Don’t be a Victim..

This past Tuesday Dec 1st, 2009 was world AIDS day, anyone who knows me or is somewhat familiar with my work knows that I am a HUGE advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness. I’ve been involved in many projects related to that topic such as a play that I wrote What Comes Around Goes Around which was featured on an online radio show was even about to hit a real stage (that part is still on hold) I’ve also written several short stories and poems on the topic. Well anyways I’ve always wanted to direct a photoshoot of some sort so in the summer of ’09 I decided to start a photo shoot called Don’t be a Victim to bring more awareness to HIV/AIDS. The response I got from people who wanted to be involved was overwhelming and great! Currently I am still taking pictures but hope to release this collection soon in some form whether that be via a myspace/facebook page, blog/site or what have you (not sure exactly what I want to do with it yet) but I am open to suggestions so if you have any ideas please let me know in the comments 🙂 on a side note I’m currently involved in another project dealing with HIV/AIDS but I’ll give you more info on that when the time comes I promise 🙂 below are a few sneak peak shots from the Don’t be a Victim collection please tell me what you think your feedback is needed! thanks
-PoeticRymes

Conspiracy Theories=Setbacks

This is something that I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time, I’m sure all of you are familiar with the William Lynch letter if not then click here. It was supposedly written to keep blacks in check for centuries. You may also be aware of the conspiracy that HIV/AIDS was in fact intentionally created to kill off minorities Click here. Now whether or not you believe these things to be true we all can agree that these are all conspiracies…right? with that being said let me get to the point, I have a problem with theories such as this for one simple reason regardless of the fact if they are true or not they still set us back! and here’s why. I know to many people who will act the way they’ve been told to. meaning that if they are told that they are nothing and never will be anything in the future they will believe it! as crazy as that sounds its a sad truth. I feel as though some people use the William Lynch letter as an excuse to why some of our people people live the types of lives that they do. And same goes for the HIV/AIDS conspiracy some use that as an excuse to not use protection because they believe that their going to get it anyways. Now I’m not saying that these conspiracies don’t hold some truths but we cannot continue to let things like this dictate who we are and who we will become in the future! as a matter of fact things like this should motivate us to prove these theories to be wrong. I could talk about this all day but I’m going to stop here you get where I’m trying to go with this….right? I’d love to here everyone’s feedback so if you read this post please take the time out to leave a comment and let me know how you feel about this I’m thinking about taking this discussion further in some form maybe a video, or a radio show IDK for now but please post your thoughts. Also check out the video below it is about another conspiracy exploring the possibility that Tupac Shakur may actually still be alive, its called The 7 day theory.

Hip Hop From Around The World: Kafa Beanz

For those of you who have never heard of Kafa Beanz they are a ethio-hip hop group based in the DMV, Their sound consists of some old school Ethiopian jazz mixed with some modern day hip-hop very reminiscent of 90’s rap groups or for those of you who don’t about that (real hip-hop) lol. The group consists of female MC B-Sheba, Grammy nominated singer Wayna, rapper Gabriel Teodros, and rapper BurntFace. I first discovered them when I was online one night searching for a female Ethiopian rapper, because I knew there had to be others besides Lola Monroe out there. I came across a video of B-Sheba and was blown away! I mean real talk this girl has major talent and is better than many of the new female rappers that are in the game right now it’s just sad that she is not getting the same recognition. Anyways as I continued to research her I learned that her along with two other Ethiopian rappers and one other Ethiopian singer teamed up to create what is now known as Kafa Beanz. Honestly I am proud to see fellow Ethiopian-Americans out there trying something new and making a name for themselves Im very excited to see where this goes. Kafa Beanz debut The Kafa Beanz: Andromeda: The Chronicles of Blackopia Vol. 1 can be bought/downloaded on AddisTunes.com
here also below are two of there videos, on the first vid peep B-sheba spittin the truth! the second video is by Gabriel Teodros and the song has a very powerful message. oh and if you where wondering who that beautiful woman was in his video it was none other than the rap queen herself B-Sheba. 🙂

Mixtape of The Week: Lil Wayne “No Ceilings”

I know all the Lil Wayne heads out there are happy to find out that Lil Wayne’s much anticipated mixtape “no ceilings” was released a few days early. As far as Lil Wayne goes I think he is overrated in some aspects, but I gotta give props where props are due. This mixtape is hot! I liked every track on this joint so that is why it’s the mixtape of the week. To download click here.Also after you check it out leave a comment under this post on how you feel about the new material. If you have any suggestions on what should be next weeks mixtape of the week shoot me an email at spokenrap@gmail.com peace.

