Good News... There's Good New Music!... J. Cole

I feel there is a reemergence of good music into the mainstream. (It's about damn time!) I have to give props again to my homie Jabz for putting me on to J. Cole... I'm like a lot of people who are hearing this dude for the first time... So here's a short bio from my one day research...

• J. Cole (born Jermaine Cole) hails from the town of Fayetteville, North Carolina (often mentioned as "The Ville" on his mixtapes)
• Went to St. John's University in 2003 on Academic scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude... 3.82 GPA (quite impressive)
• Used school as a ticket to NYC to be in the heart of the music industry
• Dropped one mixtape "The Come Up" before being signed by Jay-Z to his new "Roc Nation" imprint
• Jay-Z heard one song and was impressed and wanted to meet with him...

The song that apparently got him signed happens to be my favourite track from the "The Warm Up" mixtape... "Lights Please"

By 2nd and 3rd fave joints are "Losing My Balance"...

...and "I Get Up"

Navy Goes to W.A.R.!... Feature in Harlem

In the spirit of Hubert H. Harrison, Claude McKay, Eric Walrond, Marcus Garvey, and the many West Indians who helped to shape the identity of Harlem during the roaring 20s…..

Work As Renaissance returns
on Wednesday, August 19, 2009
with a touch of Carnival featuring two premiere talents and a special guest:

Half rapsonian, half poet, wholeheartedly brilliant

NAVY

Seduction’s voice swaying to a reggae beat

HERMINA

From Trinidad to Juilliard to Prospect Park, her words nourish brainstems

SAMANTHA

THORNHILL

These wonderful features will be backed by an endless supply of firepower via various members of the art community, including the ingenious one-man band himself,

NGOMA ,

and Brooklyn’s finest j’ouvert band

KUTTERS RIDDEM

SECTION.

DOORS OPEN AT 8PM.
$7 FOR 1 PERSON/ $10 FOR 2 PEOPLE
BRING AN INSTRUMENT AND PLAY FOR FREE ADMISSION
LA PREGUNTA ARTS CAFE
1528 AMSTERDAM AVENUE AND 135TH STREET
1 TRAIN TO 137TH STREET--CITY COLLEGE

Songs of the Times: Blu - Untitled (LovedU) 2

Every so often there's a song that serves as your daily theme music. One that could eventually be added to the soundtrack of your life. One that, when you hear it in the future, would take you back to a certain place, time, and state of mind...

Blu's smooth lyricism and flow is spread over this track which samples Radiohead's "You and Whose Army." There is one line that did it for me... "I plot and planned it for the giver so, hoping folks hear Below (the Heavens), and see I'm not the same as Lil Wayne"



My good homie, Jabal put me on to Blu with his album "Below the Heavens" (produced by Exile), which I encourage you to get a hold of! It's classic material. I instantly became a fan and in the same speed added Blu to my favourite MC's list.

This song is off his latest mixtape, "Her Favo(u)rite Colo(u)r", which was released on Valentine's Day 2009. After doing other collaborative work such as "Johnson and Jonson", Blu rejoins Exile (who also instantly became a favourite producer) for some smooth, jazzy, poetic artistry on this mixtape.

p.s. Also check out "Amnesia"

Why "Navy Speaks"

Audiences hardly ever get to hear the stories behind poetic pieces, whether at open mics or in books. We poets never really have the opportunity to talk about our pieces while on stage. So since there aren't any 3-4 minute time constraints or "no intro" rules, or print limitations here, I shall delve briefly into the personal insight and inspiration and even history too often hidden in the background of poems...

"Speak" is my self-defining piece. It is the poem that took me to a new plateau. I had been writing and performing in Trinidad for just about 1 year at the time that I wrote this. Without a doubt it was thanks to the (then new) creative energy with which I had surrounded myself by joining the Poetry Club in my first semester at Monroe College (New Rochelle). Shoutout to the President at the time Shawn Bolden a.k.a. Shawn B. This piece is my equivalent to the "Why I Write" pieces that just about every poet has. It is what I advocate...

SPEAK

They say SPEAK!
When you are spoken to
But I SPEAK cuz from my sleep
I was awoken to...
Write a piece
Just for a chosen few
So I could unleash the beast
And I have chosen you
To give my lyrics so tight
They be choking you
And I be up on such heights
I be provoking you
To think...
Cuz that's what I'm supposed to do
I'm trying to get into the minds of most of you
See through this ink...
Some get their rage out on a page
And then put it in a book
And there it stays...
But not me
I get my rage out on the stage
And let that aforementioned beast out of its cage
See I SPEAK to get my word out
Describe scenes you've never seen but mighta heard bout
At times might seem obscene but keep absurd out
Your contradictions, cuz when I speak I leak the conscious diction
See a lot of us just want to do the writing
But not much of us want to do the bright thing
And SPEAK, and bring forth something exciting and
Enlightening, inciting fighting for the right thing...
TRUTH...
Is in the spoken word
That's why I'd rather not be read
But instead be heard
To get the message across
This is the method preferred
So I break a piece of bread
And I feed it to the birds...
Food for thought...
They say, SPEAK your mind
But, mind what you say
And it's less about the what
But, more about the way
So I, reach my mind
And I touch what I pray
For when I'm day dreamin
Like my name is Lupe...
What good is a radio if you don't have a speaker? SPEAK
Through these words, how else I'm gonna reach ya? SPEAK
Tryna learn but you don't understand your teacher. SPEAK
Little boy being touched by his preacher. SPEAK
Concerned, not gettin much from your leader. SPEAK
You miss your babygirl, love her and you need her. SPEAK
Your sister hungry and you got to work to feed her. SPEAK
Daddy not at home, Mommy isn't either. SPEAK
All these problems make me feel the need to SPEAK
To somehow seek the way to solve them
But...
In the end the choice is yours
So just open up your mouth
The voice is yours
SPEAK!

By: Yvan 'Navy' Mendoza

Because I SAID SO!

So... I was wondering what should be the very first post on my very first blog and came up with a question unanswered on the blog's page or by the blog's title (which, for those who don't know or didn't realise, contains a Haiku).

Why Start a Blog???

Because everybody and their auntie has one...
Because that first reason should be my last reason...
How 'bout... because I like to share things I find interesting
Because some people may be interested in those things
Because some people would like to read my poetry
Because I have shit to say!
Because I think a lot about things
Because sometimes my thoughts take months before they materialise into poems
Because if I kept all those thoughts in my head for so long, my brain might explode
Because we don't want that to happen
Because some people don't know my funny side
Because some people don't know my serious side
Because I've been wanting to do this for a while
Because I should have had one by now
Because it's about time!
Because I SAID SO!