Roosevelt Franklin, the funky, funny, sarcastic and talented duo comprised of Mr. Len and Kimani Rogers, have decided to release their second album online for free. Following a growing trend, as can be seen by a few recent releases such as Serengeti’s Race Trading album and Myka9’s Citrus Sessions album, the group decided to make their work freely available for mass consumption with the hope that it would be listened to by as many people as possible. They even passed on a deal with BadBoy! Probably ’cause they knew it meant Puffy would have to rhyme or hum or hiss or do whatever he does over the lead single. Here’s the proof:

other sites have questioned why we are doing this.
they think it is a bad idea on our part, and that we are devaluing our music.
and as i see there perspective i would have appreciated it if they would have first asked us our motivation. we didn’t do it because we couldn’t find a label to put the record out (more on that in a minute). my personal reasoning was so that elisha cuthbert might by some chance hear my song. if you think that is a stupid idea, well then i don’t know what to say.

now we in fact did get a couple offers from some major labels. to prove it to you i will show you the emails that we got in response. i promise i did not write this shit myself.

to: roosefrank@gmail.com
from: diddy@badboy.com

dear roosevelt franklin,

first let me just say that your insights towards making the band season 4 were very helpful and we have taken note. not surprisingly you seem to be the only person who has demanded that there be more dylan dillinger on the show.
as for the record. i sir diddy did enjoy it. we however have 20 new biggie smalls posthumous releases slated for 2006. we have the biggie duets album featuring biggie along side bobby brown and johnny gill. the best of worst worlds record with biggie and r kelly. the long lost dvd of biggie playing with the harlem globetrotters. and 17 others which i haven’t fully conceptualized yet.
we would like to sign you to a spec deal for the sum of 5 pounds of sean john clothing, and a bunch of leftover g dep cd’s. the contract is in the mail

sean “diddy” combs
bad boy president

But in all seriousness, it is refreshing to see artists begin to grasp the great potential for mass exposure the internet offers. And they are not succumbing to Itunes deals or IODA affiliations to gain this exposure. They are depending on free services that provide hosting and bandwidth and, of course, they are relying on the belief that they are creating quality and worthwhile work. rooseveltfranklin.blogspot.com (via the stranger)