Submitted by Amelia Robinson
FORT LAUDER-DALE, FL — Creating an album is no easy feat. Creating one from inside one of the most overcrowded and under-resourced jail systems in the country? Nearly impossible. But that’s exactly what Bending the Bars set out to do. The result is a groundbreaking hip-hop album written and performed by incarcerated artists from Florida’s Broward County Jail that provides a platform for hidden talent and a blueprint for similar projects nationwide. Released on June 11, 2025 by FREER Records, Bending the Bars will also be followed by a documentary detailing its creation. A series of single releases with precede the full album from March 31, 2025.
Prison may confine bodies, but it can’t cage creativity. Executive Producer Gary Field, a writer/scholar incarcerated in Broward County Jail, witnessed firsthand the untapped artistry behind bars. He recounts nightly eruptions of impromptu rap battles; artists banging on doors and chests, trading dirty south freestyles in an environment that had produced hip-hop legends like Kodak Black and YNW Melly. This was talent—raw, untapped, and desperately in need of a platform. “Many incarcerated artists possess the same ingenuity as entrepreneurs and musicians on the outside—they just lacked opportunity.” Teaming up with the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP), which collected poetry and music from distressed incarcerated individuals, Gary met co-producers Nikki Morse and Noam Brown and started Bending the Bars.
Recording a high-quality album in jail meant overcoming immense obstacles. Without access to recording equipment, artists rapped into a jail phone, listening to beats through an adjacent phone while CHIP covered call costs and producers cleaned up audio. Outside collaborators, like GRAMMY-winning Alphabet Rockers, helped craft beats and build arrangements in coordination with the artists while honoring artists’ creative control.
Through the production experience, Bending the Bars became a unifier. Artists from rival gangs—Bloods, Crips, Zoe Pound, Latin Kings—set aside differences to collaborate. “These were people who wouldn’t normally be in the same room,” says Field. “But through music, they came together.”
At the core of Bending the Bars are universal messages of self-compassion and hope; and an appeal for systemic change. With over 3,000 county jails in the U.S., Bending the Bars serves as a replicable model for using music to empower, rehabilitate, and connect incarcerated individuals with opportunities that extend far beyond prison walls. The upcoming documentary will further provide a roadmap for expanding access to creative platforms nationwide
Bending the Bars is proof that talent, creativity, and resilience can thrive even in the most unlikely places. It’s an invitation for others to follow suit, to create platforms for the incarcerated, and to recognize the abundant artistry that exists behind bars and razor wire.
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For media inquiries or additional information, please contact: Amelia Robinson, ameliarobinson@gmail.com, +1 (347) 703-5207. Interviews and hi-res images available upon request. For more information please visit chipsouthfl.org/bending-bars-album and follow them on Instagram, Tiktok & YouTube @bending_the_bars.
Listen to the full album on Spotify | Apple | Available anywhere you stream music (after June 11, 2025)
Advanced listening link & media download only via Soundcloud
Socials: LinkTree | Instagram | Tiktok | YouTube
Link to EPK (includes hi res images, audio files, lyrics, credits, artist notes)
Documentary Release coming 2026
Album Title: Bending the Bars
Artist: Various Artists (ASCAP)
Producers: Gary Field, Nikki Morse, Noam Brown
Label: FREER Records
Release Date: June 11, 2025
Single Release Schedule 2025:
Hands Up – 3/31
Before I Leave this World of Mine – 4/7
PTSD – 4/14
Locked Down – 4/21
8th Floor – 4/28
Party Rockstar – 5/5
dangeRUSH – 5/12
County Time – 5/19
Tearing Down Walls and Building Bridges – 5/26
About CHIP
Founded in 2020, the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP) is a grassroots organization amplifying the voices of incarcerated individuals through media, art, and advocacy. From documenting jail conditions to producing music and podcasts, CHIP is committed to prison abolition, justice, and systemic change. chipsouthfl.org/bending-bars-album
About the PRODUCERS
Gary Field is an organizer and Advisory Board member of the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP). Field is a writer with over 1500 pages published online at MIT’s Between the Bars, several magazines, and books, including Don’t Shake the Spoon Volume 2 and Intentional Christianity. His soon-to-be-published book is Snapshots of Grace. Although he attended Columbia University while incarcerated studying theology, he received his Masters from Gulf Coast Bible College. His philosophy: “if I landed here because of decisions I made in the past, what kind of things can I do today that will make for a better tomorrow.”
Nikki Morse is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a founding member of the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP). Their research has been published in Feminist Media Studies, Porn Studies, Jump Cut, Discourse, and elsewhere. They are also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, which has landed them on Turning Point USA’s Professor Watchlist.
Noam Brown is a founding member of the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP) and initiator of the Bending the Bars album project. He has been involved in social justice activism and community building in so-called South Florida for 20+ years and is committed to prison abolition and anti-oppression in all its forms. Professionally Noam is a children’s music specialist with particular emphasis on the early childhood age group.
Messages from the ARTISTS
“Every struggle has its peaceful place with music. That’s the power center” ~ Prince Jooveh
“Listening to my poetry and music, that’s how I come to understand me” ~ Poetic Prophet 4262
“It released a lot of freedom in me” ~ Chuckie Lee (Bride of Chuckie)
“I always want to make people smile… I just want to have this good energy that is infectious.” ~ LarryPak
“Music is what our souls are really saying” ~ Chance
“It aint hard doing right” ~ Flame
“I hummed myself back to sanity” ~ ZQ
“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to set in motion a chain of events that leads to a 10 or 20 year prison sentence” ~ Gary Field
Learn more about the Collaborators HERE
TRACK LIST (See here for full credits)
8th Floor feat. Kashdat (3:19)
Hands Up feat. Prince Jooveh with tuesday tuenasty (4:10)
Before I Leave This World of Mine feat. POETIC PROPHET 4262 (4:03)
dangeRUSH feat Corvette Cal with Alphabet Rockers* (3:27)
Barbie Rockstar feat. Chuckie Lee (Bride of Chuckie) (2:14)
PTSD feat. LarryPak with SaulPaul** (4:06)
Locked Down feat. Chance with AK (2:19)
No Good Deeds feat. Flame (2:31)
Four Walls feat. OTW Ghostman (2:33)
County Time feat ZQ with Tramaine Parker and Wise (3:36)
Mo’ Money feat. 1Way Pooh (3:00)
A Message From a King feat Smoke109. (4:44)
We Gotta Break It feat J4 (3:37)
Hard Conversations and Getting Free feat J4 and Nikki (2:18)
Better Days feat. FLAMAN with GABRL (2:00)
Tearing Down Walls and Building Bridges feat. Gary Field with Paul Reid (3:51)
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 51:58
*GRAMMY winners
** GRAMMY nominated
