For a lifetime, this has been his team.
Seventeen championships – four of which he has seen – they are without peer.
An obsession for him: no matter where he has lived,
he dreamed imaginary ballgames, along with careers and families. Now the title
of “father” is a reality. There is no more time to dream: the effect
of being tethered to a spot on earth with his children. No, not Boston -

which is implacable – but actual concrete and soil. Where Boston
is just an idea, his children are real and teeming
with possibility. For his Celtics, he feels something to the same effect,
as every challenge flashes then slowly disappears.
Many doubt the Celtics are entitled
to this playoff run, just as he doubts he has earned the life he lives.

But then, this doubt is the reason he lives.
He questions his own memory – maybe because he’s from Boston.
The Celtics fan – once almost entitled
to success, if not in life, then of his team -
as a father now dances over midnights, peers
at each coming day, thinking of ways to make them perfect.

This June night, his hometown squad can affect
tomorrow. There are no religious icons here to believe
in, pray to – just a glowing television and yelps that pierce
the quiet hours before bed. Three miles from Downtown Boston,
this fan draws energy from the Celtics, and self-esteem
from his children fighting the intermittent tidal

waves of sleep and sleeplessness. No father is entitled
to a full night’s rest anyway. So why not let a game affect
him? The clock climbs over itself and his head teems
with more doubts. The playoffs don’t relieve
a father of his duties, but at least tonight in Boston,
the rules for fans usurp those for fathers – so it appears.

This man constantly departs. Reappears.
Sings children to sleep, screams silence at games, writes poems with no titles.
It has never been so good to be in Boston -
a lovely ugly setting, where home sometimes exists. It is perfect.
There may be other cities more enjoyable to live,
but his children are here in this city – and so is his team.

The City of Boston hopes Captain Paul Pierce
can help steer this magnificent team to another title -
if for no other effect than to remind us we’re alive.

One of the more time-consuming – but enjoyable – themes for me to write about is favorite lyrics from a specific artist. And this time I chose to go with my favorite lyricist: Posdnuos of De La Soul. But there aren’t really Posdnuos songs, there are De La Soul songs. So I’m ignoring the lyrical contributions of Dave aka Dove aka Trugoy – the other emcee in that group, because in all honesty, I’ve spent a lot more time thinking about and breaking down Pos’s rhymes. That’s not to say Trugoy’s verses are any less potent, just that Posdnuos delivers his bizness from a place in his heart that appeals to me.

Aside: I once Tweeted something to him and he responded, and that is the highlight of my Twitter using career.

As I was putting this list together, I realized that early De La does not appeal as much to me lyrically as their later stuff. I know for many, the golden era of De La Soul was the Buhloone Mindstate/Stakes is High run, but for me, it extends to the seriously under-appreciated “Art Official Intelligence” and in many respects all the way to “Grind Date” I think as one of the few rap groups to actively aim to grow their emcee personae as they grew older as people, the lines they dropped int heir mid-20s, late-20s and into their 30s got heavier and more meaningful. And the heavy representation of AOI on this list probably has a lot to do with the fact that at the time, Pos was roughly the age I am now and going through similar things in life.

Anyway though, what follows is my ten favorite lines from Posdnuos, with some selection criteria, like they all come from songs that have appeared on De La Soul albums, I’m not including guest verses on other artists albums, not even Prince Paul stuff. Also, even though content, delivery and flow, voice, and sounds and aesthetics all play into what makes me love a line, I’m trying to not include much or any of the actual rhyme sounds, and only leaving it at the specific heart of the line that has caught my attention over and over. If you want to catch any of these lines in context, go listen to the entire song to catch the whole thing.

And…

10. “While you others represent, I present my rep” from Supa Emcees
This was the mid-90s, so seemed like all of hip hop was about representing, whether it was a set, a hood, a city, whatever. Pos subtly laid down the gauntlet by saying the only claim anyone has to the title of “emcee” is their skills, and until that’s proven, your other credentials can be taken off the wall. Moreover, Pos is real good at this, unpacking a word to its different parts and incorporating them all together, for example “it ain’t my fault your ass is on the asphalt” and so on.

9. “My aim’s to freeze you dead center in your tracks with your hands high” from Declaration
This is a favorite at live shows cuz Pos always does the whole thing the same way, and incorporates a coordinated arm movement from the entire crowd. So yeah, that’s fun. But listen to the lyrics son! For someone who always comes across humble and maintains he’s a good but not great rapper, he lets out a little bit of the other side in this song, showing why he truly believes he is better than you. The whole thing is about how he will easily and gladly out-rhyme you, and what?

8. “Don’t come shaking my hand like we peeps/it ain’t beef, but be sure to understand” from All Good
At this point, De La was roughly 5 years since the previous album, and more than a decade on the scene. What was dope about this was they brough Chaka Khan on the track – you know, they were always known for featuring young up-and-comers like Common, Mos, and even Q-Tip back in the day. But they got someone with more old school credentials than themselves, you know, someone who knew exactly what it was like to be this deep in the game and have to deal with fake isht. I feel like this all the time now.

7. “Most crews are post-current, while we’re forever” from Oooh
I know to most folks, this probably seems like a throwaway line. But it’s a bold statement, but more than that – it doesn’t even rhyme with anything, it’s just there like it was something Pos had to say, f-ck a rhyme scheme.

6. “Wanna flip grammar instead of grams, like that’s the only choice they got” from Trying People
Too many De La fans have not heard this song! This is a midcareer (for an emcee) crisis for all to see; this line in particular is kind of the crux of it. A lot of kids these days are putting all their energy into becoming the next big rap star. That’s better than trying to become the next big drug dealer, sure – but it’s not easy or necessarily enjoyable either. Wonder if he had a chance to choose a different career path, if he would have been somethign else? Like a rug cleaner?

