Music Publisher “Dean of Music” Accused of Death Threats
On Tuesday, Twitter personality Ann Boobus accused that a Twitter account attributed to a Nashville music publishing company that works with BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC called The Dean of Music Publishing Group, and headed by a man named Rick Dean, made multiple death threats towards multiple people, including threatening to shoot and lynch people while using racial epithets. As can be seen in the screenshots below taken by Ann Boobus, the Twitter account named “Sovereign Citizen” and located at @Unkle_Liberty (now shut down) that was changed at one point from @Uncle_RD, has on multiple occasions made death threats, while starting out harmlessly promoting the Dean of Music company, saying “#songwriters You can connect with my #publishing company by following me at @deanofmusic. Come let’s get you to the people!”
Here is a selection of the Tweets (Warning: language):
- Eat shit you worthless mother fucker. Come be my practice dummy for my AR15.
- I’m not scared of niggers like you. I like to practice my AR15 use on people like you.
- Look you stupid nigger. Don’t ever think I’m afraid of your pathetic ass.
- Yea we lost Kennedy 50 years ago. Wish we could lose you and Obama now the same way.
- You’re gonna be dragged behind my pickup the hung in the front yard to kelp other monkeys like you out of the back yard.
- Bought a new AR15 with night scope and lazar just to use with you.
- Keep running your mouth Sambo. That’s all you know how to do is hide and talk shit.
The Twitter account @deanofmusic was recently made private amidst the controversy, but a recent screenshot of the account (see below) shows the tweet, “Haha, well I guess I’m like everyone else who gets called a racist for dislike of the Obama Regime. #NRA #GOP #Impeach”. Ann Boobus Tweeted out screenshots of the threatening tweets on Tuesday, including specifically sending them to artists that use The Dean of Music’s services. The tweets in question appear to be from late in 2013. The parties Rick Dean was Tweeting to could have also been engaging in threats, but since the account was deleted, it is difficult to trace the entire history of the conversations.
Other Twitter accounts have also been attributed to The Dean of Music and Rick Dean, including, but potentially not limited to @TheDeanOfMusic .
Another Twitter account, TuneSmithPlugger made a veiled threat to Ann Boobus on Wednesday, saying “We don’t know one another but I do know you made a grave error. Just telling you this because you need to know. Take care.” The same TuneSmithPlugger also made a similar threat to Adam Lister, the Director of Policy at Nashville’s Chamber of Commerce in early April, saying, “Dude, I see you’ve been added to Rick D’s shit list. I don’t envy you at all. Not a great place to be.”
The Dean of Music Publishing Group is located on Fesslers Lane in the southern part of Nashville, about 4 miles east of Music Row. The company’s website at the moment says it’s under construction, but the Facebook page says The Dean of Music was established in 2008, and “strives to create and implement innovative industry relationship campaigns for decision making professionals including, record executives, publishers, artist, film execs and a whole lot more really cool people.”
No public explanation or apology for the tweets has yet to be published by The Dean of Music Publishing Group, or Rick Dean.
May 7, 2014 @ 7:29 pm
“kelp”? “lazar”? So the man is not only a despicable human being (assuming this is legit), he’s also an amateur oceanographer and Area 51 enthusiast.
May 7, 2014 @ 8:10 pm
so tired of hearing about racism.
May 7, 2014 @ 8:33 pm
This would be a story even if you completely cleansed the racist element from it. I have a feeling something much deeper than a few threatening tweets is going on here, and since it directly involves songwriters and artists, and after watching this story develop over the past two days, I felt it was imperative that these things be brought into the public and under a more watchful eye.
I understand cries of “racism” can be polarizing (and really, this is only the 2nd such story that involves a racist element in recent memory, so it is far from a focus here), but if it involves a much deeper issue, and artists and songwriters are involved, I feel I have a duty to broach the subject.
May 8, 2014 @ 12:41 am
I think we can all agree that this guy’s tweets are despicable (and I’m saying this as a conservative who is normally wary of “racism” allegations.) However, looking at this The Dean of Music Publishing Group, I’m not sure why this is a story. It doesn’t seem like they are really in business. Is this a major Music Row group or just some guy who lives in Nashville who has a website that’s perpetually under construction?
I googled the company and his linkedin says
“We set ourselves apart from the norm by providing a fair and level playing field for serious songwriters. We’ve harnessed the power of technology to get your songs in front of more industry decision maker than anyone else in the industry.”
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rickey-dean/28/48a/37
Despite its alleged “power of technology” the group’s facebook page includes posts like “I need to sit down with someone who can show me how this FaceBook thingy works!”
It seems like they also run something called yourtunespace https://twitter.com/YourTuneSpace
http://www.yourtunespace.com/
Which is also not working. It seems like this “group” is just one guy’s business plan that hasn’t really even gotten off the ground.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like this guy isn’t even a minor player in Nashville.
May 8, 2014 @ 8:37 am
” I”™m not sure why this is a story.”
