In episode eight of Mixcloud Presents: The Inside Track, Mixcloud Co-Founder and CEO Nico Perez is joined by NIKS and DJ Westfa. NIKS is the Co-Founder of the Black Artist Database (B.A.D), a crowd-sourced list of Black artists, producers and labels, while DJ Westfa is the organisation’s Events Coordinator.

B.A.D was launched in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd and “to surface the richness of creative talent from the global Black diaspora, in pursuit of wage equity, transparency and stable employment for our extended creative communities.” It has since expanded to include events, a record label and workshops with the likes of Ableton.

NIKS and DJ Westfa discuss the origins of B.A.D as a Google spreadsheet, the role of Bandcamp in the organisation’s development and the mechanisms of the B.A.D record label.

Later, they ponder whether the music industry has changed for the better for Black people, and stress the need for diverse club and festival lineups.

The eighth episode of The Inside Track follows appearances by Francois K, Charlie Bones, Whitney Wei, Yancey Strickler, David Zhou, Elijah and Andreea Magdalina. Stream now on Mixcloud, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.