Filed under: Brotherman, Home Schooled, Numero Press, Press Archives, Soul Messages from Dimona
When Ken Shipley called me last Spring and asked, “What are you doing right now?”, I told him the truth. I was in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC, and I was on my way to purchase Krispy Kreme donuts, alone. It was 1 pm on what is popularly considered “a work day.” Little did I know he was about to offer me a job at the Numero Group, the only drawback to which has been the relative scarcity of Krispy Kreme donuts. I’ve managed to adapt.
Having written about so many Numero releases during my time at Wax Poetics, I was surprised to learn upon my arrival in Chicago that these same titles, those that I had spilt so much honest ink over, were just okay sellers. And while Kid Soul seems a consistent draw, Soul Messages from Dimona and Brotherman seem to have plateaued somewhere in the fiftieth percentile. Soul Messages chronicles the origins of my absolute favorite international vegan soul food franchise, and Brotherman is a thoughtful collection of sophisticated scratch tracks for a Blaxploitation flick unrealized. What else needs to be said? So while I look forward to researching, developing, and catapulting many new Numero titles into the marketplace, I felt compelled to post a few of these articles—to reintroduce myself to all of the label’s fantastic supporters, and reintroduce these fantastic records to folks who may have passed them over in the past. They’re very good records. But don’t take my word for it [cue Reading Rainbow sound bite]!