It may not be beyond this one post Mike, but if there are artists that are signed with this company (which there are), people considering signing with him, or he is portraying something that he isn’t, these would all be reasons that this information may be helpful in the right hands, beyond the fact that if multiple death threats are being made, it is imperative that we let everyone know that a more watchful eye has been placed on the situation.
May 8, 2014 @ 7:49 am
Yeah, but under what relevance does Rick Dean have other than setting up a shop in Nashville. Does he have any artists signed, does he own publishing rights to anything, what is his influence exactly other than “works with BMI…”? Sounds like he’s just some nobody wanting attention.
May 8, 2014 @ 8:34 am
I think these are all good questions Blackwater. I do know he does have multiple artists signed to his organization. But maybe he is very very small, parading around as something big. That in itself could be a risk for certain artists though. I’m not saying this is some huge story we should become obsessed with, but given the circumstances of multiple threats to multiple people, including to officials in the Nashville government, I felt this was information that needed to find its way into the public record.
May 8, 2014 @ 8:12 am
Damn you’re sick of “hearing” about racism…wonder how the people who actually have to endure it feel
May 8, 2014 @ 10:32 am
Get over yourself yessir. Lunchbox simply means all the current over-impetus on “racism” is getting way out of hand. People need to grow up.
May 8, 2014 @ 10:44 am
Sure, but we should also make sure to not get so oversensitive that we miss the bigger picture just because racism happens to be an accompanying element in a story. Threatening to shoot people, hang people, and drag people behind your truck is cowardly and ridiculous no matter if race is involved or not.
May 8, 2014 @ 12:36 pm
Sorry man didn’t realize that i was being full of myself. I just think we do ourselves a disservice when we just dismiss racism. Can it be over hyped sometimes absolutely, but it is still a very large problem in this country. And yeah the threats that this guy made were terrible and ignorant things to say to anybody, but there is no way you can take the racist element out of it. “Dragging people behind a truck and hanging them from a tree” I mean the historical context of that for black people if absolutely horrible. Nobody should ever have to endure the kind of humiliation and even sometimes violence that comes along with racism. So in a way I do agree I’m sick of hearing about it too, but for that fact that it still exist and that there are way to many Rick Dean’s in this world.
May 8, 2014 @ 12:59 pm
yeah i should of never made that post. my apologies. it wasn’t a shot at anybody or the article…basically thinking out loud.
May 8, 2014 @ 7:30 am
…as doth the hag who faults the mirror for her hideousness.
February 1, 2017 @ 10:00 pm
So are people of color who experience all day, every day. White privilege is nice, isn’t it? You get to just “turn it off” any time you like while others cannot. You can make positive change and encourage people you know to explore their own racial identity and privileges. We ALL have privileges. Even if you are a person of color, if you are heterosexual or cisgender (meaning you identify with the gender you were assigned at birth), you have privilege compared to homosexual and transgender people. We all are human and need to support and look out for each other regardless of our differences of opinion. It;s just the right thing to do. Cheers and Peace.
May 8, 2014 @ 5:39 am
The Twitter handle “arneduncan” is apparently associated with the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. My guess is that he sent out a tweet observing the 50th anniversay of JFK’s assassination. Then in response to that, “Unkle_Liberty” wishes for the assasination of the twice democratically elected President of the United States and a member of his cabinet.
May 8, 2014 @ 7:36 am
Thank you for reporting on this. Wow.
Violent racist threats have no place in our society.
I think Mr. Dean is an embarrasment to Music City. Please go away.
May 8, 2014 @ 8:25 am
I don’t think this guy is an actual power broker. Just a little guy pretending to be something he isn’t. His facebook page is a mixture of Ted Nugent meme’s, Britebart stories, and his support for Clive Bundy. And, of course Bengazi!!!
I get the impression he isn’t very smart. There are no references to his supposed music industry connections, other than one photo he took of Rhonda Vincent. He isn’t projecting a professional attitude or any sort of business awareness at all.
Anyone in business knows that you should not mix politics with business, it needlessly narrows the niche of people who will buy your product to the people who agree with your politics. And, in this case, his niche is Racists with Guns.
May 9, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
I know this is more than just a bit of bickering and insult slinging, but these public Twitter wars between adults always strike me as juvenile and, dare I say, cowardly at best. These are men?
May 9, 2014 @ 8:28 pm
Any relation to Nashville mayor Karl Dean?
September 12, 2016 @ 8:24 am
“Mr Dean” is actually R. D. Parman who doesn’t use his real name. To the best of my knowledge, his supposed businesses are just ideas that haven’t really been fully implemented. I could be wrong in that assumption, but I sincerely doubt it. And his use of profanity is so terribly unbusinesslike.
June 12, 2021 @ 6:18 pm
I know this is an old article. I came across while doing a search for Rick Parman. The so called Dean of Music to ask him a question about something. You see I use to work for the guy and though sometimes he was a decent guy most of the time. I would call him a racist because I have seen that side of him. So none of these accusations surprise me one bit.