5. “A brother be’s a ni–a when he packs it” from Breakadawn
On “Hip Hop Honors” last year, it was revealed that De La’s emcees don’t actually write songs together – they each write their verses separately. It’s weird to me that they fit together so well then.It means they are on a cosmic wavelength that transcends physical proximity.

This was a vaguely autobiographical song from my freshman year of high school, and I remember just being caught in the way the beat actually dictated the pace of the story – like it the music telling its life story, and not the actual men doing the rapping.

4 (tie). “Said we’d be natives to the end, nowadays we don’t even speak” from I Am I Be
4. (tie) “Native Tongues have officially been re-instated” from Stakes is High
So much of their semi-public lives were semi-public to fans who were looking for it. I got a thrill out of hearing him admit defeatedly that the Native Tongues weren’t on the best of terms during Buhloone Mindstate – but even more than that, it was really good to hear him renege on that on Stakes. It was like real life stuff, and I guess my younger self found it really interesting when people who were untouchable to me turned out to be real people.

2. “They were looking for God but found religion instead” from Held Down
This song is another criminally underheard one. It’s 3 straight verses from Pos on here, with a hook done by Cee-Lo. First of all, the music is FILTHY. This is one of the nastiest ass grooves I have heard in 10 years. And when Cee-Lo is singing, it’s almost always good news. (I have never been a fan of his rapping for some reason…)

The vibe alone is actually enough reason to be hitting rewind, but the whole thing is full of gems like “the biggest oppressor can be your own ego” and “everybody playing rebel with no sign of a cause.” So much of their music – but especially Posdnuos’s verses – is about lessons learned; what’s more though, is he doesn’t deliver them as the wise man who’s seen it all – he’s always coming from a place that feels like damn, can you believe this shit is still happening? Nothing’s easy.

1. “Fuck being hard, Posdnuos is complicated” from In the Woods
There’s really nothing else to say.

GURU, 1966-2010.

Also, I know I did twelve and not the customary ten, but there’s no way I can possibly take any of these off. It was hard enough narrowing it down this far. I’ve included the approximate year I first heard the poem and my favorite line from each piece, but these are coming straight from memory – so don’t quote me on them.

12. “Listen Asshole” – Yellow Rage (2000)
It feels like a lifetime ago. When I first moved to DC right after college, I knew close to nobody – and I had no aspirations to take on spoken word as anything more than just something I did at bars every now and then, since I lived right off Black Broadway and there was no shortage of open mics a couple blocks from my apartment. But pretty soon I found myself part of a duo called re: verse, and we were one of three main API spoken word groups out that way. The other two were Feedback (who I’ll talk about later) from New York and Yellow Rage from Philly.

I don’t really know how we all connected, but folks from all three cities met up in 215 to do a little East Coast retreat and this was the first time I hear them do this ridiculous piece. It was like, yo, who’s gonna stop us now?

Favorite Line: I’m gonna fight with alla my might against motherfuckers who think I’m a white…girl. Watch my finger unfurrrrl…”

11. “Remembrance” – Taiyo Na (2000)
On to the aforementioned Feedback Poets. Taiyo was the baby of the bunch – so I was shocked when I saw this like 17 year old kid spit this amazing piece at the Asian American Writer’s Workshop open mic called (re)collection. It was the most succinct and touching rendition of a Japanese American history and future through its literature and music, done in a way that I guess I haven’t seen anyone else even attempt. Mas Yamagata backed him up on the bass.

Favorite Line: This ain’t just some Biz Mark shit; these lips are rocking a lost taiko

10. “The Last Words of a Roach, Underfoot” – El Guante (2009)
Dark Horse entry here. Everyone else on this list is someone I probably first met like – well – a long time ago. But I didn’t have the pleasure of sharing a stage with El Guante until this past year, and I have to say man I was astounded. This piece from the point of view of a cockroach made me feel like I should be writing a lot more.

In the hands of a lesser writer, this concept could have been corny. But he went in on it; honestly, it’s transcendent.

Favorite Line: You say…that life can be something greater than survival, but what could be greater than survival?

9. “Naming & Other Christian Things” – Roger Bonair-Agard (2003)
Roger probably does not know this, but he was the first established poet to actually pay money for my CD. I gladly accepted because ten dollars is ten dollars yo. But I didn’t know that a few years later when he’d be closing out the annual “Voice for the Voiceless” concert, he would unleash this monster of a poem that is about everything more than it is about anything. It was a relentless plea for self that resounded with everyone.

Favorite Line: I cannot summon the sympathy for Mary Magdalene, cannot help her weep tears of distress. Only wish I could retro activate a name change for her.

8. “Sometimes Silence is the Loudest Kind of Noise” – Bassey Ikpi (2000)
The first night I met Bassey in New York, it was a night to remember for many reasons. But the thing about B was that we both wrote from the same place; to me, it didn’t matter her subject matter because every poem she wrote felt like it came from inside of me. She wasn’t just sharing pieces of her soul, but she was identifying pieces of mine.

This piece was around the time when I was clumsily trying to disengage with rhyme schemes in a way that felt natural, and was only marginally successful. Bassey had this piece that all that in a way that was emotional but not burdensome, pleasant but not trite, familiar but not cliche. ANd she lands the piece perfectly in my soft spot.

Favorite Line: Like if you get lost, just stand there until someone finds you, and someone will always look for you, and someone will always miss you.

