Atlanta songwriter releases music video highlighting inequality

Last week, Atlanta-based singer and songwriter, JL Rodriguez, released “It’s Not Enough” on iTunes, alongside a music video on YouTube. The song, which features many Atlanta singers and Jean Kelley from the seventh season of NBC’s The Voice, is a universal call to action.

When the project began in 2008, with JL writing the song in his sleep, it was originally a commentary to the open bias and discrimination common to Atlanta’s LGBT community. But as the project grew, it broadened to include issues of human rights, respect, and equality for all minority groups. JL, his team, and “It’s Not Enough” argue that these human right violations are unacceptable, and extend farther than any one specific community.

After he wrote the song, he reached out to his best friend, Barry Brandon, explaining that he just wrote a song in his sleep.

“He called me at like 4am one day while we were living in NYC and was like, ‘I just wrote the weirdest song. It’s all about gay rights,'” Barry tells Out Front. “I don’t remember what had actually motivated him to write a political song because generally speaking he writes pop songs. Though his music tends to have a lot of emotional in the lyrics, this one was something really unique.”

Barry was originally set to feature the song on his own album, performing it many times over the years, but always knew that the song was too powerful for just one voice. Fast forward to 2012, where Barry is organizing a local Atlanta singing competition, Sing for Your Life, molded after the likes of The Voice and American Idol. And after two seasons of the local competition, Barry tried to get the voices together for a major project but something didn’t feel right.

It was in the middle of the third season of Sing for Your Life when Barry really saw an opportunity and ran with it. He asked several contestants from the first three seasons of Sing for Your Life to come on board as well as asking Jean Kelley, who was the host and emcee on Sing for your Life Season 2 and later appeared on Season 7 of The Voice. So he organized studio time, rehearsals, and got a band for the song.

“It was single handily the most difficult project to finalize from start to finish but had the most value of anything I ever had my hands in,” Barry says. “His lyrics and message through the song were so poignant to what was happening in our times that I knew I had to make the song come to life no matter how difficult it was.”

The song was recorded in March and April of this year. Barry filmed footage of the studio time and pieced together a music video, and worked with JL to incorporate a number of startling statistics that would have an impact on the viewer.

“The reason the song means so much is because even now, in 2015, we are STILL fighting for equal rights,” Barry said. “I don’t understand why it is such a difficult concept to grasp that we are all equal no matter of how we identify, where we were born, what color our skin is or what religion we are. I am honored to have been trusted by JL to bring his song to life.”