Gentry & The Ebon Road

Part of Sounds of the City
A collaborative project of DC-based artist and composer Kokayi.

Inspiration: Black Broadway (the Ebon Road). The song begins with the sound from the corner of 7th and U and slowly distorts as a representation of the reconstruction and gentrification of U Street.. The sounds meld into street conversations; a father and daughter speaking and then move into chaotic counter melodies and distorted sounds to represent the disenfranchisement of the legacy of U street. In the distance there is the pulsating sound of what was labeled "house flipping" in the submitted sounds it's a 15 minute file. I felt that it was all to apropos. The song also speaks to the hope that out of this melange comes new lives and new energies.

Funk Parade solicited sounds from DC residents from all over the city, and Kokayi combined them into a four-song cycle representing the District.