Slacking Much?

Yes I know I’ve been slacking big time shoot me. LOL previously I did a post saying that spokenrap was back in full effect and it ended up not happening, you see in the beginning my vision for this blog was to bridge the gap between spokenword and hip-hop. But after awhile I realized this blog has to the potential to be so much more than that so I took another break to figure out a direction for this blog. Well I said that to say this I’M BACK!!!!! (for real this time lol) expect daily(sometimes weekly) updates, interviews, downloads and much much more. I will also be making my comeback on youtube very shortly most likely tomorrow so definently be on the lookout for that. Until then please go subscribe to my youtube channel here.

Artist Spotlight: Jai Tease

Not only is Jai Tease a self taught female MC she is also a DJ, Radio personality, actress, director, writer, author, producer, manager, graphic designer, and a entreprenuer. We all know the state that female rap is in right now but Jai Tease is breaking those obstacles with her incredible talent. Some of you may recognize her as a contestent from Chris Stokes “I wanna be a star” contest on youtube, where she made it to the very end. She has also created a buzz for herself on youtube as a vlogger. This woman wears many,many hats and is putting alot of these so called rappers to shame she truly is a force to be reckoned with.
To listen to Jai Tease’s music check her out via her myspace page here
check her out on youtube here
also follow her on twitter here.

Mixtape of The Week: “The Messengers”

In a previous entry I posted the first three tracks to the much anticipated mixtape from rapper’s K’naan and J.Period entitled “The messanger.” Which is a tribute to music greats Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and Fela Kuti. Well now the mixtape is available in its entirety and I must say I’m feelin’ this one hard! so I decided to name it the mixtape of the week download it here and let me know if you agree.

Preformances: Now Thats How You Really Let The Beat Build!!!

Its rare when I can watch a whole music video and love everything about it, but thats exactly what happened when I first saw this clip. The video is by Nyle and the song is his own version of Lil Wayne’s song “Let the beat build.” What I love most about the video was how they used live singers and a live band to recreate the beat instead of using Wayne’s instrumental. Everyone on the video brought their A game especially the artist himself Nyle who is an up and coming singer from the NYC area. I think this is one of those tracks that everyone can enjoy even if you dont listen to rap/hip-hop and although some stans out there may try to disagree Nyle’s version gives Wayne’s a run for his money. But don’t just take my word for it peep the video below and let me know what you think. Also if you know of any live preformances or music videos you enjoy please email them to me at spokenrap@gmail.com

SpokenRap’s Schedule stay posted and spread the word!!!

Alright Im back from Hiatus yall so spokenrap is officialy back in effect! had to get my mind right because I was fresh out of ideas lol but its all good. I’ve come to realize that things are alot easier when you have some sort of schedule to go by so from now on this blog will have some sort of schedule of the things I will be posting daily. That way no matter what I’ll have something to post. And of course in addition to the daily blogs I will post some of my random ish when I feel like it I wouldnt me if I didn’t 🙂 lol. So the schedule is as following.

Monday- Mixtape/Album of the Week
Tuesday- Hot preformances or Def Poetry Jam vids
Wednesday- Artist Spotlight
Thursday- PoeticRymes Upadate’s
Friday- RealTalk With PoeticRymes
Saturday/Sunday- Random
**in addition to the topics listed above I will be posting other blogs here and there also Im thinking about some writers to SpokenRap if you are interested or you know someone who is please contact me at spokenrap@gmail.com much love to yall stay tuned!!!!!

MIA?

Yes I know Ive been gone but there is a reasnable explaination on why lol just work with me yall SpokenRap will be back on September 21, 2009 you may see a post here and there until then but I wont be in full effect until the 21st.
peace,
-PoeticRymes