WHY IS GUANTE SO ANGRY?

10 Responses to the Phrase "Man Up" (spoken-word)

2012-02-07T20:58:00.001-06:00

New piece. I really hate those Miller Lite commercials, but it's definitely bigger than just that. Felt good to talk about it on stage. This is one of the first performances of this piece, and it'll probably be polished some and hopefully filmed more professionally at some point. But I wanted to post it now.

On a side note, I know there are a ton of spoken-word pieces out there about masculinity. I've got this one too. But I think it's important to keep talking about these issues, especially if you can do it in a creative way, or at least have a new angle or hook. I think there's a bad tendency in spoken-word circles to dismiss any poem that covers well-trod territory (like "here's another hip hop poem," or "here's another domestic violence poem") and while I completely understand where that's coming from and agree that we should be pushing ourselves in terms of subject matter, I ALSO believe that certain topics deserve the attention. Especially as someone who works with young people--particularly young men-- I like to have three or four of these kinds of poems in my pocket.

Anyways, hope you like it. Might be a bit of a "preaching to the choir" piece in some ways, but that all depends on with whom we all share it. Any FB posts, tweets, tumblr posts, re-blogs and whatever are much appreciated, as always.

EDIT: added the words here:

TEN RESPONSES TO THE PHRASE “MAN UP.”

1. Fuck you.

2. If you want to question my masculinity, like a schoolyard circle of curses, like a swordfight with lightsaber erections, save your breath. Because contrary to what you may believe, not every problem can be solved by “growing a pair.” You can’t arm-wrestle your way out of chemical depression. The CEO of the company that just laid you off does not care how much you bench. And I promise, there is no lite beer in the universe full-bodied enough to make you love yourself.

3. Man up? Oh that’s that new superhero, right? Mild-mannered supplement salesman Mark Manstrong says the magic words “MAN UP,” and then transforms into THE FIVE O’CLOCK SHADOW, the massively-muscled, deep-voiced, black-leather-duster-wearing superhero who defends the world from, I don’t know, feelings.

4. See I don’t drink a lot of beer… you know, because I’m not a “real man,” but I’m pretty sure that, of all the beers in the world, Miller Lite… is not the most flavorful brew. It kind of tastes like… whatever insecure jackass wrote these “man up” commercials got rejected by a beautiful, no-nonsense bartender, drank a six pack of REAL beer alone in his apartment, and then Miller bottled his tears.

5. You ever notice how nobody ever says “woman up?” They just imply it. Because women and the women's movement figured out a long time ago that being directly ordered around by commercials, magazines and music is dehumanizing. When will men figure that out?

6. “Man Up” assaults our self esteem by suggesting that competence and perseverance are uniquely masculine traits. That women—not to mention any man who doesn’t eat steak, drive a pickup truck, have lots of sex with women and otherwise conform to gender norms absolutely—are nothing more than, background characters and props in a movie where the strong, stoic, REAL man is the hero. More than anything, though, it suggests that to be yourself—whether you, wear skinny jeans, listen to Lady Gaga, rock a little eyeliner, drink some other brand of light beer, or write poetry—will cost you.

7. How many boys have to kill themselves before this country acknowledges the problem? How many women have to be abused? How many trans people have to get assaulted? We teach boys how to wear the skin of a man, but we also teach them how to raise that skin like a flag and draw blood for it.

8. Boy babies get blue socks. Girl babies get pink socks. What about purple? What about orange, yellow, chartreuse, cerulean, black, tie-dyed, buffalo plaid, rainbow… there are so many beautiful colors and combinations of colors. Yet boy babies get blue socks. And girl babies get pink socks.

9. I want to be free, to express myself. Man up. I want to have meaningful, emotional relationships with other men. Man up. I want to be weak sometimes. Man up. I want to be strong in a way that isn’t about physical power or dominance. Man up. I want to cry if I feel like crying. Man up. I want to ask for help. Man up. I want to be who I am. Man up.

10. No.

How to Read About Hip Hop

2012-02-01T08:48:00.001-06:00

This is the companion piece to my “How to Write About Hip Hop” essay.

A huge part of finding success as an artist today is crafting your narrative. It isn’t enough to just be good— you need a compelling story. And if you don’t have a compelling story, you have to make one the hell up. And it’s not just the artists themselves— publicists, music writers, bloggers, talking heads on Twitter and fans all play this game too and usually go unquestioned. Here are a few examples of how it plays out:

Great Ear for Beats = This is the hip hop equivalent of “he’s got a nice personality.” Of course, production is important, but to describe an MC using this phrase instead of just saying “the beats were great” is like saying “the best part of the movie was the theater’s clean bathrooms.” It’s also another way that hip hop producers go unheralded.

