New Bell prison in Douala, Cameroon, is basically a city, if that city had its own taxi service (inmates running messages), law enforcement (burly prisoners helping guards), and a market selling fried cassava and beignet pastries. But the real hustle is Jail Time Records, an on-studio music label turning convicts into mini-celebrities.
Empereur, the prison's top gang leader, has racked up 24,000 YouTube views with a music video shot entirely behind bars. Inmates' songs have fans in South Africa, the US, and Argentina. The label even threw a concert in the prison courtyard earlier this year.
Co-founder Steve Happi, a former inmate who was allegedly framed by his aunt (a high court judge) for his father's murder, says, "It's this instrument of resistance… where we can really share friendship, love and our voices can be heard." The studio is a sweaty booth with a single computer, but it's a hotbed of catharsis and creativity.
A documentary about the project, directed by Happi and Italian artist Dione Roach, won three prizes at New York's Tribeca film festival, including best documentary feature. It features inmates like Stone, a former presidential guard serving 10 years for robbery and illegal firearms (he claims innocence), who raps about shattered senses and cell doors while struggling to reach his daughter Maira by phone.
Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi, an executive producer, says, "The music that comes out of there is amazing… I think having an outlet is an incredibly powerful and humane thing."
Jail Time Records launched in 2018 after Roach volunteered at a prison event and saw rappers freestyling. She got permission, enlisted Happi, and they released an album, Jail Time Vol 1, in 2022, splitting profits with artists.
New Bell is notoriously grim: in 2022, Human Rights Watch reported 4,700 inmates in a facility designed for four times fewer. Unsanitary conditions led to a cholera outbreak that killed six inmates in 2020. In 2008, guards shot 16 prisoners during an attempted breakout. Violence is rampant - the documentary shows Empereur shaking down a young inmate for flip-flops.
But Roach insists the project is about rehabilitation: "We enter the prison without any judgment… Music… is also a way of self-discovery… coming to terms with things you've done and hopefully changing for the better." Prison authorities agree - the head of the prison danced at this year's concert.
The label has expanded to include women, like Jeje, who debuted in 2022 with an Afrobeats song about escaping an abusive uncle. And in 2023, Roach and Happi set up a studio in Burkina Faso's central prison. The documentary ends with a tribute to six prisoners who died during the project.
Happi says music gives inmates a "lantern for a brighter future." They now feel "important" and like they "have a place in the society."