This is kinda controversial. Not to anyone else – just to me. It’s hard to pick my favorite spoken word pieces of the last decade because the thing that makes me love them is so personal. It might be the presentation, the wordplay, the structuring – or it could be a lot harder to pin down, like the mood I was in when I first heard it, the way it seemed to complete an incomplete thought I was having, or maybe it became more powerful the more I thought back to it.

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?

(more…)

People have been talking about the world being crazy nowadays as though there was nothing we could do to change it.

The world is crazy because we’ve encouraged it and allowed it to become crazy.

I was put on to this video by my friend Sham. Please be warned that many of these images are extremely disturbing. For more about the artist Humble the Poet, visit him here.

Since I been keeping and catching up with old friends via Facebook, I figured I would throw a couple links your way.

I went to grade school with Janee TMB, the mastermind behind I Fux Wit It. We used to go head to head in Boggle in 6th grade. If I recall correctly, there was kinda nobody in our class who was on our level. We were like two Michael Phelpses, but without the dickhead attitude, mouthful of marbles, and social awkwardness. Now we both became writers.

Another person I must shout out is my homie Khary aka Kharupt. I let him borrow my book “How to Draw Marvel Comics” in 5th grade, and now he is a professional illustrator with legions of fans worldwide. So I figure he owes me roughly a quarter of his yearly income. No rush though.

What would you do if you were performing one of your hit songs and Prince got up on stage and took the place of your guitarist?

A lot of people are hating on this movie, but I can’t see why. A movie about Biggie’s life? What…too soon?

I guess the major beef people have with it is that Gravy plays Biggie. But I don’t know who else would have been the obvious better choice? Sean Kingston? Forrest Whitaker? Anthony Anderson?

Stop hating. I can’t wait for this flick – to come out on DVD so I can rent it from the Redbox…$12 is too much even for a movie about B.I.G.

Not gonna sermonize, just want to share this video.

Looks like M-1 is Fox News’s go-to-rapper when they want to blame hip hop for something. The interesting thing is that M-1 completely murks his opponents every time he’s in one of these debates, but I guess the dudes at Fox News don’t realize that. Like I wonder if every time he makes an intelligent point and the chosen opponent responds by repeating the same point for 5 minutes, if the guys in the control room are high-fiving and letting out a guttural “burrrrrrn!”, even though anyone with half a helping of analytical brain power can see that M-1′s arguments actually make sense, and the other dude pretty much never does.

I guess they do not know how unconvincing their anti-hip hop arguments actually are. If Fox News actually wanted to win one of these anti-hip hop segments, they should find a rapper much dumber than M-1. Like Soulja Boy or Jim Jones or something.

Notice how Cavuto does the classic Fox News trick when talking about how rich M-1 is: “that’s not what I hear, I hear you’re doing okBUTCHARLES…” State a firm belief in something that you probably know to be untrue, then change the subject immediately so your guest will look foolish if he tries to go back to that subject. Bill O’Reilly is the master at this.

Not much to say about it. You can see how well M-1 acquits himself and represents, and you can see how badly Fox wants to confirm their audience’s belief that hip hop is corrupting America’s youth by showing some little white kids dancing in an Eminem video then cutting to what looks like some strip club rap video as though they were the same video. That message is pretty clear: rap music will turn your kids into strippers or Eminem! And then they’ll start refusing to help the police terrorize Black neighborhoods!

Happy Thursday!