Ask Me About My Blackness (with Jasmine Siobhan)

Let me ask you a question

When you look at my people, what do you see?

Is it an image of royalty?

Like Kings and Queens?

Or is it an image of ignorance and despair?

The kind that makes you cringe when we speak

What is your impression?

Is it a visual of a race that has been stressing

Or is it of a people that have yet to see its blessing

Or does our bipolar actions mixed with polar opposite reaction from the media leave you guessing

Or does the look on our faces as we get through our lives leave you stressing

Blank faces...

Have you had the chance to actually see the art of blackness?

It looks like you enjoy it's faceless presence.

The sports. The music.

Blackness graces those faces that are being played like the strings on the violin

Athletic and audible virtuosos being paid millions to execute playground activities and speak universal languages in order to engage our people into what THEY think...is art

meanwhile the man that signs his checks is holding the puppet strings...Geppetto

its no falsetto..that you speak fallacies of “I am not a racist but...” still exude consistent racism....until the Sambo on your favorite team scores a touchdown then you buy their jersey and remain struck so that he can see your allegiance but if he wasn’t in the limelight he would be just...another........

Freedom? What's that? None of us are free

Caged by a system that's supposed to be a democracy

That only supports the 1%

But We all want to have dialogue on how and why we're different

We are all one in the same

Different outside impressions

But the same oppressions.

Because you see...The same shackles that bind my hands and feet bind you except yours are invisible

Invisible to the eye but not the mind

Racism is holding us all down

Whether we're black, white or brown

You blank faces... You don't understand the privilege in the lack of blackness.

As the lack of melanin in your skin has a positive correlation with how YOU are perceived and treated

You see in this dog eat dog world you are holding the leashes

Enabling you to limit one’s journey with just a slight tug

As we remain obliviously obiedient in a system in which the architect did not keep us in mind &when constructing the blueprints and archetype

So if we follow it we have to work twice as hard to get half as far and one small instance can leave us back at the starting gate...meanwhile you get a head start

Where wearing jeans and a hoodie labels us as thugs but labels you casual

Where the rich steal money everyday but a small crime makes us irrational  

Where we are suspects but you will only be accused yet we are animals

Where most of started from the bottom and unsure what “now WE here” means but you started at a level we still strive to achieve and aren’t adaptable

Where in a social gathering its just a coincidence that cops are hanging on the corner and if one person acts up they call for back up because we all know we are powerful enough to shift the paradigm of the abstract into something tangible

Where any small reason gives cops the reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk

But I’m still looking for the instructions as to how this society works but you discarded the manual

So we are lost..

Lost in a cycle of generational hate

Where Everyday is a struggle

This is supposed to be America

Home of the free and brave

Opportunities' golden gates

But those said Opportunities are lost on my blackness

As my blackness unconsciously bows down

To the trials and tribulations of education, motivation and ambition

Uncontrollably falling to life's feet

Breeding the sense of entitlement for somebody else's advancement.

And all those somebody else's come to see the puppet show

Because the less you think about your oppressions

The more your tolerance grows...

In the hood, Dreams are illegal

You see in the hood, dreams are illegal
Now although we are told to dare to dream what is left to be said about my people?
That are constantly being told,

“You are Black, 

You know you can’t do that right” or 

“ain’t nobody got time for that” or
“you know damn well we don’t dream in the hood” 

Thanks to the mainstream media perpetuating that hood dreams aren’t dreams at all.
Thus causing ones dream to remain just that,
A dream with no action taken
Deferred with hope sucked from it,

and hastily drying up like a raisin in the sun.

As our minds remain cloudy, 

even through the torrential mental hailstorms of negativity from the outside world,

that seem to drown us as we scramble to seek shade to salvage what is left.
But what is left…

is so unrecognizable that the dream is set adrift and abandoned, 

leaving its potential to the imagination.

In the hood, dreams are illegal
A place where thinking negative is positive,

and thinking positive…makes you a sellout

Where success isn't defined with a suit or a tie,
But with athletic ability or a microphone
Because sports and music are so potent to the soul,

and its more addicting than crack is
And this high is just an illusion, 

just a confusion, 

but we are so blind by it…that we still go through it

So a ball bounces and a beat drops in monotony...

because Cash Rules Everything Around Me…

mindless while chasing a colorless rainbow in a grey sky,
That instead of a pot of gold at the end of it, 

there is a pot of nothingness that they mindlessly exchange for their dreams,

but in return they get..nothing.
Critical thinking is now an art best left to those whose dreams are left…best.

