May SC-Slam Competition Standing Room Only

The Salt City Slam premiere was so crazy last night! The Underground Poetry Spot is a great family, and so happy to be surround by great brothers and sisters. It is something about the UPS that makes you feel good, ….uh! Thank you SCSlam for allowing me to be your host for the night. I had a great time. Special shout out to our features Cedric Bolton and Crystal Leigh Endsley. Ced, man you helped me create a home here in the Cuse, you will always be my dude, my brother, thanks for having my back. Crystal, my newly found sister, you have so much energy and such an amazing spirit. You always brighten up the room with your presence. Thank you Mozart Guerrier my lil brother, dude God knows who he wants in your life. I ain’t mad at you God, appreciate that. FYI, proud of you. Thank you Meghan Toomey my baby, you know how to take care of me, your support is soooo amazing….you make me feel GOOD, Uh! Thank you Underground Poets we are a Powerful team! UPS for Life! Supporters Thank YOU! for continuing to support what we do. you are our source, we do not grow with you. Until next time always Give More Love! 

Yasiin Bey—-Its Time for Something Different

Formerly known as Mos Def, Yasiin Bey has rolled in with a remix video of Kanye West and Jay-Z’s“N*****s In Paris,” ‘N****s In Poorest.”

The track, off Bey’s Top 40 Underdog series, hit last month and the video dropped on Tuesday in commemoration of the 47th anniversary of Malcolm X’s death. In addition to featuring a moving Malcolm X speech clip, Bey highlights the socioeconomic crisis with political visuals and lyrics like “Poor So Hard” and “Ever winter landlord f****in’ with my heat again.”

Love, Hip Hop and Olivia

By Ruthnie “JeanRae” Angrand for AllFanKind

What the VHI show has done for the singer is taken an independent artist’s music and put it on a platform where fans see what happens to an artist without glorified record label backing: praise-worthy, nose-to-the-floor-grinding production of good music as it was intended.

The VHI reality show Love and Hip Hop has caused fans to fall in love with classic Hip Hop stories of fighting your way to the top such as the case with Olivia’s music. Olivia has 21,585 fans and counting on Facebook, nearly 102,000 fans on Twitter whom she’s sparked curiosity from despite her super-controlled exterior. YouTube her remixes and features or loom around on www.oliviaworldwide.com to hear iPod-ready R&B: bright vocals, high note croons and straight-tones with controlled vibrato that fall in place to background keyboards, bells and whistles.

She, as an independent artist, has the challenge of telling us that she can make music outside of what we’ve heard. Pink did it. Fans don’t mind the switch as long as it is relevant and we can connect.

Olivia, like Beyonce and Pink, is needing to stage how we get to know her. The only thing I see her lacking is the solid punch through with her lyrics. Pink’s album Missundaztood connects with special graphic lyrics like “Just Like a Pill” or “Family Portrait.” Beyonce eventually expressed herself on I Am…Sasha Fierce. Olivia isn’t visible in her lyric structure singing in third person or ambiguously about heartbreak without mentioning specifics -but she’s trying. Just listen to her single from the Love and Hip Hop EP “Daddy’s Little Girl.”

Record labels don’t always know what to do with artists who change as she describes in an interview with Essence.com. The development of her onscreen personality helps place background to her stories and connects her with audiences in ways that the big guys couldn’t. More importantly, it doesn’t take away from the fact that she can sing, really sing. Fans appreciate that and want to hear more of it.

In her middle register, such as on “December” and “Deuces Remix,” Olivia is smooth and places the pitch where the feelings should be -carried on extended notes and vowels. More than “December,” more than the snippets of “Happened to Me,” but something like the Love and Hip Hop EP fans can hear on her website, with John Legend features and full development. On her EP she sings and swings her vocal on an outtro from Rich Dollaz and doesn’t sound like an out-of-place R&B ringer trying to rap. In Olivia’s case, rapping may have been her branded past but it is a unique and usable launching pad for her singing career. Her sound and appearance coupled with her “gangster girl” background make her an interesting character. So, to whomever needs to make it happen: more Olivia, please.

Suggested Reading from Author:

• Vibe Interview with Lola Ogunnaike

• Mina SatWhat Interview

• Top Independent Artists of 2011

I Am a Warrior 2 - Revised from “Mama’s Gun”

by Jeanrae on Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 7:37pm

I am awake
my mind is free
reminding me of what God set me out to be

i love myself
and I must love strong
Because the road to salvation is oh so long
But i am brave
my patience grows
judging my trials instead of my foes
i give, not to receive
and accept, even the unexpected 
i listen more than i talk
and talk less when others neglect it
i know i’ll change
i know you’ll change
Hence, i’ll hold on one more day
I’ll pray and start over when necessary
God won’t let me stray.
I create my own situations
aware of the cosmic frustration
that i do not have the answers 
to..therefore i desire to learn
i am the woman Jesus emancipated
a plan that handsome man created
i am strong
weak..and through struggles -growing,
willful, wise beyond my knowing
i hide myself from no responsibility
I shall not run
i am on my path
a warrior walking alone
i won’t let my focus change
I reap the sown and ace the war 
my past discretions once waived..

I’m taking out the demons in my range..

Kwanzaa Saved My Heart

So, for those of you that know-i tend to get the Holiday Blues around Christmas/ New Years Time. 

Why?

a. We lie to children about Santa and think its cute to not tell them the truth: that mom and dad worked hard for your gifts

b. The preaching of “goodness” and “niceness” earning you material things when they should be self-gratifying and work earns you “things”

c. i’m disgusted when people who don’t know mess about the sacredness of love but work hard to give gifts out of a corner of their hearts they mistake for love

In comes Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa and learning about it for the first time this year makes me feel like there is a community of people who, like me, want to consecrate what is important. It is a cultural Holiday and for me sacred because the principles of Kwanzaa are reminiscent of the fruits of the spirit that I have been taught to demonstrate.

I look forward to exercising these principles all year. Thank you Kwanzaa for principle and love. Thank you Christ for not changing, despite the Holidays <3 

Resilience

subway tiles with mantras-in every station
We are the few reminded in all directions
We all have a destination
Moss growing from the under bottoms of stairs but you’d never notice
You’d never judge the strength of the stair to hold you up because its not pretty
Nobody asks brown ale walls of a 1/2 century old local train how many it can carry-it carries them all
We are like the wooden benches with room for just 6-square bottoms
We sit and no one fights because there are those of us who must stand
We are like inbound routes-always retreating to home for changes to course through and people to rush by and new strength to have-because the trip is one we have to make
We’re the track that sometimes lays in the darkness, electrified by the weight of other people passing over
We are like that sober-or not
We give the journey everything we’ve got
We pay tithes of 2.25 with concession
Not because we are in a recession
But because we understand the laborers in our path should not bear plight for what we believe or not believe

There are those who fall asleep on the long rides but they wake up again
To signs, everywhere signs,reminding them at all times not who they are but where they are
There are those who travel in light speeds above ground with the wisdom of light scanning their reflections-they know
They know all the faces they surpass
They are aware that the sky rains, and that the wind blows
They know and see the perils and promises they plummet through in their haste
But us-we choose not to know
We only are aware of those things that carry us because the distractions of wind, rain, snow and light are, at our sight, distracting

Sometimes its better not to know the people you leave and the places you pass-the journey in the bellows of change does not move as soft, nor does it immediately love you back

But no strength in love has ever come quickly nor not grown out from darkness

-Rae Sunshine