7. “Chasing Bruce Lee” – Beau Sia (2001)
Someone told me before I saw him do this: “Beau has a new piece about Bruce Lee” and so, I guess I expected some biographical poem with a complete filmography or something, I dunno. So, when he did it, I was so touched – the feeling so familiar. You know, Bruce Lee is the idealized Asian (American) male by many of us, so by definition there was plenty of admiration to go around.

But Beau cut through that to carve a new definition of himself in that frame. Bruce Lee was all that he was and more, but also less. Those of us who are lucky to stick around will have many more chances than he did to redefine ourselves in concert or in opposition to what the world sees us as. That’s life he’s talking about here.

Favorite Line: I don’t know if I’m strong enough to stamp ‘SELF’ on everything in my world.

6. “Acid Trip Tango” – Malaya Arevalo (2000)
There’s no heartbreak poem that breaks a heart as much as this does. Mad hard to find words for this one.

Favorite Line: So close to New Jersey skyscrapers that if I don’t watch my aim, I might just break a window. So close to you that if I don’t watch my hands, I might just break my heart.

5. “Real Karaoke People” – Ed Bok Lee (2002)
Bao had told me about this poem before I saw it, but didn’t tell me the concept or the form. Just that it was one of the five best spoken word pieces he had ever seen in his life. So when Ed showed up once for the open mic before I featured in New York, I was kinda ready for it.

But then I found out I was not at all ready for it. Just talking about karaoke can almsot be a punchline to mainstream America – so why are our families so into it? Ed explores teh delicate beauty of an immigrant singing a song written and originally sung by other people, for other people, ina a place not their home or birthplace, in a language that is their second or third, at a time of night the would normally be sleeping – or working. Is there meaning in that?

How could there not be?

Favorite Line: Real karaoke people know past 4AM, English can be only half a home.

4. “By-Standing: The Beginning of an American Lifetime” – Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai (2009)
I think Kelly had this out on the Youtubes for a while now. But I’ll admit upfront I don’t watch the Youtubes for poetry; I might seek out sports highlights or clips of pandas doing panda things and occasionally a tutorial of how to fix a leaky toilet and such. But I’m not really a Youtubes guy.

So I didn’t actually see this piece until 2009 ECAASU at Rutgers in New Jersey. And even then, it was her produced video version of it that was screening, and not Kelly performing it live – but I still got to give it run on this list for two reasons: 1. This piece was part of Kelly’s performance even if it was pre-recorded; and 2. It’s fukcing amazing. Told in vignettes, the poem laces itself through every fold in your mind until the end, where she lands the piece by pulling it closed. Even thinking back to it as I type, I can feel it’s getting hard to breathe.

Favorite Line: No war.

3. “In Front of the Class” – Bonafide Rojas (2003)
I admit I was a little drunk when I first saw Bonafide do this, but that wasn’t the reason it brought tears to my eyes. many spoken word poets teach, right, you all have seen it. Not everybody is great at it, not everybody likes it, but still most of us do it.

I honestly have never seen Bone teach, so I don’t know how he does, but I have known dude for a decade and I can attest to the fact that there’s nobody I’ve ever met who needs to write poetry as much as he does. And in this piece he lays it all out there. Just phenomenal.

Favorite Line: I want to live. I want to love.

2. “Signs of God” – Ishle Yi Park (2004)
I very distinctly remember the first time I saw Ishle do this piece: it was at Vassar College, and me and Ed Bok Lee and her were doing a little show for like students who were there for a summer session or something. Whatever the reason, Ed, Ishle, and myself were in Poughkeepsie doing a show in the summer. And when Ishle read this piece, I was taken away, I felt like I couldn’t love a poem as much as I loved this one. I think I told her that too.

Then after she released her CD that year or maybe the following, this peice was on it. But this time it had this beautiful Spanish guitar underneath that accentuated the beauty in the accidental, the order of chaos, the idea that there are always more reasons for hope than there are reasons against. Damn.

Favorite Line: I want a chorus of loved ones; I want someone to hold my hand.

1. “Quincy Nguyen” – Bao Phi (2007)
It’s weird that I could work Prince into a list about spoken word isn’t it? But this piece from the homey Bao is just perfect to me. His character uses the music of Prince to convince himself he’s beautiful despite all the evidence to the contrary. And I guess when it comes down to it, it just reminds me of me.

Favorite Line: Prince gave him the power: secret of survival for small boys odd when young yet destined for futuresexy.

By the way, i’m not including like theater or sporting events or dance shows and the like. You know what I’m saying? This is for “concert” or things that are basically like concerts.

10. Koba, 2006
East Meets Words, Cambridge, MA
If I remember correctly, Koba was the first rapper to do a feature set at this open mic series. And it was crazy because he actually rocked it! A bookstore!

More than that, it made me feel like – wait, we can do anything we want here?

9. Brown Star, 2009
East Meets Words, Cambridge, MA
What I like about these brothers is that they don’t come from a slam-influenced world – they both come from theater. Thus, they are not bound by the same theoretical limits many of us (I mean folks roughly my age I guess) impose on ourselves by accident. They had pieces that went like 10 or 15 minutes long, but the great thing about that was it never felt stagnant. No matter how long the pieces were, they were always moving, nothing was accidental or unplanned – it was all paced out perfectly.

Even more, I love seeing performers I haven’t seen before do amazing work. It makes me feel like spoken word is not dying.

8. Beau Sia, 2007
Boston University, Boston, MA
Beau is pretty much always great, but on this evening at BU he was more sharp than I had ever seen him. There was some college student performers that night who were at various levels of proficiency when it came to writing, but Beau took that all in and spit it back out with fire. He’s like a monster that swallows mediocre poetry and returns it as amazing isht.

