Cameroon prison inmates turn into music stars with jail label
Inside New Bell, inmates cut songs, videos and a double album that later reached Venice, even as the prison remained built for 800.
Jail Time Records says its Cameroon National Pavilion work, NZƎNDA - The Path Home, is open to the public at the Gervasuti Foundation in Venice until 22 November 2026, carrying music made inside New Bell prison onto an international art stage. The label was born inside Douala New Bell Central Prison, where it says a recording studio was set up in 2018.
Jail Time Records describes itself as a non-profit music label and identifies Dione Roach, a visual artist and filmmaker based in Cameroon since 2017, as the co-founder who initiated the studio inside the prison. The label also names Steve Happi, known as Vidou H, as a music producer and DJ who met Roach during his incarceration between 2018 and 2020. Their work has turned prison time into a platform for recorded songs, video production and exhibition pieces, even as the jail setting remains central to the project’s identity.
The label says its first double album, Jail Time Volume 1, was released on November 30 after four single releases. Jail Time Records has also kept pushing out visual work filmed inside the prison walls, including Hands Up High by Big Dre ft. CMK Vibes. The project’s reach now extends beyond the cellblock through a three-channel audiovisual installation featuring video by Roach and music by Happi.
That visibility sits alongside hard realities at New Bell. Tribeca described the project as the first prison recording studio on the African continent and said New Bell Prison was built for 800 inmates, making it one of the most overcrowded prisons in Africa. In 2022, The Guardian framed the studio as offering musical escape in a Cameroon prison, while a 2024 Supporting Act article said Jail Time Records helped incarcerated people in Cameroon share their music with the world.
The contrast defines the project’s appeal and its limits. Jail Time Records gives inmates a route to audiences far beyond Douala, but it does so from inside a prison whose overcrowding remains part of the story. The music can widen what people see of life behind bars; it cannot change the conditions of the bars themselves.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
