Nia Keturah "Tuition"

A few weeks ago I posted the Jinesis produced cut from Nia Keturah's The Missed Education of Denise Huxtable project. Since then I've been checking out her spoken word material. She's dope. Among much of her work, this Tuition joint really hit me. And the rain in the background? Yeah, adds to the dopeness. I love this joint. Enjoy. Chea!

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What I'm Watching ... Guante - "Confessions of a White Rapper" (New Poem)

It was a unanimous decision to post this. Q said he always liked Guante's work. EMS says it got her a little emotional. I had to watch it on repeat. Very strong poem. Very dope poem. Hit play, turn your volume up, listen then put your fucking hands up!



For more on this poem: Confessions of a White Rapper

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Jasmine Mans "Roses"

"I'm sorry that Beyonce made you turn in your halloween costume for a freakum dress."

Let's talk about how dope Jasmine Mans is. No, you don't wanna talk about it? Ok, press play on the video and then let's talk about it after you're blown away by the spoken word of the 19-year-old Jasmine Mans. Some folks may remember her stirring piece "Nicki Minaj."  Her poetry is filled with so much passion and realness. You get that same type of passion and energy on her latest, "Roses." The girl is dope.

gunsontheplayground.tumblr.com

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TheSeKondElement "The Graduate."

"Because I'm black and educated..."

It's odd how when someone returns from jail they return to more fanfare than someone who returns from college. What's up with that? It's odd that if a person goes off to school or takes pride in their education their accomplishments are brushed off with a "oh, this n-gga trying to be smart." What's up with that?

Our school system and community are both jacked.

Before my blogging days I was heavy into working with youth. For ages I worked with young people after school and during the summer. For a while I spent some time in a few inner city middle school classrooms getting young folk ready for high school and college, which included transitions and making decisions that were based on more than what their friends were doing or going. Sometimes that included decision making that wasn't popular among their peers.

I also spent some time working with youth in juvenile detention centers on the weekends.

During this same timeframe, I spent every afternoon running an after school program in suburbia as the director. I saw how differently young folks looked at education in those three settings. And how their parents looked at it. And how people from their surroundings looked at it. Some valued education. Some were just going through the motions.

At the end of every week I was exhausted.

Anyway, recently while cleaning up my music library I stumbled upon this track from TheSeKondElement. The Graduate (off of her The Kommencement LP) made me think about a lot of my experiences with youth. And the conversations we had about education. The Graduate is a powerful cut. I dig it. Join the debate down low in the comment section. In the meantime, hit play, enjoy.





www.teamt2e.com

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Whose Poem Is It? - The Re-Birth of Spoken Word

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We all know that spoken word is the root of hip-hop music. I think a lot of that aspect has been lost in hip-hop music nowadays. The literary aspect needs to be revisited and the art of spoken word, free-verse and freestyle given the shine it deserves. The of first of many "Whose Poem Is It?" Freestyle Spoken Word events is on deck for Friday November 5th from 6-7:30 P.M. The New York Public Library is the place to be to help launch this free event which will help re-position spoken word into our culture.

There will be 3 poet participants who will be required to deliver free-style poems on the spot, all delivered in poetic verse. This first event will host Jonathan "The Baptizer" Harris, Jamal "Skillz" Hinnant, and Taheem "Great Grand Daddy" Ransom. Topics will be chosen either from audience participation or panel selection. Now this is true Freestyle. We need to get some of our rappers up there to demonstrate their "skill". A winner will be chosen and afterwards, an Open-Mic segment for others to showcase their talents.

The producer is none other than Max Rodriguez, founder of the Harlem Book Fair and Publisher of QBR Publishing. Mr. Rodriguez is a published author, QBR Editor, an Inductee of the Writer’s Hall of Fame at Chicago State University and he has also served on the Board of Directors of Poets & Writers magazine. The Host, Bob McNeil, has served as poetry editor of BLACFAX, authored two publications, Secular Sacraments, The Nubian Gallery: A Poetry Anthology, and a spoken word CD, Rapping You with the Facts.

These gentlemen know their stuff!!

Aside from the above, Spoken Word performer J.Sharelle will be performing and yours truly, tha Lady Blogga will be on hand alongside host Bob McNeil.

Now you know where tha Lady will be. Hope to see you there!