Versatile = Can make horrible club songs, horrible street songs, horrible love songs and horrible filler tracks, all on the same album!

Edgy = Sex and drugs oh no!!! The word “edgy” almost always refers to subject matter that is absolutely shocking to 11-year olds. Artists who try to maintain an aura of edginess very rarely present any real threat to the powers-that-be, or to the status quo, or to anything. Real edginess comes from pushing the audience out of their comfort zone and toward something greater, not just saying naughty words.

Relevant = Relevant to 14-year old white girls.

Emo = Used pejoratively 99% of the time, this word refers to any expression of emotion at all. All earnestness is “over-earnestness.” All drama is melodrama. I hate to use the h-word, but the hipster movement was and is so anti-sincerity that it’s created an incredibly hostile climate for artists who, you know, have feelings. If you’re not a fake heroin kingpin, ironic joke rapper or soulless rhyme-scheme technician, you’re probably “emo.”

Futuristic = OMG synthesizers!

Hungry = This can either mean “hard-working” (see below) or “this MC raps loudly and at an above-average tempo.” It’s easy to fake hunger. It’s also a handy word to use when you’re describing an artist who has no real accomplishments, experience or talent. For example, most good bios talk about concrete things like who you’ve opened for, what awards you’ve won, where you’ve been written up, etc. But if you don’t have any of that stuff, just say that you’re “THE HUNGRIEST RAPPER IN THE GAAAAAME.”

Organic = OMG no synthesizers!

Poetic = Most often refers to lyrics that don’t make any god damn sense. Maybe it’s just because I actually am a poet, but this one irks me. For example, I feel like most people would say that Lupe’s “Dumb it Down” is more “poetic” than, say, “Kick, Push.” But by my definition, “Kick, Push” is a million times more poetic. Poetry isn’t fancy talk and big words—it’s creating work that functions on multiple levels, that says something deeper than the literal meaning. It’s not just abstract, stream-of-conscious babbling. Good poetry doesn’t use complex language to say simple stuff; it uses simple language to express complex ideas.

Amazing/Awesome/Incredible = (vomits) These words fundamentally DON’T MEAN ANYTHING. Stop using them.

Great Flow = Here’s the thing about flow… it’s a foundational element of rapping. 95% of rappers have at least a “good” flow, or they wouldn’t be rapping. And while there are rappers out there who have legitimately great flows—Elzhi, Kendrick Lamar, Gift of Gab, etc., I would argue that most music writers and fans don’t really know enough about hip hop aesthetics to separate “okay” from “good” from “great.” A lot of the time, “great flow” translates to “this rapper knows how to rap on beat,” which is kind of like saying “that truck does a great job spinning its wheels and moving forward.”

Doesn’t Fit into the Traditional Rapper Mold = Usually, this is a euphemism for “this rapper isn’t a scary black guy.” And it’s always presented as both extremely positive and mind-blowingly novel, as though no rapper has ever rapped about anything other than guns and drugs.

Literate = I have no idea what this means when it’s used in hip hop reviews, and it’s used a LOT. I guess it’s good that the MC isn’t just saying “GOBBLE GOBBLE BEEBOO MAGAAAAAA!” over the beats. I mean, I know that “literate” can refer to knowledge and skill (and not just the ability to read & write), but I think words like this perpetuate the whole “this rap over here is smart, and this rap over here is dumb” stereotype that, while sometimes true, is often a gross oversimplification. I mean, "literate" to whom? It's a pretty loaded word, in terms of race, class and culture.

Chill = This doesn’t come up in actual reviews as much as it does in breathlessly positive blog posts and show recaps. “Chill” is every underground-rap fan’s favorite fucking word. Your talent doesn’t matter; as long as you’re “chill,” you can build an enormous fan base.

Pretentious = Now, this word has a real meaning and sometimes does apply to hip hop acts. But it's way overused. The rap bloggerati know what they like, and anything outside of that narrow, traditionalist range is often called "pretentious." 6/8 time signature? Pretentious. Overarching metaphor or concept song? Pretentious. Dropping out the drums for four bars? Pretentious. Trying to say something new and original? Go polish your monocle, college-boy.

Hard-Working = Two things here. First, who cares? You could be a brilliant songwriter and not be hard-working, or you could be the best hustler in the universe and still be a wack MC. Secondly, when a writer says that an artist is “hard-working,” it usually means “I’ve seen that artist on a lot of blogs.” That’s what hustle has evolved into—record a million disposable songs, send emails to as many bloggers as possible and hope to get a couple of posts.

