Swag like Carter
King like Arthur
Rap pilgrimage, y’all
Magna Carta
Chip off the old block
Flow like magma
Explode like lava
Summer blockbuster
Paul Blart…mall cop ya
New twist on hip-hop
Bout to blow the top off
Literary pioneer here
Modern-day Shakespeare;
Reincarnation of Dante;
Rebirth of Voltaire;
I eat with Poe at my table;
I see Goethe in the mirror;
There’s Frost year-round
On my shelf;
I’ve made friends
With the ghost of
Dylan Thomas of Wales;
John Keats made me promise
Rhymes and beats would not fail
At reaching the masses;
William Yeat’s
Found tha appeal
In my passion for
Presenting my words in
My own unique fashion;
I changed Auden’s mind
With all that I done -
But if I have made
Nothing happen
At least I’ve had fun…
And I’ve only just begun
Yeah call me Tha Poet
Call me Lyrically Sound
Call me the only thing goin
Worth passin around
I’m like a blunt you can toke
And then choke off the cloud
Of brain-stimulating smoke
I exhale for the crowd
Consider me Milton
Find me at Paradise Found
Acting out the mistakes
That he warned us about
See me in LA, you may
Catch me in Prague
Catch me if you can
Paparazzi bulldog
I’m a star, it’s bizarre
But I knew all along, really
That this day would come
I think that I saw it in
A dream that I had in my home
In upstate New York
Gotta thank Mom and Dad
For providing the spark
And to Dr. William Martin
For his patience and smarts
And thanks be to He who
Allows me to see in tha dark
Or whatever we call that
Spirit in tha dark
It’s a stark comparison
Between me and a stork
I’m deliverin’ this, baby
This the birth of lit-hop
Hip-hop meets literature
I think rap needs to
Recognize and give props -
Spoken-word’s rhythmic roots
Go much deeper than
LA or New York
Go much deeper than
The Roots, Jay, or Nas,
Go much deeper than
Dre, Snoop, or Mobb
Go much deeper than
Run, One, or Tip
LL, Chuck D,
Eric B & Rakim
You must know I have
Loved each and all of them
But, I, too, have loved
Langston Hughes
Melvin Tolson…
Maya Angelou
Theodore Roethke
Charles Bukowski
Michael McClure
Philip Larkin
Sylvia Plath
And Allen Ginsberg
I’ve learned of prison cells
As dark as eternal Hell
And held onto hope
As bright as Etheridge Knight
On that forgiving morning in 1968
I think all ya’ll rappers
Need to go do the same -
Educate yourselves on a
Few of these names…
Give props to the future of hip-hop
And respect to the poets of past
Now put ya hands together, clap
Or give me that slam poet snap
Yeah that’s my poem
And yeah, it’s a wrap
- MIC THA POET
Hahhaha!! Genius!
This poem alone tells me you’d be the kind of person to be a blast to hangout with! lol.
Reminds me of comment Tuesday about poetry being the base of music in general, and a lot of people don’t give enough respect and credit to us poets. Every good song started with a poem, and as you expounded on it’s the same in hip hop. A lot of people can say crap and whatever they want, but all rap is, is poetry in rhyme scheme put to music. I may not be totally accurate or politically correct, but in it’s foundation “poetry”.
A side from that, I’m speechless. lol! That doesn’t happen often. This poem is hysterical and true, and I enjoyed it very much!!
oh yeah…? i guess i can be fun. sometimes. I’m usually pretty boring, though, unless i’m performing…lol
This is tha poem i am asked to perform most, at least lately, and it goes over extremely well with high school kids, (even though many of tha ‘rap’ references are mostly ‘before their time’, so-to-speak)… Teachers love that it hits on certain names that they try to get their students to learn in their poetry studies. I guess it inspires some of tha students to give these poets a chance… Now that is definitely “mission accomplished” !!!!
But i always say tha poem is “tongue and cheek”….i mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s an obvious message…but it is also hysterical, and it is meant to be – and i’m glad u think so !! I love rap music, more than most…but some of it gets pretty silly and downright ignorant…and A LOT of poems i’ve completed touch on this issue. …because, without a doubt, a lot of rap/hip-hop IS nothing more than very simply rhyme schemes and a beat… however, take for example someone like Eminem, who layers his ‘poetry’ with heavy internal rhyme and an offset deliveries…he does a little more with tha format, but also focuses too heavily on shock value, for my taste. Early on and over tha years, i learned to take tha bad w tha good when it came to thee arts….
“…I have longed for song, and have justified senseless beats and thoughtless rhyme…”
speechless, huh? i’ll take it….
mtp