The Break Is Over

Going to Cleveland for a few days, but I wanted to drop something before I left.

Hip hop, to me, has always been the higher form of art that has been distributed, packaged, and sold as music. It's the boombip, the drum sound, the ability to make a rhyme keep time. In short, you have to be a master of the craft and it has to reflect both your natural talent and your ability to practice that talent until it becomes something both real and unreal in its capacity to relate.

To me, that previous paragraph does nothing to describe my feelings about hip hop. I leave you with Mos Def.


I start to think, and then I sink
Into the paper, like I was ink
When I’m writing I’m trapped in between the line
I escape when I finish the rhyme (aiyyo)

My pops said he was in love when he made me
Thought about it for a second, wasn’t hard to see
I could hear he was sincere, was a game of promotion
The entire affair’s probably charged wit emotion
But love call your heart, I guess you got to persue
12-11-73 my life is testament
Praise the beneficent, element that rest
Devoid in the form that make love manifest
I spent my early years in roosevelt project
It was a bright valley wit some dark prospects
In ’83, venny c was the host wit the most
I listened to the rap attack and held the radio close
I listened to the rap attack and held the radio close
This is far before the days of high glamour and pose
Aiyyo power from the street light made the place dark
I know a few understand what I’m talkin about
It was love for the thing that made me wanna stay out
It was love for the thing that made me stay in the house
Spendin time, writin rhymes
Tryin to find words that describe the vibe
That’s inside the space
When you close yo’ eyes and screw yo’ face
Is this the pain of too much tenderness
To make me nod my head in reverence
Should I visit this place and remember it?
To build landmarks here as evidence
Night time, spirit shook my temperment
To write rhymes that portray this sentiment
We live the now for the promise of the infinite
We live the now for the promise of the inifinite
And we believe in the promise (love, love *repeated*)
Yes yes y’all and we don’t stop because