The way forward for a global drumming competitors designed to focus on and encourage younger feminine drummers is in query after this system’s co-founder/govt director resigned earlier this month following accusations he made inappropriate feedback to one of many contestants.
David Levine was requested to step down from the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Hit Like a Lady on Mar. 10 after Irish singer-drummer Ria Rua posted a video to Instagram claiming he requested her for “inappropriate footage” in 2019 and informed the then-20-year-old he “loved” blurring out the define of her breast in one in all her pictures so he may use it in promotional property for the competition. Levine says his feedback have been meant to be supportive and sarcastic, not offensive.
“Ladies shouldn’t must take care of these things,” Rua mentioned within the Instagram video. She then shared a screenshot of Levine’s e-mail, which included the road, “Please ship me extra of these photographs, even those your Mum might not like.” For “context,” she then confirmed the profile image from her contest entry web page that prompted his request. In it, she was not carrying a prime underneath her jacket. “He edited out my boob and he mentioned he loved it,” she mentioned.
Rua tells Billboard that, along with the e-mail, Levine made a few of these feedback over two cellphone calls. She mentioned he requested if her mother preferred the picture, and he or she replied, “I don’t know. I’m certain she doesn’t find it irresistible.” The second name was a couple of potential cymbal endorsement deal, during which she says she introduced up the altered picture and he mentioned “he had loved photoshopping my boob.”
In an announcement saying his resignation, posted to Instagram, Levine mentioned, “I want to sincerely apologize for the inappropriate and offensive feedback I made to [Ria Rua] in addition to the hurt my conduct has brought about to others within the feminine drumming neighborhood. There is no such thing as a excuse for my unhealthy judgment, abusing my authority and undermining Hit Like A Lady’s good works. The Hit Like A Lady Board has requested my resignation as Government Director and I’m totally complying with that request, efficient at this time, March 10, 2024 at 12:00 PM PT. Moreover, I will probably be getting into sexual harassment sensitivity counseling within the days forward.”
He concluded: “Till new Administrators might be put in the Hit Like A Lady and Drum Summit web sites, social media and YouTube together with all present initiatives will probably be suspended,” including, “I’d ask that everybody within the drumming neighborhood proceed to help the expansion of feminine drummers by means of different channels.”
When reached for remark, Levine — who additionally owns TRX Cymbals and developed Drum Summit: Empowering Ladies By Drumming — informed Billboard in an e-mail, “The board members requested for my resignation instantly after Ria Rua’s messages have been posted and I complied. I sincerely hope the group’s mission and work will proceed nevertheless I’m not concerned in that course of.” He additionally mentioned his feedback to Rua have been “my try at sarcasm.”
Sexual harassment is by far essentially the most widely-cited drawback dealing with feminine creators within the music trade, in keeping with a 2021 research by MIDiA Analysis, along side Tunecore and its father or mother firm, Consider. The research discovered that “virtually two-thirds of feminine creators recognized sexual harassment or objectification as a key problem.” The #MeToo motion empowered ladies to come back ahead with private tales, starting from drugging and rape to sexist conduct and misogyny. The trade, as an entire, nonetheless appears reluctant to talk out, as a substitute feeling extra snug addressing parity and development for girls, together with with initiatives just like the Hit Like a Lady contest.
Rua began taking part in music in major college, initially with the tin whistle after which guitar. At 12, she picked up drums and accompanied an accordion marching band, then joined The Nationwide Youth Orchestra of Eire. In 2017, she entered a Hit Like a Lady competitors, which she says appeared “huge,” sponsored by “all the massive corporations” and judged by “one of the best drummers and percussionists on the planet.” In 2018 she gained the group’s Joe Hibbs Award.
Rua determined to share her story now, she tells Billboard, as a result of she writes songs about ladies’s points and had simply launched a brand new track about this particular expertise and needed to “observe what I preach.” Within the Instagram video, she additionally famous she’d been impressed to talk out by latest allegations of sexual misconduct, “particularly all of the stuff about P. Diddy.”
“[Levine] remains to be the top of [Hit Like A Girl] and it’s nonetheless working to at the present time,” she mentioned in her video. ”If it occurred to me, I’m certain it occurred to different ladies on the market.”