7. Ishle Yi Park, 2007
East Meets Words, Cambridge, MA
I have seen Ishle turn in her fair share of amazing performances, but I wasn’t fully prepared for what she was bringing that night. I was the host for that evening, and it vaguely reminded me of a feature I did in New York at 13 in like 2001 when she was the host. The amount of living and growing in those intervening years we both had done made it seem like we were completely different people, and I was so touched by her presence, that she was actively moving forward in a way I think I had forgotten how to do.

6. Bao Phi, 2009
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
I’ve known Bao for like 8 or 9 or 10 years and it’s weird that during that time, the following has happened ahow many times: we’re doing a show together, and Bao sheepishly tells the crowd he’s gonna try a new piece that he doesn’t know how he feels about. He might say there are some things he needs to edit, but that he wanted to try it out in front of the crowd. Then he proceeds to unleash the most amazing soul-breaking pulse-stopping piece I’ve heard in a year. What is up with that Bao?

So I choose 2009 as the year this happened, with his “Fuck this War” poem. But it’s happened in the past with “Quincy Nguyen” and “Bread and Glass” and “Race” and “Yellow/Brown Babies for the Revolution” and probably 5 others. Bao Phi is unfuckwitable. Please believe that.

5. I Was Born with Two Tongues, 2003
Hothouse, Chicago, IL
Last Tongues show of all time/first Tongues show of my life. I coulda watched two more hours of this show, but the venue had booked another act afterward, and you know, things are what they are.

4. The Roots, 2000
930 Club, Washington, DC
My first summer after college I was living in DC. The Internet was pretty new (to me) at that time, and so I had bee jumping on spitkicker.com all the time, and saw The Roots were about to swing through my new hometown. When people say you have to see them live to appreciate them, that is no joke. A fight broke out in the front row, and ?uest was leaning out from behind the drumkit to take a look and didn’t lose the beat once. This was also the night I first learned that Black Thought is like a monster whose sole purpose is to rhyme the hell out of a mic until nobody can ever use it again. Those guys are pros.

3. De La Soul, 2005
Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA
Theresa paid for my ticket as a gift, I think since she had grown up in New York, she had gotten to see De La before, so I was lucky to be able to catch them. Even though those dudes were a lot closer to 40 than 20 at the time, they still knew how to rock it.

The one awkward moment was that a bookish girl standing next to me was dancing the whole night, but her dancing looked kinda like running in place. I think she had fun though. That’s the thing about De La – their fans even include nerds like me and bookish girls who run in place.

2. Kiwi, 2008
Pomona College, CA
Me and Kiwi and Bao set ourselves up as a bill in 2008 – trying to get schools to hire three seasoned API performers who wanted to perform together. The trouble was, almost every show there was some issue with sound or venue that made it near impossible for Kiwi to put on a perfect set. It’s easier for Bao & me because we’re just poets, but a rapper needs the right confluence of factors, and the right attitude and mindset on the part of organizers to make for a set that they’ll be happy with.

I’ve seen the homie struggle thru wack mics and bad sound techs, but this was the night it was all there. At Pomona College, the lighting was beautiful and the sound was amazing. Combine that with an enthusiastic crowd, and Kiwi’s set was effing MAGIC. This is what it means when an emcee needs just one mic to rock a crowd. I have never seen another performer truly connect with a crowd like Kiwizzo did that night…

1. Prince, 2004
TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
…except once.

Is it possible that Prince is not a real person, but actually a figment of my magnificent imagination? Is it possible a human being could be this phenomenally talented?

By the way, I don’t watch much TV except sports, so…uh…take that for what it’s worth.

7. Cog
Honda, 2003

What??

6. Pony
Ally Bank, 2009
This brown-haired girl gives awesome facial expressions – at :03 when she is overjoyed at getting a toy pony, and even more delicious is the glare as she cocks her head to side to let him know he needs to stop messing around.

5.There Can Only Be One
NBA, 2008
I thought the split screen commercials were kind of annoying throughout the playoffs that year, but I didn’t know they were leading up to this one. It almost makes me want to cry. It even makes me kinda like Kobe.

4. Touch
Skittles, 2007
Hilariously depressing. The soliloquy is kinda overwrought and played-out before it begins, but dude’s anguish really makes this joint.

3. I Remember
NBA, 2007
I think this was a Boston only commercial, but they played it throughout the season when the Celtics won the title. It’s a little false because we had been hearing KG rumors for a while, so nobody was struck with this kind of surprise. The elation, however. is about spot-on.

2. Big Buddy
SportsCenter, 2003?
Not sure of the year, it feels like it was a long time ago. But I think a lot of SportsCenter commercials have been hilarious, but this one took what could have been a one-note punchline and took it deeper than you could have possibly imagined.

1. Move
Nike , 2002
This is not about sport as spectator but sport as life.

Nike is fairly evil – even for a multi-national corporation – but regardless, this commercial makes you forget all of that for its duration.

9. Sam’s Town, The Killers (2006)
After I heard “When You Were Young” while playing Rock Band on the XBOX, I was really impressed with the songwriting, so I downloaded the Killers album, not knowing what their music sounded like. But the album was like whooosh! Maybe it’s because I actively avoided radio rock music since I accidentally heard Nickelback and was traumatized. The weird thing was, I read a lot of stuff online about how Sam’s Town was a big letdown after their first album, but for my money, this is the album that defines their sound. Their musical execution in the studio is phenomenal, the guitar solos are lyrical, and the songwriting from beginning to end is as poetic as can be. (I’m of the opinion that rock songs tend to have the worst lyrics of any genre.)

Anyway, I know I’m a nerd. So what.

