"If you’re going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they’ll kill you.” – George Bernard Shaw
The industry and money plays a big role, as in most cases in regards to performing art, in spoken word. Mainstream anything pretty much means that is made to appeal to the masses and not to be kept underground.
Russell Simons, one of the most solid names in hip hop put together an HBO special, paying tribute to spoken word. He was able to gather the most known names in this field and in others. Amongst the line up of poets, there were hip-hop legends funny poets and even comedians.
Here is a little taste of the more entertaining side of spoken word:
Beau Sia:
Jamie Foxx:
Dante Basco:
Shihan:
Dave Chappelle
Spoken word is a very tricky and easily misunderstood title for the art. Breaking it down and first looking at spoken, which means saying something in order to convey a message. Word: a single distinct element of speech, in other words, everything. Now when combining the two, you get the art of speaking about “anything”, with a kick of attitude that is. Think of an open mic. night, usually opened to anything that people want to share. More or less, that is spoken word.
Citations:
I got the above videos from youtube, but they were originally recorded and aired by HBO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fndMa0HHvVU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsEZw_KaUPk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrXgGQaUtlE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNOyqhVjg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C40EUMU3pFc
The industry and money plays a big role, as in most cases in regards to performing art, in spoken word. Mainstream anything pretty much means that is made to appeal to the masses and not to be kept underground.
Russell Simons, one of the most solid names in hip hop put together an HBO special, paying tribute to spoken word. He was able to gather the most known names in this field and in others. Amongst the line up of poets, there were hip-hop legends funny poets and even comedians.
Here is a little taste of the more entertaining side of spoken word:
Beau Sia:
Jamie Foxx:
Dante Basco:
Shihan:
Dave Chappelle
Spoken word is a very tricky and easily misunderstood title for the art. Breaking it down and first looking at spoken, which means saying something in order to convey a message. Word: a single distinct element of speech, in other words, everything. Now when combining the two, you get the art of speaking about “anything”, with a kick of attitude that is. Think of an open mic. night, usually opened to anything that people want to share. More or less, that is spoken word.
Citations:
I got the above videos from youtube, but they were originally recorded and aired by HBO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fndMa0HHvVU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsEZw_KaUPk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrXgGQaUtlE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNOyqhVjg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C40EUMU3pFc
1 comment:
Isaac,
I’m really impressed with your blog because it’s on a topic that I am very interested in. I think your blog is very creative and I think that many people would want to learn more about the art of spoken word. When I was in high school I actually took a course on creative writing and one of our main sections in the class was performance poetry which can also be referred to as Spoken word or Slam poetry. We had to write poetry and short stories throughout the semester and for our final project we had to write and perform a poem or anything that we wanted to present to the class. My poem was about racism and how our society will never realize how much it still goes on. I enjoyed writing several poems because it helped me release my mind of things and helped me connect with my inner thoughts.
I really like how you showed different examples of artists and poets who performed at the Def Jam Poetry because I think that those artists truly represent the creativity as spoken word artists. It helped me realize how different hip hop artists and rappers are actually just speaking the truth and how they feel about certain things. Because if you listen to their rhymes and take away the background music/beat that most people pay more attention to, then you will hear their story. A lot of the hip hop music that is played in the radio these days is not important because all they talk about is drugs, women, and violence. This is the message that the music industry is trying to give out because it sells records. If more people listened to actual meaningful music, maybe the world would be a much safer and peaceful place to live in. The music that people listen to can influence their actions.
While reading your blog entries I was a little confused as to where your opinion stands on spoken word. I originally was unsure if you disagreed with spoken word or if you just wanted to investigate and learn more about the culture of spoken word. I think it was a great topic and you showed various examples for people to look at different artists. One suggestion I would make would probably be to try and define what spoken word actually is and where it derived from. Because one thing is to know that it is a culture but people might want to know the history behind spoken word and where it comes from.
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