Lower than a yr after Rua’s incidents with Levine, she says she informed a then-Hit Like a Lady board member. She requested the board member to debate it with the board, however to not inform Levine. The board member, who left the group in 2021 due to what Rua informed her about Levine — and doesn’t want to be named due to an unrelated private difficulty — confirmed that account to Billboard. “I had no proof of something. I couldn’t actually do something formally.”
“At the moment, I used to be nonetheless fairly afraid,” Rua says. “This man is huge. He runs Hit Like a Lady. He owns the TRX Cymbal firm. He owns one other administration firm that manages plenty of the highest manufacturers.”
Rua posted a second video during which she sobbed and thanked everybody for supporting her, after which a 3rd video explaining she got here ahead as a result of she had written her track “Asking For It” “about my story with David” and now, when she sings it, “I’m going to recollect the help that I had.”
Hit Like A Lady started in 2012 “as a drum contest/market growth challenge,” as Levine places it, which he co-founded with DRUM! journal writer Phil Hood and Mindy Abovitz, founding father of female-focused Tom Tom journal — each of whom left the group years in the past.
Levine informed Billboard in an e-mail that Rua entered the competition in 2017 and 2018 underneath her start identify — which Billboard has determined to not run at her request — and that in this time they “had a number of conversations by cellphone, e-mail, textual content, and so on.” He continued, “She was a proficient musician and an fascinating particular person.” He additionally hooked up the 2017 picture she submitted. Rua says they exchanged just one e-mail and one Instagram message and had two cellphone calls. She supplied the e-mail and Instagram message to Billboard.
“Sooner or later in 2018 [name redacted] launched her new persona, Ria Rua, with a totally new look,” Levine tells Billboard in an e-mail. “Throughout a cellphone name I requested her if I may use one of many photographs for a social media put up to advertise her and the competition. She informed me that her mom didn’t approve of them. I responded in an e-mail that she ought to ship me the photographs, ‘even the one’s her mum might not like.’ As with the remainder of the e-mail, I used to be making an attempt to point out help however, sadly, my try at sarcasm was not appreciated.
“I felt that the picture she despatched me was a bit too provocative for the Hit Like A Lady viewers so I retouched it and despatched it again to her for approval, which she supplied. My recollection of our dialog is that I mentioned one thing to the impact that I used to be glad to have the ability to photoshop the picture in order that it could be applicable for us to share.”
Rua says she distinctly remembers him utilizing the phrase “loved” when speaking about modifying the picture. After that, she by no means entered the competition once more.
Hit Like A Lady was included and obtained 501(c)(3) charitable standing in 2021, and Levine grew to become govt director, he informed Billboard, “with a board of administrators that included six ladies.” He added, “We additionally established chapters in practically 60 international locations around the globe that have been managed solely by ladies. I typically relied on these ladies for recommendation and approval.”
Since Rua’s put up, she says different ladies have shared comparable correspondence they obtained from Levine or conversations they’d with him after getting into the competition.
One California-based drummer — who doesn’t want to be named — shared screenshots with Billboard of “some bizarre stuff he mentioned to me on textual content.”
Within the thread, Levine offers solutions on drum method after which writes, “Second, attempt to transfer your head and physique extra once you play to point out you’re feeling one of the best and having enjoyable. It is going to drive the boys loopy.” In one other, he writes, “Let me know for those who come again as much as LA. Possibly I’ll break quarantine for you,” adopted by a wink emoji. In regard to some photographs she had submitted in the course of the pandemic, he additionally remarked, “I’ll must get you a sexier masks, although. You Appear like a nurse at a retirement house.”
Requested about these feedback, Levine informed Billboard in an e-mail, “I don’t recall the opposite alternate you reference however I did supply recommendation on how contestants may enhance their entries now and again, when requested. I see now that my feedback have been inappropriate.”
He concludes by writing that Hit Like A Lady achieved “many superb and unprecedented issues for women and girls prior to now 12 years, not least the truth that drums are now not thought-about a ‘gendered’ instrument.”
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