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EVENT: The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You

MONDAY, October 18, 2010 | 8PM SHARP. The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You Caits Meissner & Tishon read from their forthcoming book with friends April Jones, Adam Faulkner & Erica Miriam Fabri with Robin Andre

@ La Mama Theater
74 East 4th Street
New York, New York
F to 2nd Ave | $7

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What I'm Watching ... Kyle (Guante) Myhre @ the National Poetry Slam

Spoken word has always been dope to me. I use to love Def Poetry Jam. There is something so fresh about spoken word. Anyway, I caught this from Guante. It's footage from a piece he did in the semifinals of the National Poetry Slam. It's dope and you should take a minute (or three) to check it out. Enjoy.



www.guante.info

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First Listen ... Caits Meissner "The Wolf & Me"

I had the chance to preview Caits Meissner's new project, "The Wolf & Me". It's spoken word at it's finest. It's super fresh. It's one of those projects you throw on with a gang of friends, supply the wine and embrace the conversation that "The Wolf & Me" invokes.

"The Wolf & Me" is a well packaged (the PDF is serious) creative offering that delivers just over 25 minutes of Meissner's words, a host of production (Blu, Cazeaux OSLO, Just Plain Ant, Bisco Smith, CAV3 and The Aftermath) and a few features (Maya Azucena, Jesse Boykins III, Dunce Apprentice and Broke MC). You even get a little singing from Meissner on the project, something she calls "her honest and edgy tone." She definitely delivers herself on the nine track EP.

I think the press release says it best, "The Wolf & Me is something that will linger in your soul."

It truly does. I enjoyed it.


"The Wolf & Me" will be available May 1, 2010, for just $7. Support. Enjoy.

Download "Blackest Blood," the new single from the forthcoming project free
at www.caitsmeissner.com


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The Poet of Truth

"She's something like a carpenter or an architect whose fundamental building blocks are words. Embodying her title, she is THE POET OF TRUTH."

Caught this vid as a post from a friend on facebook. I really appreciate straight spoken word. She is pretty dope! Don't know why dude said "sexual chocolate" at the end, cause that kind of threw the mood off but it's a dope spoken word vid. Check her out!

themostbeautifultruth.art.officelive.com





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Q&A with Melissa Czarnik

Three years ago we launched The Mad Bloggers as a way to vent about the way we saw thing in the world. Then we began to morph and push music. Twenty-four days ago, we re-launched The Mad Bloggers, with a bit of our old sarcastic edge coupled with a desire to share real music and talented artists.

It’s because of commercial radio, MTV, BET and other commercial outlets that our site and other sites like ours can exist. I turned off the radio a few months ago because every time it was on, there was some new instructional dance garbage passing itself off as real music. Because of our discontent with mainstream music, we constantly comb the Internet for good, unheard of and mostly underground music. We then share it here with you.

Melissa Czarnik is one of those finds. She is one of the first heads that we spotlighted on our revamped blog in early April. I was immediately impressed with the emcee out of Milwaukee. To me, she has content and a lyrical delivery to back it up. Her music has something a lot of music on the radio is missing – passion. I’m happy to support real music. Melissa has an album out, Strawberry Cadillac, which is available on iTunes. Get that! Only $9.99.

Like I said, we’ve featured her music in the past but wanted to take an opportunity to do a Q&A and hear from the woman behind the music. Check out what she had to say.

The Mad Bloggers: How do you describe what you do? Like, would you consider yourself an emcee, poet, etc?

Melissa Czarnik: I consider myself a poet/emcee. I read a lot of poetry. I work at a destination poetry bookstore, Woodland Pattern Book Center, which brings in poets from across the nation and so I’m constantly surrounded by inspiring wordsmiths. I also grew up on hip-hop. Some of my favorites are Talib Kweli and right now I’m bumping that Diamond District like crazy. I mix the two together sort of naturally. I think the one thing that defines me, as poet/emcee, is that I don’t pay any attention to the rules of hip-hop (per say). That whole verse, chorus, verse, chorus thing ain’t really my thing. If I want to have a 24 bar poem that leads into a 16 bar verse that exits back into a 24 bar poem then that’s what I’ll do.

TMB: I know you're pushing the Spooky Love project right now for Eric Mire but what's the next project coming up for just you? How much time do you spend per week dedicated to music?

MC: I am working on my next album right now. I’m setting a deadline for late 2009, but I don’t want to rush it if it’s not ready but that’s what I’m aiming for. In terms of time spent working on music, I feel like all my free time goes towards working on music. Because when I’m reading, I’m furthering my vocabulary and my knowledge, which eventually ends up in my rhymes. When I’m listening to music, I’m constantly analyzing, “OK, what did I like about this, what can I borrow from to make my music better.” And in terms of writing, I’m always writing. Now whether it ends up in a song or not is one thing but like I always say a “line of rhyme a day, keeps the haters at bay!”

