Imani Lateef, the Toledo blogger behind Move the Crowd and Big Bang Poetry is also the newest member of the growing Clamor family. He recently sat down with Khary Kimani Turner of Detroit’s Black Bottom Collective and has gratiously offered us the chance to reprint his conversation here. Enjoy!

Imani Lateef: i saw you talking about EM on a VH1 documentary. I was proud to see that a member of the Mid West Poetry Scene was approached to give an intelligent point of view regarding a Hip Hop icon. Ironically, a lot of people don’t see the cultural connections between Hip Hop and Spoken Word. People tend to think that Hip Hop heads and Poets don’t get along. How does BBC bridge the Cultural divide…if any?

Khary Kimani Turner: I was on Ultimate Albums: The Marshall Mathers LP because I was the first journalist to cover him for a national magazine back in 1997. The producers wanted to talk to a writer with early history on him. It was a cool experience, and a natural conduit to what I do in poetry and hip-hop. In my opinion, the differences between poetry and hip-hop are merely mechanical. One uses music, the other doesn’t. One requires more use of meter and rhythm, the other can be much more formless. But it’s poetry across the board. Black Bottom bridges that because, in my opinion, few poets are also experienced songwriters. So, when you listen to a poetry album, it’s usually a track with a poem on top of it, maybe a chorus added. We wanted the poetry, the hip-hop and song to be homogenous. Fortunately, I’ve been an emcee and singer longer than I’ve been a poet. So we’re able to pull it off on a regular basis.

IL: Do you enjoy writing to Music or do you prefer that the Band create music that enhances the Themes and Scenes you’ve created on Paper?

KKT: I don’t play music, but I’m a very musical dude. So I do get involved in the songwriting process, but I try to do it without stepping on the toes of the musicians. It works out well, I defer to their expertise, but they recognize that I have very musical concepts to contributes. We’ve done songs three different ways. I may come with lyrics and a full musical concept, or the band might write a soundbed together. Or we may all just get in a room and bang out a song in a matter of hours.

IL: Alot of Performance Poets struggle with the balancing act of Performance and Poetry. Where as, some poets sacrifice the aesthetic nuances of Poetry for the instant gratification from a bangin’ Performance. Or Vice Versa. How do you handle it? Have you become more of a Performer now that you are on stage? Do you continue to write for "Self Love" or are you beginning to write more for the People?

KKT: That’s an excellent question. Yes, I still write for "selflove" and God, foremost. Even with BBC’s reputation, I mess up during performances where I hit the stage thinking selfishly. It’s part non-preachy ministry, part performance. Ego screws up a lot of poetry, because it’s a humble artform. Poor writing skills also screw it up. A poet who is not a good writer, in terms of mechanics, will not be a good performer. Picture an emcee who can’t tell you about the history of hip-hop. Knowledgeable emcees will listen and hear subtle nuances that reveal the deficiency in that character. Poetry is the same. You don’t just pick up some shit and write.

IL: What can people expect from People Mover (I like the reference to Detroit’s Public Transit system, by the way.)? Where does your last album leave Us and Where does PEOPLE MOVER take Us?

KKT: People Mover is a departure and a growth from Stay Low, Keep Movin’. We used drum programming on much of the last album. This one is a live joint. It’s a better representation of the energy you get from our live show. The musicians killed it on this one, because there are no MPC’s speaking for them. That, alone, is ill, because it’s an actual live hip-hop album. It’s a people’s album, and it deals with issues that we all confront. Sexuality, alcoholism, love, hate. But the combination of lyrics and live music gives off that feel that you used to get when you listened to your parents old records. That fluidity, that vibe. But now, it’s on a hip-hop record. When was the last time you heard a hip-hop record that was not just hot, but alive. That’s how I feel when I go back and listen to it. It’s alive.

IL: Do you have any poems u’d like to leave with Us?

KKT:
(a freestyle)
to unblazed trails and
lonely paths
unset sails
dormant math
lives with no clear use for laughs
this one is for you

people…move…

[posted by Jason Kucsma, co-editor/publisher]

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 28th, 2005 at 12:17 pm by Catherine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.