Chicago Record Store Hit With Death Threats Over ‘Black Music’

A Chicago document retailer is dealing with racist harassment and loss of life threats for stocking “Black music” and different works by artists of coloration.

Bridgeport Records first opened in 2024, being a beacon of creativity and variety for the neighborhood and its namesake. However, the document store’s proprietor lately acquired a loss of life menace, concentrating on the shop for its numerous assortment.

Bridgeport Records primarily shares dance and home music, thus befitting why it has a wide-range of artists to pick from. The assortment had not appeared to spark subject till lately, when a distressing name alerted house owners Jerry Morrison and Vick Lavender on Dec. 20.

The duo had been watching the Chicago Bears’ sport on the store when a person advised them he had plans to kill them.

“An older white man referred to as and stated he was on his strategy to kill us,” Morrison advised the Chicago Sun-Times. “This was somebody who had been within the retailer, knew the format, knew our music. He stated he knew we promote Black music, rap music, Spanish music in Bridgeport. And he stated we had been going to die.”

Not desirous to danger their lives or their patrons, the house owners shut the shop down for the evening. The menace appeared to have actual legitimacy, as Chicago police decided the person’s location within the neighborhood.

While the loss of life menace was concerning, the house owners and their clients stay undeterred by the racist harassment. Since their opening, they’ve felt embraced by the local people. Through this mission, they need Bridgeport Records to be a “third house” for artists and creatives within the metropolis’s famed Southside.

“The neighborhood loves us. We have shut ties with a number of outstanding deejays and producers,” Morrison stated. “We’ve turn out to be a social hub within the music scene on the South Side.”

Evidently, not everybody appreciated their rising place and influence within the metropolis’s music scene. Despite the backlash, Morrison desires younger folks of coloration to proceed feeling empowered and welcome on the document store.

“We’re not a typical white rock ‘n’ roll document store,” Morrison stated. “He was most likely irritated that he noticed younger, Black and Latino children out and in of our store.”

The man reportedly not solely threatened to kill them with a bomb, however claimed that they had been infringing on the established order of the South Side. However, Morrison is unafraid to result in good, inclusive change to the world.

In reality, he plans to show the music up by Black and Brown artists for the foreseeable future, ensuring this artwork stays heard all through Chicago.

“They ain’t messing with us. We’re going to show up some Black dance music and switch it up loud,” exclaimed Morrison.

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