B. ALEXIS… BLACK HISTORY IN THE MAKING
What an honor to serve as Executive Producer for B. Alexis. Here we are in 2020 during the 9th & Gasoline sessions. Photo: Fury Young
FREER Family,
So.
It’s funny. I think about the past years of FREER Records and Die Jim Crow Records, and I remember on Black History Month — our primary focus would be to post musicians who’ve made Black history in prison. We would post everyone from Frank Morgan, the fantastic saxophonist, to the Lady Lifers and the sensational Ike White, who made an incredible R&B album in the ’70s. They repurposed a gas chamber in his prison to make it a studio for him to record.
I’ve enjoyed telling the stories of these people — some of them we know personally, like Maxwell Melvins, who was the producer of the Lifers Group. You guys know that is our founding Senior Advisor here at FREER Records. We’ve been working with Maxwell since the early days, 2017. But this year for Black History Month, we’ve been super focused on offering an output that's OUR OWN BLACK HISTORY. That project is 9th & Gasoline by B. Alexis, who’s an incredible rapper, poet, songwriter. She’s a great PHILOSOPHER.
B.’s latest single, a deeply introspective track.
As a teacher’s assistant at the Yale School of Divinity and Wesleyan University, I teach-assist a class about The Divine Comedy. We break down its text through the lens of incarceration, hip-hop, and gospel. In my class, where we’re talking about literature that was written in the 14th century, we’ve been comparing B. Alexis’ parables and anecdotes to this classic, timeless text that they’re teaching at Yale. Her lyrics are truly PROFOUND.
A woman has NEVER recorded an album in prison and put it out. That’s what’s happening on February 27th, 2026. Courtesy of FREER RECORDS.
Look how far we’ve come. From reporting on, archiving and immortalizing these amazing feats of Black history to being the BLACK FUTURE. God willing, after February 27 — this will be HISTORY.
We still use snail mail guys
From a recent letter from Fury to Britt
What an honor it is for me to have executive produced this album. Thank you, B. Alexis, for allowing me to be a part. You guys have no idea how hard it is to collaborate from behind the wall. The level of faith you have to put in someone as you hand over your precious art. It’s extremely difficult. It’s been a partnership that has strengthened us both in a lot of professional and personal ways.
It’s been a gratifying journey of COMMUNITY-BUILDING, a blessing to work with Fury Young on this for so many years. He was the person who went down to the southern prison that she’s in and auditioned her as well as recorded her. He had the VISION to put me and B. Alexis together on that creative path.
Not only that, but now he takes the reins in a different but well-connected path — the creative direction. The branding, the aesthetic of these FEARLESS words and sounds. I am so proud of my team, and I’m so happy for and proud of B. ALEXIS.
Her work's depth will change the path of someone’s life — one at least. We’re going to make sure of it. In this album; B. Alexis is baring her complete SOUL in all of her flaws, mess and ugliness. While also making sure to always share her HOPE, her FAITH, love, her intact SPIRIT.
We’re going to take this album and tour it in placements all over this country for juveniles and incarcerated people. We have been in those SAME SEATS as youth. And B. Alexis & I, as little young writers that were incarcerated — if somebody would have come in and showed us that album through a movie — telling us about this young, poor Black girl’s life… seeing what she was able to create behind those WALLS, it would have changed our LIVES.
So not only are we going to make history, not only is it going to be the first to do blah blah blah… — it’s going to change some FUCKING LIVES.
And I feel like that’s what really is making FREER separate from the pack.
Excuse my candor. We are really building a COMMUNITY. I have so much pride in noticing its RIPPLE EFFECT. One of B. Alexis’ number-one fans was incarcerated and they share losing their sons. She said her music helps her heal.
“It soothes my heart. Ever since my son died, my heart has been hurt ever since — literally… physically. I’ve had a physical pain in my chest every breath I’ve took for the past 10 years. Her music… it eases that ache some.” — Rickina Chanel
Sometimes I think people lose sight of what we’re supposed to be doing here in this nonprofit industry. WE HAVEN’T.
We love you all for being a part of this journey. We still need your help. I’m writing this not only to document our own HISTORY, I’m also doing so to find more RESOURCES for this unreal accomplishment. We’re looking to raise an additional $3K for B.’s marketing budget. More on that in a minute.
“The first time I met Britt was in 2018 when she attended an audition and was the only serious person who showed up, super prepared with a fiery piece called ‘Black In The USA.’ It was on point to the Die Jim Crow album I was working on — I could tell Britt was super focused.”
- Fury Young, Creative Director
First, some more history.