TMB: Shows, events that are upcoming and exciting?

MC: Actually yes! I have very exciting news, The Eric Mire Band, a jazzy, hip-hop, folk group that backs me up at my live show is releasing their first group album, “Spooky Love” on May 9th. I’m featured on a couple of the tracks so I’m extra hype on that. And Eric Mire, who is also my producer and guitar player, is coming with me to Europe at the end of May for about 10 days to try and do some international promotion and performing.

TMB: You're a female ... how does that play in hip-hop for you? (Woman in mainstream music often had to come off more sexual than talented for example) Do you see it as an issue in presenting who you are?

MC: I see it as an issue for women in general, more than just for me. I mean women in music often use their bodies to sell themselves. The problem starts with mainstream record labels putting a pretty face before talent. The next thing you know you got little girls growing up thinking all I got to do is look sexy, play dumb and I’ll get ahead in life. I think that’s why I look up to women like Ani Difranco, india.arie, and Lauryn Hill. Cause these are women who are talented, intelligent, and naturally sexy. I mean Lauryn Hill could rock a mini-skirt and some combat boots and be sexy as all hell, and yet kill whatever Pras or Clef were spittin next to her. Which actually brings me to your first question about being a female in hip-hop. I feel that I constantly have to watch my back cause it’s a male dominated game. I want to be strong, taken seriously, but at the same time I don’t want to hide my sexiness. I also want to make sure people like me for my talent and not for my body. So at one show I might be rocking a dress and the next show I’m in dickies, timbs, and a hoodie. But, I usually always got some sneakers on or some boots, cause you never know when you’re gonna have to take off running!

TMB: If there was one thing you could change about that state of hip-hop right now, what would it be?

MC: I would like to change the fact that most of the hip-hop you hear on the radio today is garbage, degrading, and mindless. I would like to make it so that in order to get on the radio, young emcees had to aspire to be uplifting and have heart.


Check it out:
Rue Lafeyette is one of my favorite joints. It’s a love song about Paris (not Hilton). It’s inspired by a trip Melissa took to Paris in 2004.



More on Melissa Czarnik, www.myspace.com/melissaczarnik

Black Ice - Exodus

Click to listen: Black Ice - Exodus

I heard this off Fabolous' album when it first came out. Blew my mind. I mean, I'm no artist. But I know alot of people that are or are trying to be. And when I heard this, I couldn't help but shake my head knowing that I know of people Black Ice is speaking about. This dude hit the nail right on the head with this. Insane. Some of these artists he's referring to needs to re-evaluate their methods. Or maybe like Black Ice says...pick up a book or something. Or fuck it, let him put it in a hook or something. Real Talk!


Black Ice - Exodus lyrics:

My young'ns get it fucked up when ya’ll talk about this game like it’s designed in their favor
Like it ain’t outlined for them to waiver their rights for a lil’ fame
Get in bullshit fights for a lil’ name
To get noticed by some niggas that don’t give two fucks about you
Till you make 'em a few bucks, they doubt you
Tell em’ you don’t do the jives and shucks, and they route you to the shelf
See there’s no money in good health
So they need you to be sick with it, ill content and delivery, niggas
This nation thrives off misery, niggas
So if you ain’t trying to let your hard times increase my wealth
Nigga, keep that progressive shit to yourself
This is the business of buying souls, and we only fuck with those who trying to sell them
See, they may see me as an adversary cuz they know I’m tryin’ to tell them
About the forest of artists who grow only to meet industry axes
How they take a nigga dreams and write then off in their taxes
Contracts is confusing, but don’t worry they’ll appoint the lawyer for you
Whore you
Loan you funds to fuck your soul, make you pay it all back and still maintain control of your stroll, your tracks and your hot ass slow flow
They’ll keep you looking good and all that, but no dough
You see when that get a bitch, they got a bitch
And contrary to popular opinion it ain’t my sistas that switch
It’s my brothers
We the dumb motherfuckers
Hardest niggas in the streets turned industry suckers
Cuz we refused to do the knowledge
Nigga, you can’t learn this music game in the streets or in college
So you betta pick up a book or something
Or fuck it, Black Ice to put it in a hook or something
and hope that you listen to it
Got you pumpin’ that poison while they paint you them illusionary parades and keep pissin’ thru it
You pussies don’t know the price or the sacrifice that this industry makes real niggas walk
F.A.B.O.L.O.U.S Album Number 3 - Real Talk.

For info on Black Ice, visit Black Ice Music on MySpace.