Rainbow Blonde is an independent record label, multidisciplinary collective, and open-spirited community founded by Talia Billig and José James on a few simple principals: 

One: It's run by artists for artists, making it self-sustaining and fair with no corporate sponsor or shadowy board to please. 
Two: It is a one-stop shop with a superstar in-house crew where everyone, from engineer to art director, is celebrated. 
Three: Music is culture—not product—and deserves not only creativity in the way it's shared, but to have a whole world of art and ideas built around it. 
Four: In the spirit of James' own catalog and Billig’s own worldview, the label rides for artists whose work fearlessly, furiously ignores genre and trends in order to stand for something. 

And five, none of this works if you aren't having any fun doing it. 

"It's an exciting moment for artists of all types to take ownership of what they do," says James, who's been inspired by Janelle Monae's Wondaland Arts Society, Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder, and Solange's Saint Heron, among others. "A label now can be so much more than business. To me, it's a hub for any creative people still in the game who just want to be involved with good work."

And Rainbow Blonde's team is rich with those folks—proven powerhouses who've never shirked the spirit that brought them to music in the first place. All were hand-picked by James and Billig, and most are people they’ve worked with and kept close for the better part of their decade-long experience in the business. Both James and Billig have functioned as curators for years, and both served as an unofficial A&R for Blue Note Records, so gathering their squad together was second nature. And with their combined talents, passions and networks, the potential for thrilling collaboration is limitless, stretching into film, fashion, editorial, events, visual art, and far beyond.

"We want to take back that space of allowing artists to be fully creative without feeling inundated by the confines of big business," says Kristin Lee, an ex-rocker who runs finances for musicians, athletes, actors, and, now, Rainbow Blonde. "We thought, 'Why don't we take this opportunity to develop this into something that highlights and grows our collective culture for our own people?"

The art department includes not only Berlin-based former Blue Note designer Hayden Miller, but legendary U.K. punk and golden-age hip-hop photographer Janette Beckman. There's producer/engineer Brian Bender, whose credits span both music (Bing & Ruth, KT Tunstall) and film (Lemon, The Mars Generation). And then there's Taali, who cut her teeth working alongside storied Blue Note presidents Bruce Lundvall and Don Was, founded the Orchard Sessions video salon, and is heading up the label's community-building side. 

"I worked, for years, under Blue Note Records / Universal, and I always felt discouraged that the absolutely brilliant people in every element of the process weren't being celebrated as the artists they are. Product managers, publicists, album artwork designers, all of these people create a work, not just musicians. We picked people whose visions we love and want to see more of, people who will flourish without restriction. Someone like Janette you just can trust to capture the visual aspect of your art," says Taali, who brought in The Year of Spectacular Men's Maddie Deutch to direct her first music video. "It's empowering to discover you can leave an industry that wasn't built for you and build it yourself."

For James, it's been a long time coming. He's been blazing his own trail through music from the get-go. The '90s child of a saxophonist from the funk-and-pop-muddling Minneapolis scene, he never saw the lines between genres. Tribe, Beasties, Radiohead. Even the jazz artists he loved, like Coltrane, played fast and loose with style and James carried that into his career as a singer, bandleader, and songwriter. His first two albums came out on DJ Gilles Peterson's Brownswood imprint and were inspired by London's sonically omnivorous club culture. And when Was signed him to Blue Note, he was among a groundswell of composers—Robert Glasper, Christian Scott, Gregory Porter—stomping all over the borders of jazz, hip-hop, soul, rock, electronic, whatever.

Even on that hallowed label, James did his own thing. Taali worked there at the time and recalls, "José showed up to our first meeting with a tour booked and an entire marketing plan, which we used. He actually saved us a lot of money." He did the same for Takuya Kuroda, and others too, after he scouted the Japanese trumpeter and brought him in. He even produced Kuroda's album and assembled the band that plays on it. He's similarly given a leg up to his bandmates over the years. He launched a viral video series around his drummer Nate Smith, and after seeing Taali play an intimate gig in New York, he invited her join him as a studio cowriter and touring vocalist. Whether it's his music or his people's, James applies the same verve, inventiveness and clarity.

"If it was up to me, I'd put out a new album of my own every six months but the market doesn't like that," laughs James. "With Rainbow Blonde, I finally have something that matches my level of creative output. I can sign an artist, work on their project, and feel that sense of satisfaction."

And thanks to his and his crew's background as artists in their own right, they're offering actual artist deals—with no publishing cuts, no sunset clauses, no endless options—to their growing roster. "We're intent on maximizing the benefits of the people who should receive it," says Bender. "The most exciting thing for me is to be able to advance the careers of people I believe in." This isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. It isn't even meant to feel like a business. It is, as Beckman puts it, "A family. As a photographer, like a lot of creative roles, you often jump in and out of people's lives. Being part of an inspired collective is the coolest. It's just: collaborate, collaborate, collaborate." 

Indeed, that is the engine at the heart of Rainbow Blonde. To wit, the label already has already released Taali’s sweeping debut album “I Am Here” and subsequent acoustic EP “Were Most Of Your Stars Out?” alongside Bright & Guilty’s cutting edge electropop first single “Soft Age.” New signee Ben Williams steps into the role of singer and bandleader with his fearless civil rights manifesto “I Am A Man” (out February 2020), and José James himself will finally reprise his classic “No Beginning No End 2” (out March 2020). Just two years into its mission, Rainbow Blonde already spans projects that'll give all of that music the rich, colorful and expansive home—a destination for culture—that it ought to have.