B. Alexis and I met in 2019 at a writing session. In the writing camp, I got to know who she was as an artist and the things that she wanted to include in her sound. I learned about her subject matter in her songs, which are so rich and deep. What I love about her style is she’s so ECONOMICAL with her words, she never sacrifices her point for the sake of a rhyme. Then I returned to executive-produce the album in 2020, weeks before the pandemic — where we built a studio in a prison group room and LOCKED IN. Fury filming it all.
I brought my producer Trvp Lvne. We created sounds on the spot catered specifically to her work. Shortly after, the state that she’s incarcerated in (which will remain nameless) would reject all of her potential releases. It was too REAL and RAW. That was a huge blow to our cause. We had to decide: do we adhere to the state — the very thing that we’re not only in partnership with, but we also fight against? We landed on the conclusion that her work is way too IMPORTANT. We can’t adhere to CENSORSHIP pressures of the state. After getting banned from conducting programming in her state, we decided to put her message out anyway — her first message being “BLACK BARBIE.”
There have been starts and stops on her project due to these censorship issues, due to funding slow-ups, due to an enormous amount of things. But once we decided that we were ALL IN, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
2022. I was spending countless days mixing with my engineer Bear-One, arranging, remixing, going back, tweaking here, bringing in violinists, mandolin players, banjo players, live guitars — trying to give the music just as much of a TIMELESS feel as the lyricism. I wanted them to MATCH.
Late that year, we went to her hometown and met her family — her grandmother, son, and other people in her community.
And in 2024, her son, Ja’Mir Johnson died. He was MURDERED.
On his next birthday after his death, she put out a song. Not only in dedication to her son — but for the children with incarcerated parents called “I Can’t Lie.” That was her outlet. Her response to losing her best friend, her only child; her legacy was to try and save some other kids’ lives. That speaks to her CHARACTER.
In 2025, we went back to her hometown to gather more of her story and began building the visual album and documentary with her loved ones.
This album is so good, it deserves the Rap Album of the Year GRAMMY. It deserves all the bells and whistles through all generations. If we were in the 90’s it would deserve 5 MICS.
To truly reach the audiences this album deserves, we need a modest but strategic marketing budget. Even a small spend has already proven impact — a single $75 IG ad recently earned B. Alexis nearly 100 new, real, engaged fans and followers, showing how responsive audiences are once they discover her work.
A $3,000 promotional budget would allow us to scale that momentum across the platforms where music discovery actually happens:
YouTube Ads — $1,200
Targeted video ads typically deliver 10k–20k real music-interested viewers, driving sustained streams and subscriber growth.Instagram Ads — $600
Artist-focused IG campaigns average 2k–4k profile visits and saves, converting casual viewers into followers.TikTok Ads — $600
Short-form music promotion regularly generates 20k–50k impressions, helping songs reach algorithmic discovery lanes.Micro-Influencers & Creator Posts — $400
Small creator placements usually produce high-trust engagement and shares, especially within niche hip-hop and prison-justice audiences.New Music Sites & Reaction Channels — $200
Blog features and reaction videos provide long-tail discovery and credibility, keeping the album circulating over time.
This level of support ensures that B. Alexis’s historic release reaches the listeners, communities, and incarcerated youth it was created to impact.
Since January 16, 2026; we have released 3 MORE SINGLES from her upcoming project — with NO PLANS TO SLOW DOWN.
Y’all are already a huge part of this ICONIC MOMENT.
We need y’all to push to the FINISH LINE.
Her talent alone would be worth it. But she’s got SO MUCH MORE.
She has HEART.
She has FAITH.
She has a GOOD SOUL.
She has GREAT HUMANITY.
This is a community that I’m proud of and that I believe in. I believe we have built this thing so TIGHT that when we tell y’all what we need, y’all can help make it happen. So any resource you think can help make this happen — even if it’s not money, even if it’s a powerful person you know in the music industry — we’re here to receive it.
PLEASE CONNECT US. PLEASE DONATE.
Thank you so much.
BL Shirelle
Executive Producer, 9th & Gasoline
P.S. Special thanks to Mickey Hoover, Lauren Vanzandt-Escobar, Teddy Rex King, Jimmy Giambrone, Britni West, dr. Israel, Bear-One, Dan Millice, Trvp Lvne, Royal Young, and Brian Goodwin.
L-R: creative director Fury Young, B. Alexis, recording engineer dr. Israel, executive producer BL Shirelle (crouching), beatmaker Trvp Lvne, featured artist Godjdess. Photo: Fury Young, 2020.