Spoken Word Blog

I was just listening to Talib Kweli’s album, The Beautiful Struggle. Talib Kweli has been one of my favorite hip-hop artists for many years. That album is great like his others. I especially like the song “Beautiful Struggle,” which is on the album. Take a look at these few lines from the song:

Yo, I heard it’s said the revolution won’t be televised
But in the land of milk and honey there’s a date you gotta sell it by
Otherwise it just expires and spoils

I especially enjoyed those lines. The whole song is great and the album is worth getting, in my opinion.

Talib Kweli has also performed spoken word on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. And Kweli has done songs and albums with Def Poetry’s host Mos Def.

What do you think?

Today I want to post some of the lyrics from the chorus of a song by City High entitled What Would You Do:

What would you do if your son was at home
Crying all alone on the bedroom floor ’cause he’s hungry
And the only way to feed him is to sleep wit a man for a little bit of money
And his daddy’s gone
Somewhere smoking rock now
In and out of lock down
I ain’t got a job now
So for you this is just a good time
But for me this is what I call life

The song seemed to be mostly a one-hit wonder. It got a lot of radio play when it came out, but City High has not got much press since then. The whole song is great. The artists do a great job at performing it, and it addresses poverty, prostitution and responsibility from multiple perspectives. You can buy the What Would You Do CD from Amazon.

What do you think?

This Thursday I want to post some of the lyrics from a song by Ludacris called Slap:

My grandmama’s nerves are bad (bad)
And everybody in the hood is mad (mad)
Cause President Bush could give a DAMN about our ass
So I don’t wanna hear nothing that he has to say (don’t say nothin)
Nothing that he has to say
I don’t wanna hear nothing that he has to say

Troops gone and we still at war (war)
Nobody even really knows what for (what for)
Even more I’m scared to find what the world really has in store
Cause you know that tomorrow’s not promised today (it’s not promised man)
Tomorrow’s not promised today

The entire song isn’t so political, but it is a good song. I recommend listening to the whole song if you can. He does a good job at expressing the frustration that most of us experience occasionally. This is epitomized with the poetic line, “I feel like slappin a somebody today,” which presumably is not meant to be taken literally.

You can find the song on the album Release Therapy.

What do you think?

While driving today, and listening to the radio, I heard an old song by Gang Starr called Discipline. The first part of the first verse greatly appealed to me. I thought to post the lyrics on this blog, which gave me the idea to post good lyrics on this blog every Thursday.

So, from now on, I will post some lyrics I especially like. I won’t post the lyrics of whole songs, just a passage that sticks out to me. I know this blog is for spoken word and performance poetry, but I’ll post lyrics from songs as well as poems. As fans of poetry, I assume the lyrics of lyrical songs appeal to us especially.

For today, I will post some of the lyrics from Discipline by Gang Starr:

Yo… just because I want to it don’t mean I will
And just because I’m angry it don’t mean I’d kill
And just because she looks good it don’t mean I’d hit it
And just because I’m horny, it don’t mean I’m widdit
Just because I make records, don’t mean that I’m gassed
And just because I’m rappin, don’t mean I chase ass
Just because I’m whylin don’t mean I can’t stop
I got discipline baby, and I use it a lot

What do you think?

If you have any lyrics that you want to send to me, you can use the contact form to send it them to me. Make sure to include the artist’s name and the song’s name.