way that people can receive and enjoy. With that, you can understand why it is taking him so long to come out with another album.

I have toured the workd with Cody and spent hours on the phone with him talking about Sprituality, politics, race, and the music business and he has come to the point in his life where he wants to release any fear of conforming and just release music that he feels in the moment and not wait for a deal, the industry, a particular genre, or audience to dictate his musical expression. As a manager and indie label guy that obviously defies the logic of my marketing plans, but I truely believe in Cody as a human being and as a miraculous talent so I'm riding. I told Cody soon after Obama announced that he would be running for the democratic nomination that I was going to start volunteering and contributing to campaign. Cody, at that time like many of my friends was very skeptical as he didn't really know his background and wanted to learn more about who the man was in his heart. I was actually skeptical in the very beginning as well; but a good friend of mine who happened to know Obama personally vouced for his character and I respected this particular friend's judge of character very highy, so I was in. After numerous converstations about Obama with Cody and his own observations, he eventually was in and in a big way. He was so happy when he clinched th nomination. I told me that he was working on something that he wanted me to check out. This morning I opened up my email and I recieved this Fela Kuti inspired track called Afrobama that I am now sharing with you. He wanted people to have it; so I hope that you enjoy it!! Peace!