And sure, that does take work. But as an artist “hard work” needs to mean something more than that, something beyond the internet, beyond handing out flyers, beyond networking and schmoozing. What’s almost always missing from conversations about hard work is the end goal. What are you actually working for?

I guess it’s a matter of perspective, something that applies to every one of these points, not just the last one. Hip hop writers, publicists and bloggers can get away with a lot of spinning because the average hip hop fan (not to mention artist) doesn’t have a genuine relationship to the culture and won’t pick any of this stuff apart critically. Maybe that sounds harsh, but I think it’s true (and isn’t exclusive to hip hop). So it’s good to keep writers (including me) on their toes.

Did I miss any?

Vote for Guante in Lazerbeak's Rap Contest

2012-01-24T15:50:00.000-06:00

So the Doomtree hip hop collective is pretty big up here in MN. And producer Lazerbeak is kind of the cog that makes it all work, at least in my opinion. He's got a new album out now. And when I heard he was having a contest where MCs could rap over one of his beats, I figured why not.

My song is called TATTOOS FOR TODDLERS. Check it out here:
Guante by Lava Bangers Rap Contest

I wanted to write a fully-realized song for this; it's subject matter that I've tackled before, but it's something I'm passionate about so it was fun to take a crack at it from a new angle. Singing and fast-rapping are two things that I rarely do, and that's pretty much all this song is, so it was a great challenge too. See More Perspective mixed and recorded it. If I don't win, we'll probably just remix it and release it as something else.

If you like it, you can vote for it HERE.
Voting ends on Monday. If I win, I get a million dollars or something. So any re-posts, RTs or forwards are much appreciated.

You can check out the other entries HERE. Shout to Homeless and Analyrical because I know them, haha.

A Call for Submissions: Spoken-Word Poems on Gender

2012-01-13T18:48:00.001-06:00

Poets—I’m putting together a series of online compilation CDs, and the first one will be for poems about gender. From deconstructing masculinity or femininity, to talking about gender privilege, to examining (and challenging) gender roles, to anything that relates to this general topic.

Poems can be any style—serious, funny, direct, abstract, etc. Be creative. Me and a small team will choose the poems that work best in the context of the entire project and then make the compilation available free-of-charge for use by social justice educators and anyone else who might be interested.

To submit, email one or more audio files (brand new stuff or old stuff, live recordings or studio recordings, with or without music—as long as they sound good) to me at elguante@gmail.com or send me a link to a track through SoundCloud or Bandcamp or whatever. DEADLINE: March 1.

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Art has the power to frame social justice issues in a powerful way. There’s so much thought-provoking, high-quality work in our community, and I think consolidating some of it around specific topics will be a great way to reach out to new listeners. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

Video: "Neutral: An Open Letter to Michele Bachmann"

2012-01-02T21:57:00.001-06:00

This piece really isn't about Michele Bachmann-- as I say in the poem, she's a convenient figurehead. The problem here is much bigger, of course. I'll let the poem speak for itself, but definitely wanted to share some further reading material and ways to plug in:

MINNPOST: "Bullying gay and lesbian kids: How a school district became a suicide contagion area"

A Star Tribune piece about GSAs in the Anoka-Hennepin school district.

A Star Tribune piece about how the neutrality policy is being challenged.

Website for the Southern Poverty Law Center

This page at the MN Activist Project lists a few organizations in the Twin Cities area who do work around LGBTQ rights. Check them out and get involved.

If anyone knows specific ways that people can plug in, please leave a comment.

Guante & Big Cats!: WINTER IS COMING (free download and album annoucement)

2011-12-19T10:13:00.001-06:00

Winter Is Coming (prod. Big Cats!) by Guante

As a duo, we haven't released any new material since last year's "Don't Be Nice" mixtape, although Big Cats! has been making tons of noise with The Tribe & Big Cats!, and I've been doing a bunch of solo stuff. This song is a free download, and it's also the official announcement for our next album:

"YOU BETTER WEAPONIZE" will be out in 2012. This song isn't on the album. But the songs that are on the album are some of our best work ever. More details to come. Follow us on FB.

Plus a quick review: Back in 2010, we released "An Unwelcome Guest," a concept album that fused radical politics with a love story with a zombie story. It featured guest spots from Haley Bonar, Joe Horton of No Bird Sing, Prolyphic, Big Quarters and Chastity Brown. Tru Ruts put it out and Strange Famous (Sage Francis' label) helped us out with presale packages. If you still haven't heard it, give it a listen. Two years out, I can see a few things that I would have done differently, but it's still an ambitious, musically-cohesive, lyrically-challenging project and we're both proud of it. Listen to the whole album (and buy it if you like it) at this link.