8. Greatest Hits, Foundation Movement (2006)
I used to see these brothers like every other week, but I guess it’s normal that as you get older and stuff, you tend to lose touch with folks here and there. Regardless, there’s no way I could forget to put one of the finest hip hop acts to ever come out of Boston on my decade-end list. Speaking of Boston hip hop, Edo G guested on “Movement” with an inspired verse that makes me nostalgic even now three years later – and he’s just one of several high-profile collaborators on here. I think the fact that world famous cats were itching to jump on a track with FM reminds us that sometimes the best stuff in the world is being made right next door. Don’t stop checking for it.

7. Supreme Clientele, Ghostface Killah (2000)
This was released almost exactly ten years ago, but it still looms large in my memory. I think Ghost kinda defined the split that was gonna play itself out in hip hop music over the next several. The first song on the disc – the bugged out “Nutmeg” – was the first I can remember to force a listener to understand its concept primarily from elements other than its lyrics. Ghost had always done a little roundabout stuff in his songs, but it was consistent throughout this entire album, and he went on the show it would be consistent for the rest of his career, pitting him in sharp contrast to rappers like Plies or MIMS or the Ying Yang Twinz who made songs that had no real meaning at all.

Something about Ghost’s raps on this album reminds me of ziti.

6. Blue Scholars, Blue Scholars (2004)
I first met Geologic in like 2000 or so, when he wasn’t yet a world-famous rapper. We were both doing a little writing workshop with the homie Jojo Gaon working in a high school in Seattle. Afterward, the cats brought me to see Bruce Lee’s grave, and I think we probably ate pho somewhere. Anyway, I had no idea he was also honing his craft as an emcee, and would deliver some of the most meaningful and memorable verses of the new millennium in the space of a few years.

Sometimes the 1 MC + 1 DJ formula works out perfectly – and Sabzi and Geo might be the most perfectly-matched pair since Pete Rock and CL Smooth.

5. Exact Change, Bambu (2008)
I guess there is such a thing as a flawless album. Bam does everything right on this. Each flow is perfectly matched to each beat, and each concept is straight from the heart. This release started to really push dude into the limelight, and he deserves it as much as anyone. Keep watching…

4. The Black Album, Jay-Z (2003)
I was a Jay fan in the mid-90s, then got kinda tired of him in the late-90s. After I had stopped paying attention, he slowly took over the world and became, you know, what he is. By the time The Black Album came out, it was impossible to not be paying attention. I know many folks are kinda whatever about him, but I was so impressed with how versatile his flow had become since I last cared. Some of the beats were a little over the top, but I don’t think anyone had ever made such an aggressive grab at the “Greatest Rapper Alive” trophy for all the world to see. Gutsy.

3. Writes of Passage: Portraits of a Son Rising, Kiwi (2003)
I first heard this album from the homie Tony Nguyen (aka Papa T aka DJ T. Oh-no!) and I’m trying to think back if I’ve ever heard a song that affected me so strongly and immediately as “Imagine” did. But more than that, the album has a consistent voice throughout, like he’e really talking to you the whole way. At this time, I had yet to meet the brother, so when finally we did link up, I swear I felt I knew him.

There’s been a lot of dope independent hip hop from API artists – shoot, just check out this list – but in my mind, this will always be the standard.

2. Kamaal/The Abstract, Q-Tip (2009, but originally leaked in 2001)
I had no idea – no idea – that Tip was capable of doing anything like this when I first heard it. I admit that I always kinda thought he was overrated and that Phife was underrated when it came to Tribe – but I didn’t know that he was actually the musical mastermind behind all their work – and so if I had any clue, I wouldn’t have been so surprised by this joint. Anyway, the point is, this album was way ahead of its time and was way farther outside the box than The Love Below from Andre 3000, which got all the mainstream attention as the most creative hip hop album in years. Gotta respect the brother’s artistry.

Sadly, its official release was delayed until 2009 (see: Record Industry Rule #4080), and I wonder if it had come out on schedule, how much more dope and hoenstly experimental music would be right now.

1. Be, Common (2005)
There is one major drawback on this album: Kanye’s voice. I wish someone would go through this album and edit him out Jar Jar Binks style.

Despite that, I probably listened to this CD more than any other in the last ten years because the lyrics and grooves are so on point. Of course, I was a Common fan from the beginning, and most impressive about Be was that he grew up in front of our eyes from album to album. here’s no way the Common of Can I Borrow a Dollar? could have made this masterpiece – but there’s no way he could have gotten to that level if he hadn’t started where he did.

That’s the lesson. Just because we present ourselves to the world at one stage in our life, doesn’t mean we stay in that stage forever. The world still turns.

OK, my top ten movies of the Zeroes.

10. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
My wife and I thought this was a kids movie when we snuck in. I guess we are idiots because it is not at all apprpriate for children. But it is an amazing flick. Taking place after the Spanish Civil War, a girl escapes her fascist – in multiple ways – stepfather by imagining (?) a fantasy world in which she is actually a long lost princess who will eventually be reunited with her parents – king and queen of the underworld.

All children create alternate realities to some extent, and dwell in them for various amounts of time, depending on how emotionally healthy they are. This film is heartbreaking because Ofelia is forced to live most of her day in her fantasy world because the reality of her life is so rough. Her stepfather eventually kills her before he’s assassinated by rebels in bittersweet justice. And of course, the special effects are crazy ass.

9. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
After seeing this flick, I went to the bookstore to read the short story it’s based on and was shocked to finish it in about 15 minutes. To actually read the source material makes it all the more impressive that such well developed characters and such an emotionally-affecting story was built off a short story of about 30 pages. But most of all, the movie is made by Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger’s performances. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two characters in an American movie more convincingly in love.

