Police Turn Down The Volume On Downtown Nashville Street Musicians

Street musician Kyhil Smith, known as Broadway Rapper, says police handed him a copy of Metro’s noise ordinance. (Photo courtesy of Broadway Rapper)

This past weekend, Nashville police cracked down on some street musicians performing along Lower Broadway for amplifying too loudly.

As any number of downtown buskers can tell you, city law prohibits musicians from projecting farther than 50 feet. If the performance is accompanied by recorded music, it can’t be louder than 85 decibels. By way of comparison, a hand drill is about 98 decibels.

While these rules have been on the books for some years, police haven’t strictly enforced them along downtown’s raucous honky-tonks, street musicians say. Which is why Kyhil Smith, also known as Broadway Rapper, was miffed when he was told his freestyle-rap-and-beat set-up was a disturbance in the eyes of the law.

“I’ve been doing this for five-in-a-half years. Everybody knows me. Broadway rapper. I come out here and play music that makes the people dance. People come from out of town down here. That’s what makes up the Music City. We are the Music City. Don’t ban the music in Music City.”

Smith said he and other street musicians have written Councilwoman Erica Gilmore asking that Metro consider letting musicians apply for special permits for amplification.

Metro police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said they don’t know how many performers they warned, since none of them were cited. (Although repeat violators could be fined up to $500 for cranking too loud.) She said it was part of their regular patrol routine.

Mumford said there have been a number of complaints from local businesses about noise ordinances not being enforced enough, so officers are responding to those concerns.

Meanwhile, Smith, who makes a living by busking, is swapping his full drum kit for an acoustic Cajon drum. “It definitely brings a different vibe,” Smith said. “But I’ll do what I can to appease the police.”

To be sure, there are flagrant offenders to the city’s noise pollution law. Smith said he’s seen full rock bands with multiple amps set up on the sidewalk, and other street musicians say police have told horn ensembles to quiet down.

Smith suspects that the droves expected during this week’s CMA Music Festival have played into the stepped-up enforcement. Police spokeswoman Mumford, however, maintains that “it has nothing to do with CMAs. There’s nothing new here,” she said. “It’s something we’ve been doing for a while.”

In other cities, like Chicago, for instance, street performers are charged an annual fee for a performing permit. There, buskers can’t project farther than 100 feet from the performance.

Some have reported that Nashville police are now telling street musicians that amps of any kind, drums, saxophones and stools are all banned, although police say that’s untrue.

Here’s the law’s exact language.