Finally, here's a link to us performing live on 89.3 The Current's Local Show:

As always, any sharing (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Blogs, word-of-mouth) is definitely appreciated.

2011 Year in Review

2011-12-12T13:09:00.002-06:00

So this is the fourth one of these that I've done (2008, 2009, 2010), and I'll let you in on a secret: this is for my own mental health. As any independent artist (or activist) knows, this kind of work is stressful, and I need to remind myself that what I'm doing has an impact and that no one does what I do. And I'm proud of that and make no apologies for being proud. So here's what I did this year:

A Loud Heart -- The Illusion of Movement from Unique Techniques on Vimeo.
1. Released the acoustic hip hop collaboration A LOUD HEART with Claire Taubenhaus. We’re still in the middle of the promo push for this, but the album seems to have really struck a chord with people. The acoustic style isn’t for everyone, obviously (and I have a couple of not-so-great reviews to prove that), but I know that this is some of my deepest, most challenging writing ever (especially on Moving Train and Revolver), and Claire knocks it out of the park too. Listen here for free, and buy it if you like it. And a City Pages write-up here.

2. Released a re-mastered re-imagining of my mixtape CONSCIOUS IS NOT ENOUGH, an all-political collection of songs about the importance of organizing and the power of community. There are a few gems on there—“Your Boyfriend’s a Republican,” “Ink” and more. Download it for FREE here.

3. I was asked to write and perform a new piece for the Dawn of a Dream gala, a fundraiser for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. I went to the Amplatz Children’s Hospital and met with doctors, patients and families, doing more research for a poem than I’ve ever done, and ended up with a piece that made me more nervous than I’ve ever been. But I got a standing ovation from a crowd of 800 people dressed in suits and evening gowns, so it worked out. And we raised a million dollars in one night. And yes, I'm wearing a suit that matches the backdrop and talking into a Janet Jackson-style headset mic.

4. I was asked to speak/perform at Occupy MN multiple times, and it was inspiring to take part in what we may end up looking back on as the most important social movement of our generation. My piece here definitely wasn’t a good capital-P POEM, but it said some stuff that I think needed to be said. I’m most excited about what the Twin Cities Occupy movement is becoming—a movement to resist foreclosures and help out our neighbors when the banks come around. Some amazing things are happening now and will continue to happen in 2012. Bonus video: me performing the Guante & Big Cats! song "The Hero" live at Occupy MN.

5. In March, I officially launched the MN Activist Project, a database of progressive activist organizations (plus tips and resources for activists) in the Twin Cities and beyond. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s a great start. We had a launch party at Intermedia Arts that featured some truly surprising, inspiring work from local artists. The video above is me talking about the project at Fifth Element in MPLS with Kevin Beacham.

6. We continued the Hip Hop Against Homophobia concert series with four performances—one at the U of MN Whole, one at the Canvas teen arts center, and two at Patrick’s Cabaret. Each one brought diverse crowds together and showcased some top-notch talents. As we try to evolve from a concert series into a larger media movement, I’m hoping that more artists will get involved—especially with the ridiculous marriage amendment on the ballot this year. As people who travel around the state talking to big groups of people, artists are in a good position to actually help lead the charge against the amendment.

7. I served for my second year as arts coordinator of the Canvas, a St. Paul teen arts center. I actually just left that position last month, and I'm incredibly thankful that I was able to serve and meet so many great people. Just this past year, I visited almost every St. Paul high school, hosted open mics, ran the sound board for teen concerts, facilitated community organizing workshops, performed a bunch of times, facilitated the teen writers' circle, worked on programming and promotion and what seemed like a billion other things. And I'll still be over there every Monday at 4:30 for the writing circle.

8. Tons of workshops and lectures: I gave the keynote address at the Tomorrow’s Leaders Today conference in Duluth, a public lecture on the relationship between art and social movements at Northland College, talked for an hour about that same subject on Wisconsin Public Radio, hosted the Poetry Out Loud State Finals competition at the Fitzgerald, gave a speech at Central High School’s National Honors Society induction ceremony, and facilitated workshops at the APIA Spoken-Word Summit, the Loft’s Teen Writers’ Summit, the Hmong Women Write Now! Conference and more I'm probably forgetting now.

9. Through COMPAS and on my own, I engaged in writing/performance residencies or workshops at Tri-County Schools up in Karlstad, Edison High, Anne Sullivan school, Forest Lake ALC, Roseville Middle School, the School for Environmental Studies, the Rivertown Commons community center, Great River School, Onalaska High way over in WI and more, working with hundreds of students and helping to facilitate a whole lot of expression and growth.

