Elle Barbara Word on the Street

Word on Street was written, composed, arranged, and produced by Elle Barbara, in close collaboration with Renny Wilson, who recorded, engineered, and mixed the album over a challenging 8-year arc that saw Elle frequently eating off as little as $11 CAD / week. In that sense, Word on the Street is a victory against class struggle and nepotism, and is a brazen testament to how a low-income, welfare-assisted, middle-aged, Black male-to-female transsexual beat the odds, using all resources to make the music of her mind while ignoring music industry conventions.

Word on the Street is also vehemently radical and independent, and is inspired by the ways in which consumerist attitudes and the current technological times cause our relationship to art to deteriorate, in addition to feeling increasingly alienated from one another.

Featuring a wide array of influences including Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, a True Star and Prince & the Revolution's Around The World in a Day, each track on Word on the Street, as well as being highly melodic, conjures up unique pictures composed of seemingly incongruous images, such as corrupt justice systems, aliens, industrial food production, the prophecies of Nostradamus, evangelism, and the Montreal Canadiens hockey team.



Word on the Street is a mixed bag whose conspiratorial aesthetic belies an anti-consumerism stance, encouraging resistance against the rise of AI and other systems of technological oppression and surveillance.