8. My Sassy Girl (2001)
My favorite thing about this movie is that it is based on a true story. I know, right?

Of course Ji-hyun Jun (aka Gianna Jun?) is the undisputed star, but I feel Tae-hyun Cha actually holds his own. If you haven’t seen it, don’t watch it without your ride-or-die, because even though the premise – silly dude meets drunk girl on subway, she subsequently ruins his life as they fall in love – sounds kinda throwaway, it really helps remind a viewer what it means to be in love. Korean movies have a weird penchant for being mad deep even when they don’t seem it; it’s the han.

7. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
I don’t know if I’ll ever see another movie that does this to me. I can’t say I liked it in the traditional sense of liking stuff, but I loved how sad it made me. Does that sounds weird?

6. Oldboy (2003)
If ever there was a movie for aspiring Buddhists, this is the one – forget that Brad Pitt joint. Every single character is proof that life is suffering, and that the only way to achieve enlightenment is to accept that fact. The dude who played the lead character – Min-sik Choi – probably gives one of the 5 greatest performances in the history of film. Yeah, I said it. You wanna fight about it? Speaking of fight, the fight scenes lack anything resembling excitement or adrenaline, they are all sloggingly disastrous. The whole thing is a collection of sadness and hurt…just like life I guess.

Most depressing movie evar! (It’s that han yo.)

5. Shaolin Soccer (2001)
I have been a Stephen Chow fan since like the 80s. And he always did creative isht in his movies, and he always blended genres, and he always knew how to make a moderately funny line hilarious by inflection. But with this movie he took a huge leap from talented trickster to genre-defining auteur. There’s no going back bro.

4. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005)
The feeling I got from this movie was as genuine as the feeling I got after the best performances of my career. It’s just pure love and admiration between everyone who particiapted in making it happen, and watching it in the movie felt like being there.

It also has one of my favorite lines from any movie ever. When Michel gondry asks Jill Scott if she’s intimidated to go on after Erykah Badu, and Jill smirks and the camera and asks “…have you seen me perform?”

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
DAMN. Love means mothing if you never understand what life is like without it.

2. In the Mood for Love (2001)
Two of the greatest movie actors of the past 30 years – Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung – are basically the only characters. Their spouses are having an affair, and so they use each other for emotional support – and never anything more than that. It helps us understand that there is no universal blueprint for love.

Sometimes you just want someone to need you.

1. Infernal Affairs (2002)
The American version – “The Departed” – is just about good vs evil and that’s pretty much it. But this movie – and its sequels – are based on the idea that those two don’t exist in polarity, that life is constant struggle to balance good and evil, and that there is no state of being truly one or the other.

Moreover, Tony Leung (once again) and Andy Lau give maybe the best performances of their careers – and that’s saying a lot for both of them. And the main supporting roles – Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang – are filled by amazing Hong Kong character actors.

The scene where Anthony Wong dies – the look on Tony Leung’s face…DAMN. Just. Damn.

Anyway, December usually comes and goes without me really really thinking of it as the end of the year. But since it is, over the next few days I’m gonna throw you some of my favorites from the past 12. Feel free to disagree

Song of the Year: “Exhibit C” by Jay Electronica

I’ll admit, I didn’t even realize Just Blaze could make a beat like this. I just thought he was a goofy dude who had a good ear for samples. Combine his sense of humor, his seemingly obsessive-compulsive nature, and his musical training as a drummer – I figured, no wonder his beats come out so hot. But I swear I didn’t realize he could make beats that could make you cry and isht. It’s like Just making a Dilla joint. Amazing. (I could live without him screaming on it though…)

But as great as the music is – it’s the verses that make the song. Good Lord, it’s just abstract enough to appeal to hip hop nerds, but just gutter enough to appeal to, uhh, other hip hop nerds. He makes references to MF Doom lyrics, Public Enemy lyrics, Run-DMC lyrics, and even Temptations lyrics. He checks 5 Percenter philosophy, streets in his native New Orleans, in Philly, in Detroit, baller rappers like Nas, Diddy, and Q-Tip, plus Nikola Tesla, and then implies he’s more real than any of the world’s religions. And he does this all in two verses without ever boring you or making you feel like he’s trying to make you think he’s smart.

The crazy thing to me is, when I first started hearing Jay Elec joints on the Internets, I was always like “what’s the big deal? This guy rhymes in robot slang.” I didn’t really see what appealed to people about him, but I get it now.

Damn I get it.

Favorite line: its quite amazing that you rhyme how you do/ and how you shine like you grew up in a shrine in Peru

My brother from another Bao Phi has a super popular blog on the website for the Star-Tribune, and he’s been doing an interesting thing where he asks various API activists from around the country to talk about the first time they participated in a public protest. So I participated in this joint, and it’s been up for a little while.

Follow this link to check out the homie’s blog, and go ahead and leave comments and isht too. My First Protest, Part 2

BTW, I wrote a piece about this experience that I talk about a while back. It’s included in my chapbook, and an earlier draft is here on my website: “Beautiful Ones”.

Turkeys have decided that enough is enough and are now taking our cities by storm. Guess yall gotta eat ham instead.

I, for one, welcome our new leaders.

But lost amidst the talk of the sky falling and the devil returning to steal our children, why isn’t anyone talking about how dope Allen Iverson was?

He doesn’t even break six feet and still managed to cop the Rookie of the Year, one MVP, and 4 scoring titles. He even single-handedly led a terrible 76ers squad the the NBA Finals. (How terrible? Matt Geiger got run on this team.)

