The collective and non-profit record label will also release their first double album Jail Time Vol.1 on 30 November.
Jail Time Records is a project based out of Douala Central Prison in Cameroon, working with formerly and currently incarcerated rappers, artists, producers and filmmakers. Their latest release, Show Me the Way, comes from JEJE – the label’s first female incarcerated artist. The single is Jail Time Records’ fifth track release and comes ahead of a 24-track album later this month. JEJE, who is Nigerian but has lived in Cameroon with her extended family since she was a child, has also been working on her debut record, set for release next year.
In 2018, Jail Time Records set up a recording studio inside Douala Central Prison – the first permanent recording facilities within an African prison. Since then, the project has evolved into a collective of musicians, producers and filmmakers both inside and outside the Cameroonian prison.
Their forthcoming album Jail Time Vol.1 spans rap, afrobeat, trap, drill and afro-house tracks and the different languages spoken in Cameroon: French, English, Douala, Fulbè, Bamoun, Bassa and Sango. The album will also be accompanied by the release of a video for track Offline, which is a collaboration between two Jail Time Records members, D.O.X. and Vidou H. The visuals were shot inside the Texas and Regime quarters of the Douala Central Prison which no longer exist following a fire in 2020.
Jail Time Records is a registered charity and was founded by artist, filmmaker and teacher Dione Roach after living in Cameroon between 2017 and 2018, where she worked for Italian NGO, Centro Orientamento Educativo. The project aims to help with social integration in addition to offering the resources for those within and outside the prison with the resources to make music and giving them a voice and platform to share their experiences.
Listen to Show Me the Way below.
Read: Jail Time Records: The collective running a record label inside a Cameroonian prison.
