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Indie Record Store Profile: Home Rule Records in Washington, D.C.

Billboard looks at one of Washington, D.C.'s only Black-owned independent record stores, where vice president Kamala Harris has been known to visit.

When Home Rule Records owner Charvis Campbell got a cold call from the Office of the Vice President of the United States on May 3, 2023, he felt the way most people would have when confronted by the same scenario: perplexed. On May 9, Harris posted a video on Instagram that showed her walking away from HR Records — which specializes in used jazz, soul, R&B, funk and more — with three vinyl records: Charles Mingus’ Let My Children Hear Music ( “one of the greatest jazz performers ever”); Roy Ayers ’ Everybody Loves the Sunshine(one of her “favorite albums of all time”); and Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald ’s “beautiful” collaborative 1959 album, Porgy and Bess. “It was one of those things that wasn’t planned,” says Campbell, adding that Vice President Harris asked about the challenges of running his small business and engaged with several people who happened to be in the shop.

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