But men in suits have been trying to dethrone AI as the king of the NBA for years, trying to replace him with blander-than-Corn Flakes Kobe Bryant or Lebron “Not a businessman, I’m a business, man” James. But those of us who know know that AI is the post-Jordan player.

He was drafted the summer before I went to college, so I’ve basically been watching him my entire adult life. And it was perfect timing too, because he still got to play against MJ when he was still, you know, worth playing. And we all know what happened, AI broke his ankles:

He’s easily the best little man since Isiah Thomas (I don’t want to hear John Stockton’s name right here…) – but check his online rep and you’ll find as much hate as love, probably more hate than love.

And the reason is because Iverson was and still is just too black. Yeah I said it. Cornrows and tattoos and hip hop slang. And you know, David Stern wants black guys like Tim Duncan aka “Big Fundamentals” or as he likes to call himself “Merlin” (he’s into Dungeons & Dragons). He’s an iconoclast. He wasn’t listening to Jeffrey Osborne. He also bucked the trend of double digit jersey numbers that had been the norm for 20 years. I can’t remember the last superstar – I mean superstar – with a jersey number under 10 before AI, but now it’s rampant.

And I know he once went on a rant about not wanting to practice, and OK, so that wasn’t the most mature thing to do. But you saying you never complained about your job to anyone? He did the same thing, except in front of a bank of cameras. And he never slouched when it counted; he threw his body all over the floor every night for more than 10 years and he’s supposed to be lazy? He’s the most driven, focused, hard-working player on the court every game.

In addition: yall need to get over that. What was that like 7 years ago? So he said some ignant sh!t 7 years ago and he can’t be forgiven? Relax people.

Anyway, the NBA’s most racist-ass rule – the dress code for players – was put in place largely because of Iverson. Yeah they never said that, but everyone knows it wasn’t because of poser-ass Kobe. And Iverson criticized the dress code, calling it racist, as well he should have.

Shaq might be the most dominant player of the last 15 years. Lebron the most marketable. Kobe the most prolific. Duncan the most exemplary. Nash the best white guy (you know that always counts for something). But Iverson had the most charisma and personality (that wasn’t given to him by ad executives).

So he complained about coming off the bench, so what? He’s averaged 27 points a game over a 12 year career. You never complained about not getting recognized at your job?

I hope dude doesn’t retire because he deserves to go out on his own terms. I got an idea actually: after Ray Allen retires next year, sign with the Celtics as the starting 2 guard and win a couple titles.

Cool. Sounds like a plan.

BTW, ten years ago, this would have been crazy, but now that these dudes are all like 35+ years old, it’s that much better. There’s a lot more weight to their verses than I bet there woulda been had this been off a Rawkus compilation in ‘99.

Enjoy!

In honor of the new NBA season getting underway tonight (!!!), I’m putting up a list of my favorite Celtics players during my lifetime. There’s basically two loose guidelines: 1) I have to like them for what they did for the Celtics – no Gary Payton, no Dominique Wilkins, no Chauncey Billups and the like, and 2) I have to have watched them play, thus no Russell, no Jojo White (my mom’s favorite), no Bob Cousy, etc.

Let’s get it started…

10. Tom Heinsohn
Allow me to start off this list by breaking my own rule. Of course I never saw Tommy play: he retired in 1965, and coached until 1978 – the year I was born. So I’ve known him in my lifetime primarily as a broadcaster. And the great thing about him is that over the years, he’s gotten more and more crotchety and biased. Almost every time a Celtics player get called for a foul, Tommy gets livid and screams about how the refs are terrible. But my favorite is when they look at a replay and see the Celtic in question was undeniably guilty of committing the foul, he’ll usually mutter a retraction under his breath – then talk about how the other team has been doing the same thing all game and never got called for it.

9. Dee Brown
A Celtic won the slam dunk contest! Throughout the 80s, the Celtics were known throughout the land as the blue-collar, not very athletic NBA team. So when Dee won the slam dunk contest when I was in middle school – woooooooo! It wasn’t just the dunking ability, but it was mostly the flair. The blindfold dunk and the little act of pumping up his sneakers before every attempt! I waited in line for 2 hours at the Cambridgeside Galleria to get his autograph on a mini Celtics basketball. Uh. I lost it. Still though, he had a nice career in the NBA, so I’ll have a special place in my memory for him.

8. Kevin Garnett
He’s only been here two years, and he’s in the top 10 Celtics players of my lifetime? ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE!!!

7. Larry Bird
If he had played for any other team, he’d be up there with Laimbeer and Rambis as my least favorite player ever, But because he played for my hometown, he’s Top 10. That’s life.

Anyway, more than his shooting touch, his clutchness, his tenacity or his ability to think several steps ahead of opponents – I loved Larry Bird’s big fat mouth. He talked so much isht to so many people, he was like the original Kanye West. Everyone knows at the 3 point contest he walked in the locker room and asked out loud “Which one of you assholes is coming in second?” then went out and won without taking off his jacket. (Loved the finger he kept in the air as the last ball swished through the hoop.) Holla.

6. Kevin Gamble
Gamble came to the Celtics as a roster replacement when Bird got injured. He never should have stayed – he was basically a nobody on a team of stars. But he must have showed something in practice, because he stuck around for six more seasons, eventually becoming one of the go-to guys on offense. He had a sweet badasssss stroke, and was consistent as all hell. He also just looked like a dude who after retiring would own an Athlete’s Foot store and a real estate development company – which, according to Wikipedia, he currently does.

