Get more props and stunts than Bruce Willis (National Poetry Writing Month)
Today, a very talented musician passed away and I was rather saddened by the limited amount of publicity this garnered in certain arenas (A big feature from the BBC but the LA station "where hip hop lives" gave him two sentences on the morning show after ten minutes of talk on Tiny and TI's wedding and Octomom). Me? Since he didn't get "at least three minutes of every rap radio hour," I'd like to say "anedge hirak Keith Elam" and offer this ...
"... next time when you're wishing for my downfall/My wife stopped me before I tried to do another verse, and this is super rough, without the normal rehearsal time I used to put into a rhyme and tighten it up. Hopefully I can polish this some, one day.
I'ma come back to drown y'all ..."
Gifted unlimited rhymes universal
arrival on the scene in 89 no rehearsal/
Commercial? Never that, droppin' it for the streets/
he encoded and exploded it in ya mind with beats/
Whatever happened with Primo, keep it on the d-low/
gossip never benefits anybody not godly, we know/
what we need to know, seen the flows & manifested wisdom/
so get some 'cuz I'm jazzy and stay in villages with slums/
it comes as no surprise to lift one leg & step/
gave him a rep, with all of the words to manifest/
Never be to Brooklyn the legend of Biggie or Jay-Z but don't say he/
had limited exposure 'cause Keith/
lit the joint you missed the point and so many smoked/
so dope with Gary Barnacle on "Slicker Than Most"/
Me, I'm south by south west, just introducin' my steez/
drop to ya knees and honor this here exemplar of emcees
"Here's how it goes, I am a genius I mean this
"I'm crazy hip-hop, check one two and you don't stop
"Here's how it goes, I am a genius I mean this
"I sense a purpose is filling me to display credibility"
"Here's how it goes, I am a genius I mean this"
"The weight of the world is heavy on my mind"
"Here's how it goes, I am a genius I mean this"
"genius I mean this"
"genius I mean this"
"No More Mr. Nice Guy"
By Hannibal Tabu
In the mean time, hip hop lost one of its most effective voices. Alongside LA's Freestyle Fellowship and Philly's The Roots, Guru was one of the people who introduced hip hop to jazz, and had some of the most amazing collaborations ever, with Chaka Khan, Roy Ayers, Courtney Pine, Kool Keith (I so wanted to do a Kool Keith riff in the next proposed verse, since Guru's first name was Keith), Isaac Hayes and so many more.
I met him very briefly outside of Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles on Gower in Hollywood. I didn't get all fanboy about him, and he had no idea who I was. While I'd been complimentary of his work, I'd never championed it. It couldn't have been more than ten seconds, and until I saw the announcement of his death while I was getting ready for work (you don't read RSS feeds when you wake up?), I probably hadn't thought about it for years.
Nevertheless, 43 is young as hell to lose your life to cancer, and I'm sorry to see him gone. There that is. Anedge hirak Keith "Guru" Elam, and I know he's heading for one hell of a jam session.
Playing (Music): "DWYCK" by Gang Starr feat. Nice & Smooth
NOTE: Since this blog is automatically imported into my Facebook page, I apologize if you comment on it and I don't respond, as I am taking a sabbatical from social networking for 2010. So me not responding is not personal, I just won't see the comments ... until 2011. Maybe. Also including this disclaimer on blogs, but you're welcome to go to the blog itself and speak your mind, as I may look there ...
Labels: gangstarr, guru, hip hop, jazz, jazzmatazz, napowrimo, poetry
posted by Hannibal Tabu, The Operative at
11:11 PM
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