So in the hood, dreams are illegal
But tonight I…I… am… dreaming..
Of the land of the beautiful and the home of the brave
Where black kings and queens rule the Earth and,
Where the talented tenth has increased exponentially,

that being black is the new…black

Where racism is a thing of the past,
And you aren’t afraid to walk hpme at night.
And a woman doesn’t clutch her bag when they are in an elevator alone or when they walk past us
And more white picket fences encompass Black established homes…
And jobs aren’t obtained just so companies can meet a diversity quota

And dreams...Dreams..… flourish blossoms of tangible action
As the roots continue to influence the ravenous youth that seek its fruit
Just when I think life imitates art, and life can be like I imagined...
… I hear gunshots…ringing in the heat of the night
Followed by screams violently disrupting my dreams.

And I wake up in the hood…

where my neighborhood is at the bottom of the barrel.
Where I do not need to read the paper or watch the news to understand,

 that something bad had just happened

And I see… a brother killing another brother
Another man failing to reach the age of 21…
Another mother losing a son
Another ghetto youth living for nothing…and dying…for nothing


And As the ambulance leaves
And the siren stops..
And the crying fades away
And the crowd disperses.
There is nothing left but a flickering street light...and silence

Silence that sobers my skin...
Silence of a dream yet again stolen and set adrift
As the self-inflicted genocide continues
So I sit here…shook…shocked at another young youth slain and another one taken away just..because

And I realize that our youth has forgotten what it means to dream
That without dreams....nothing exists and our youth is confused...
I continue to hope that our dreams…

finally become a reality 

and that the hood can realize that dreams… are not…illegal.

The Emerging Man

When one thinks of the term emerging, you think of being up and coming and possessing sheer prominence
And those that emerge have the ability to singlehandedly establish their dominance by use to their wit, sophistication, and opulence

So what about the emerging man?

The emerging man is a new standard to measure against.
A new echelon of sophistication in the being of an everyday man.
You see, the emerging man doesn’t possess swag, but rather they exude confidence
The emerging man doesn’t become a sheep in the world of fads and followers, but rather creates their own style while shielding the disdain of those that possess incompetence
The emerging man IS his own experiment, while those without knowledge are still trying to decipher the hypothesis
The emerging man doesn’t get with numerous women for gratification, but searches for that one that would be an efficient complement


The emerging man merely doesn’t earn wealth, he creates it.
The emerging man isn’t shrouded in drama, he escapes it
The emerging knows he can have whatever he wants…once he abandons the belief that he can’t.
The emerging man merely combines the beliefs of those before him and has it resonate off his spirit
So that people can realize that Malcolm, Martins, and Cleavers still exist in this world where a role model doesn’t play their role


The emerging man integrates all of his energies into a new prototype of manhood.
A prototype in which will become a blueprint for the foundation of what it truly means to be a man.
Where owning a suit takes precedence over owning the latest sneakers
Where providing for their family is more important than being a leach
Where they don’t forget where they come from, but to use their humble experiences to instill the belief in a little boy who was told they would never make it, by taking the time to teach

This confluence of energy reveals a fuller and more dynamic spectrum of personhood in which souls flourish,
As they embrace their kinetic energy, enabling the other energy aspect to mature and thrive up to its potential
This new measure of the emerging man is defined by how well they honor and respect the various aspects of their being;
Not just the provider and the warrior energy, but their hearts center as well.

Performance 1/10/2013

 A clip of my performance from the Rhymes and Minds Showcase

The One Eyed Looking Glass (with kb3socrates)

In this society, material things seem to be taking precedence,

Over things that actually possess value and long term elegance.

While we fight for sneakers, phones and tangible things proven by society to be venomous leading to societal pestilence

Some people out there are being opportunistic and taking advantage of our negligence

They have no choice but to benefit from our voluntary helplessness

While the media provides emphasis by broadcasting evidence of our recklessness

Thinking they are going to deliver magnetic resonance by only exposing the malevolence

Thus insulting our mental dexterity as we castigate its irrelevance

But we need to wake up and show the world that while we are materialistic we ensure the power of eloquence

Even though some choose the path of decadence,

the ones that the media points their cameras at in order to obtain viewers which helps to strengthen their prejudice

And those who get their 5 minutes of fame

singlehandedly artificialize our intelligence in this era of artificial intelligence such that no matter which way they are headed

they are still mentally directionless

by not realizing that they are setting our people back with their ignorance

While we become mystified by superficial and falsified reality of TV shows that we BELIEVE them instead of being incredulous

Destroying your 4th wall perception

Till your neurons no longer have reception

 The walking dead, resident evil in the present

Walking side by side dancing, the devils denizens 

 Prosperity profits and material zealots

Baptized in nihilism and reborn in irreverence 

Sell your dreams, but all you get is arrested developments 

Fresh straight jackets and heavy chains, modesty is blasphemous 

Who's that watching us watching them its big brother, just

Seeing all to give you some perspective in him we trust

So keep your finger off that dial and your eyes wide shut