Me Against the Words

Inspiration - "Me Against The World" -Tupac

What I'm Listening To: "Chitlin Circuit 1.5 mixtape" Little Brother

Question(s) I Asked Myself Today - "What time is it?" after waking up in my chaise lounge. I still had my tie on from work. I crashed at about 9pm and didn't wake up until 5 in the morning.

I remember when words were my friend. I used to read anything I could and try to make connections between words. I marveled at the beauty of words, I sought out the different pronunciations and meanings. I adored alliteration, I hounded homynms, I ogled onomatopoeia, I sipped on syntax, I craved cacophony. Somewhere along the line, words turned against me. I stopped reading and writing. I focused on the literal instead of the literary. I heard the lyrics, instead of listening to them. I thought in real life terms instead of the abstract. But guess what muhfuckas? I'm back to reclaim what is rightfully mine. In the war of me against the words, I'm bout to strike back.

I know this probably won't make sense to anyone reading this, but I am refocused on the art. My mind is reconnecting with the sheer beauty of language. This is not some high brow attempt at exclusionism. I recognize the puns and similes whether its in hip hop or literature. Colloquial or formal, the words sustain me. Like Jigga said, "I'm focused, man!" Syntax is my rekindled obsession. I have a way of offending people unintentionally with my choice of words. To that I offer this explanation. I write for me and if anyone else appreciates the words then that's just a bonus. If people are offended by my words, then I guess that's okay too. Because, really isn't that what words are supposed to do? Challenging thoughts are not easily expressed in words, but that's what I'm gonna try to do. The good (and bad) thing about words is that they are really left up to the readers interpretation.

One of the things that I love most about language is making a connection. That's why most of my posts come from the lyrics of hip hop songs. I can make a correlation between whatever I'm going through and a hip hop lyric. It's not always easy, but when you have as many lyrics stuck in your head as I do, it's like second nature. I know most people don't get into the lyrics anymore, but that's my thing. I love lyrical content. I was checking out my favorite group, Little Brother's "The Listening" and the title track stuck out at me. "This is a message for our people chasing Benjamins/with real rhymes and skills they believing in/keeping them DAT tapes rollin like Michelins/ It don't matter cuz niggaz ain't listening." It's just a simple chorus, but it reflects how most people I know are with hip hop. They listen to the beats, but don't give a f*ck about the lyrics. Well, my love for lyrics is back. It don't matter what you rap about as long as you have the wordplay.

So this post went in a totally different direction than I intended. I didn't mean for this to turn into a love letter to language. But that's okay, this is just what I was thinking about.

It was written...