Actor & Rapper Everyman Shares Impromptu Performance Netflix Picket Line 10/16/23 - SAG AFTRA STRIKE
Channel: Evan Shafran - EVeryman 
Date: 14/02/2024

from The Los Angeles Times Helen  Li: 

"Each day, Evan Shafran combs through KTLA, CBS, and FOX reports, trying to find news clips talking about the SAG-AFTRA strike.

“Hold onto your resolve,” Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA president says in Shafran’s latest strike-themed mix. “This is our moment of truth.” The beats ramp up before the bass drops into another song.

Shafran has become the de facto DJ of the Netflix picket lines. Every morning, he drives 15 miles from his apartment in Shadow Hills to Sunset Boulevard and sets up his subwoofer in front of the company’s headquarters.

Picket lines are best known for chants and slogans. But as workers across L.A. went on strike this summer and fall, music became a consistent presence and pillar of morale for the writers, hotel workers and actors pushing for higher wages and better working conditions. Through music, striking workers have found community and their own subcultures.

“Otherwise, I’d be sitting at my house just sad and depressed and feeling helpless,” Shafran told me. “The music has saved me and I know that it saved a lot of other people.”

The DJ at Netflix

Shafran began DJing when he was growing up in Portland, Maine. A fan of artists like the Beastie Boys, the Roots, Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine, he credits rock and hip-hop as genres that have shaped his tastes in music. But more importantly, it’s hip-hop’s roots as a political movement that inspire his current work on the picket lines.

“We’re dancing out there together, we’re angry,” Shafran said. A SAG-AFTRA member since 2010, he has struggled to make ends meet with acting roles.

The SAG-AFTRA actors who are still seeking a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, picket each day from 9 a.m. to noon. Shafran usually plays songs like Rihanna’s “B— Better Have My Money” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going on,” along with his original DJ mixes. Last week, he commemorated the 99th day of the SAG strike with a mix he calls “99 Problems But Solidarity Ain’t One,” blending in Drescher’s speeches with news clips of actors talking about their experiences.

Samantha Silver, a focus puller based in New York City and a member of Local 600, has shared Shafran’s SoundCloud mixes to her friends across unions.

“At this point, people across the guilds are limping along financially,” Silver said. “It’s nice to come and see people chant or dance and keep moving, even if it’s just a circle around the block.”

It’s time to get down with Roast Beatz, Everyman, and Greg Blackman's latest track, "No Requests." This funky floor filler is a hilarious ode to those pesky requesters who think their music taste is golden.

Infectious beats and witty lyrics come together as a musical eye-roll to those who think their taste is superior to the DJ’s.

With Roast Beatz's going back to his Hip Hop roots accompanied by the lyrical finesse of Everyman and Greg Blackman, "No Requests" is a playful jab at those partygoers who can't resist pestering the DJ for the wackest song requests.

Whether you're a DJ who's tired of these party antics or appreciate whoever’s behind the decks should be trusted with the evening’s playlist, this track's got you covered. So, crank up the volume, and join the party while we kindly remind everyone: "No Requests!"
credits
MUSIC VIDEO BY : ANDREW OLECK 
BEAT BY : ROAST BEATZ
LYRICS & PERFORMED BY : EVAN SHAFRAN
CHORUS PERFORMED BY : GREG BLACKMAN