5. Paul Pierce
Anyone who’s ever met him around town knows he is a pretty big asshole. That’s OK, because I’m not trying to be his friend. Every fan has a soft spot for a player who grows up in front of their eyes – it means more to me because P-squared is roughly my age (he’s a year older). We always knew he was a top-level player, which is mad impressive because he’s not particularly fast, or muscular, or athletic – so no wonder fans outside Boston didn’t realize how good he has been. But his two qualities that make him what he is are great hands and body control.

I hope he finishes his career here.

4. Robert Parish
I feel like by the time I started paying attention to the Celtics, Parish was already 50 years old. He had arthritis so he couldn’t make a closed fist, and he was unshakable, yet he still punched Bill Laimbeer in the face 3 times! I know this is not his proudest basketball moment, but it’s my favorite Robert Parish memory.

3. Danny Ainge
When I was a kid, Danny Ainge was my favorite player. He was scrappy and of all teh starters, he got the least shine. He also threw elbows and slapped at hands and complained loudly and drained open shots when his teammates were doubled. He also played pro baseball and started a hat company. Yeah.

But more than that, he’s partly responsible for assembling the current Celtics roster and serving as the most concrete link between Celtics generations. Even when the Celts were suffering through a historically bad season, I had faith in my man – because he was looking for the right mix of vets and younguns to compete. And you know, he finally got it.

2. Eddie House
Eddie House is Danny Ainge 2.0. He does all the things Danny Ainge did, except he comes off the bench to do them. I think it should be a team rule that he gives all post-game interviews too, so he can talk about what happens when you “bust somebody’s ass.”

1. Reggie Lewis
I loved watching him play. he was the perfect representative of the future of the Celtics who were leaving the 80s – you know, moving on from Bird, McHale, Parish, and the like, but still trying to stay competitive in the age of more athletic players and more graceful game play. Reggie Lewis had the work ethic to fit in with the 80s guys, but the moves to fit in with what the game was becoming in the 90s.

When he died, I was in high school. I had been watching him for almost all my basketball-watching life – and he was my favorite player. It affected me – not in an idol worship kind of way, but because I guess I had always thought of pro athletes as invincible. Like they live forever, or at least they got to leave the game on their own terms. But Reggie just…disappeared from this earth. Like one day he was at practice, and the next day he was gone. (This is the part where sports teaches me a lesson.)

The newspaper did a tribute section to him, and I Scotch taped his smiling black-and-white portrait on my wall. I spent a lot of time looking at the photo and wondering what might have been going through his head on the day it was taken, far away from the court and fans and the hype. It helped me develop an awareness that players are people with their own lives and priorities, that probably don’t include basketball. They have families, flaws, just like everyone.

And larger than that, I think I try to keep that same attitude throughout life. I try to remember that everyone stars in his or her own story, but that the way I see you – isn’t the way you see yourself. It probably isn’t the way anyone else sees you either.

I ended up taking every picture and poster of celebrities and athletes down off my wall because I realized I didn’t know what they were doing there in the first place.

All this to say, when the Celtics play the Cavs tonight, I’ll be pulling for my team. And I will every night they play. But I don’t live or die with them. There are plenty of things in the world and in my life that deserve my attention, and I hope that when I grow up, I’ll know how to deal with all of them.

I explain in my “review” – I’m not very qualified to review books, but whatever – a little why the title appealed to me so much, but to go a little deeper with it…

When I was younger, I think I put a lot of weight into that magical phrase. Why? I think because you’re expected to, here in America. But I never really felt it, I think I only thought I felt it.

In one way, I really love almost nobody. I can count on two hands the number of people who have ever lived I truly love or loved. That would be the members of my immediate family, some members of extended family, and my wife. I certainly care for and wish the best for many other people, but I can’t say with confidence that I love or ever loved those others.

In another way, I feel like I love almost everybody in the world – even, nah, especially the people I’ve never met. I have a sincere hope that all people in the world experience endless joy in healthy ways, and are able to avoid feeling sadness and anger and hate as much as possible. That’s a simplistic way to say my ideal world has no war and no exploitation or people, resources, and surroundings. My ideal world is the world where everyone has enough of what they need.

But I honestly recoil when people tell me they love me. Not because I’m mad at the emotion of love – but because saying the words “I love you” is shorthand. It’s played out. It’s both teams played hard. It has no meaning in real life. Relationships don’t get built on explicitly spoken pledges, no, it’s the opposite.

Anyway, this was the topic of a pretty well put-together blog post over at Stuff White People Do a while back. At the time, I left the following comment:

i am annoyed by the need for people to hear that they are loved from people close to them. this also – for whatever reason – sounds like a white thing to me.

the only person who i don’t mind hearing it from is my mother. i don’t even care to hear it from my wife, as i shouldn’t need her verbal confirmation for what’s already obvious. and then i actively dislike hearing it from other family members or friends – it makes me feel less close to person who says it.

in any language, we’ve loaded too much power into certain words, and “love” may be the worst of them. people say things like “i love to eat cheese!” or “i love star trek!” that it no longer means what we pretend it means – yet we still pretend it means love.

the actual concept of “love” is far too complex and large to be encapsulated or represented by any word or combination of words. so for me, using the phrase “i love you” is like showing a cell phone photo of the grand canyon or niagara falls to you…

i don’t, however, make judgment against people who freely use the phrase with each other – that means they’re into expressing themselves the same way. but i resent the phrase being thrust into my life by people who i don’t want to hear it from. it sounds cheap to me.

I feel I might have come across more harsh than I meant to there, but the gist is correct. I’m not big into the use of the word “love” because words can’t mean more than what they mean, and loving someone in real life is different from simply telling them so.

By the way, this is the point of poetry, where we try to get words to mean more than they mean.

Anyway, read the review at BPRLive, read the book, and holla back.