Rapper's rap for selling songs

Date: Mar 08, 2009

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http://www.elavi.co.uk



A RAPPER says his career is under threat after 200 CDs of his own music were confiscated as he sold them on the street.

Music graduate Elavi Dowie, 27, was selling his single Free Your Mind for 50p a disc to shoppers in Manchester's Market Street. Manchester Council is prosecuting the rapper, who also plays guitar, bass and keyboard, for alleged illegal street trading.

He fears he will no longer follow in the footsteps of U.S. hip-hop heroes Jay-Z and Nas - who also started by peddling their rhymes on street corners.

But Elavi, of St John's Road, Old Trafford, hopes to beat the rap as he is not selling bootleg music, but his own material.

He said: "There may be illegal street traders out there, but my music is not illegal.

Independent

"All I am trying to do is get my tracks out, in the true sense of independent music - something this city has always prided itself on."He said plainclothes police had been sympathetic, but council officers urged them to confiscate his music.

He said: "I told them to listen so they'd know it was my stuff.

"I'm not getting at the council because they're just doing a job. But it's tough for up-and-coming artists to get their stuff heard and this is one of the only ways of doing it."

Elavi is using a law from 1871 to get back on the streets. He said: "I've applied for a peddler's licence from the police, which should enable me to sell as long as I'm not doing it from one place like a stall."

Elavi's CD sales had been `doing brilliantly', and enabled him to record an album, Soul Science, that he hopes to distribute at Market Street HMV .

Terry Doyle, HMV shop manager, said: "We do support local artists and we'll sell their CDs as long as it's their own stuff and not samples.

"Once we get Elavi's album, we'll have a listen, sort out the details and get it on the shelves."

A council spokeswoman said: "Mr Dowie has been advised about the provisions of street trading legislation a number of times but he continued to sell his goods.

"His case will be taken for prosecution."