Guante Videos!

Here are a whole bunch of videos of me. Some rap songs, some spoken-word stuff; some older, some newer. Enjoy.

Guante & Big Cats: Dragons (Live at the 7th St. Entry)
A love song. Video by Pure Optics.

Guante & Big Cats - 7th St. Entry (Live) from Pure Optics on Vimeo.

Guante: The Family Business (Live at the Urban Griot Awards):
This is probably my favorite poem that I've written, and possibly the one I'm best known for. It's also the centerpiece for my one-man spoken-word show about work and identity.

Guante - "The Family Business" from Justin Schell | 612 to 651 on Vimeo.

Guante & Big Cats: The Damp, Foggy Midnight (Live on the Current):
We played a few songs live in-studio on the Current. Listen to the rest here.

Guante & Big Cats: AN UNWELCOME GUEST promo:
Some great footage from our release party.

Guante Raps, Big Cats plays the MPC:
I know some people think of me as "a poet who raps" or just someone who raps as a kind of little side project. It's weird that when you rap about issues or tell stories instead of just rapping about rapping, people want to pigeon-hole you. So this is kind of my response to that. Just a good 80 bars or so of punchlines and fancy rapping.

Guante & Big Cats: The Stockholm Syndrome w/ Big Quarters & TruthBeTold (live):
The album version of this features Prolyphic on the first verse. TBT from the Tribe killed his fill-in verse, though. This footage is from the release party at the Bedlam:

Guante & See More Perspective: Land of the Sandpeople (Live at Soundset '09):
Rap rap rap. This is a cool song, but mostly I just wanted to post it to prove that yes, I played the Soundset Festival in 2009. Haha.

Guante: Smalltalk (Live at First Ave.):
This is my token "poem about poetry." Or more specifically, it's about making art for a living, and the kind of toll that can take on someone.

Guante: Starfish (Live at the Artists' Quarter):
I'm not in love with this poem, but it always amazes me how many people (especially educators) have responded positively to it. At it's heart, it's less a "teacher poem" and moreso an exploration of direct service work vs. institutional change and how we all fit into that.

Guante & Eric Mata: The Call (Live at the Escape):
This is a much older piece, a collaboration between me and Chicago's Eric Mata.

Guante: Handshakes (Live at Macalester):
Every progressive male poet has to have a poem or two about masculinity. Sure, it's one of "those rules," but one that doesn't need breaking.

Guante: The Last Words of a Roach, Underfoot (Live at Macalester)
Getting extra growly in this video, but I like this piece.

Guante: Misfortune Tellers (Live at Macalester):
It's good to have at least one loud, angry, rhyming poem in your arsenal. Certain situations call for that. This may not be the most subtle or thoughtful poem I've written, but it's served me very well.

Guante: Love in the Time of Zombies:
Here's a "music video" we made for this poem, probably the best love poem I've written to date. It's probably better live, but this is kind of fun. We got in trouble with the neighbors.