Any Random Six

(Media Arts & Literary Institute)

If you don’t know the Jena 6 yet, it’s best you get familiar. December 2006, six black high school students are arrested and detained for beating up a white kid after three nooses are found hanging from the school’s notoriously white tree. Austin’s Media Arts & Literacy Institute now responds with Any Random Six, pulling 20 artists from around the world who say, “I Shine You Shine.” Their tracks weren’t recorded specifically for this album, but they serve as appropriate testament to the collective’s values, each dialing up a call for humanity. The calming tone set on GreenTaRa’s “Revolution Time” counters the rock-hop “Refelections” of Austin’s Diasporic, and Ethiopia’s Gabriel Teodros, dropping rhymes over a D’Angeloan beat, reminds us we’re all “In This Together.” The sentiment of the compilation is simple and best phrased by Pittsburgh’s Jasiri X: “Free the Jena 6.”

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This article appears in February 15 • 2008.

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