10. Played (and often organized) some wild shows: the AFL-CIO pavilion at the MN State Fair, Death Poetry Jam at Intermedia Arts, EQ at the Loft with Idris Goodwin, the Fineline with B.Dolan, the Cub Foods parking lot for the CTUL protests, the UW-Madison Terrace with Kristoff Krane and Not Enough Mics, a couple of shows at the Entry with Toki Wright, Junkyard Empire and Prayers for Atheists, a whole bunch of different college gigs and out-of-town shows... and I played at a Bowling Alley with Black Blondie, which might be the weirdest I've ever felt on stage.

11. Although I kind of took the year off from slam, I've been writing and performing spoken-word more than ever (and hosting a LOT). I even got to be on MN Original to talk about spoken-word and slam poetry. A few newer videos:

MN Original Interview:

Confessions of a White Rapper:

The Fist that Lives in Your Neck (Cartpushers):

REACH:

A Prayer for Indie Rappers:

12. I did less freelancing this year (though I did get an op-ed about youth arts programs in the Pioneer Press and a book review in Rain Taxi), instead focusing on publishing stuff here. I also have the best Twitter feed in the TC rap scene, haha. A few of the higher-traffic posts, not counting the Occupy stuff and music/poetry stuff listed above:

That's it, I guess. As a poet, rapper, essayist, activist and educator, it's been the busiest year ever for me, and also the most rewarding. I'm not on the cover of the City Pages or going on tour with Atmosphere or whatever, but I know that what I'm doing is both high quality on the arts side and makes a real, concrete impact on the community side-- and that's all I care about. I also knew when I moved here four years ago that it would take me about five years to get to where I want to be. 2012 has always been marked on my mental calendar, and I have some big things planned.

More than anything, I just want to give endless thanks to those who have supported me this year. I can't tell you how much your retweets and Facebook wall posts and link-forwarding and word-of-mouth support and just face-to-face encouragement mean to me-- that kind of little stuff really makes a difference. So thanks again.

...and there's still one more very big announcement to make before 2011 is over. Check back soon.

B.Dolan + Toki Wright + Jasiri X: "Film the Police"

2011-12-12T13:00:00.004-06:00

Best song I've heard all year. Three of my favorite MCs, talking about an important, relevant topic. And spitting their asses off. STOP SLEEPING.

Google them all, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter.

Occupy MN's Next Step: "Occupy Our Homes"

2011-12-11T09:47:00.000-06:00

Watch this video. It's pretty powerful. More info at this ABC News link.

People keep asking about what's next, or what the protesters' main goal is. And the power of the Occupy movement is that each community can decide for itself, based on the specific needs of that community, what they want these protests to become. Here in the Twin Cities, this looks like the next big thing.

And I'm very excited about it. This kind of organizing not only makes an enormous symbolic statement about the power that everyday people have to resist the powers-that-be, it actually helps real people-- our neighbors-- in a concrete, practical way. That combination is powerful. If the MN movement can become less about defending the encampment and more about going out into the community and helping people defend their homes (of course, under their leadership and only with their consent), big things can happen.

Best of all, there will be a ton of opportunities coming up for people to get involved. I'm going to a meeting in a couple of hours where they're going to announce the structure of the organization and talk about how people can join this movement and pitch in. I will post details when I have them (here are my Twitter and Facebook).

Another useful link: the website for MN Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, another organization working on alternatives to foreclosure.

Boots Riley: "we can't be dedicated to a tactic; we have to be dedicated to winning"

2011-11-28T09:36:00.000-06:00

First of all, Boots Riley of the Coup might be the most underrated MC in the world. If you've never heard the Coup before, I'd advise you to get familiar. But Boots is also a long-time community activist from Oakland, one who always has a brilliant way of mixing political philosophy with on-the-ground experience and realism.

Below is a series of Tweets from Boots regarding the Black Bloc tactics used during Oakland's general strike. I caught some of these tweets as they were happening, but Dan DiMaggio forwarded me a full transcript that I think is (despite being written in Twitter-speak) extremely insightful.

The only thing I'd add here is to think about these ideas not just in the context of the Black Bloc (which is a very specific group/action that has been debated for years), but relating to all tactical choices. It's not just smashing windows that can be counter-productive; there's a whole array of tactics, rhetoric and iconography that might not be doing what we want them to do. The question that I keep coming back to is "how do we build a MASS movement?" Not "how do we remain ideologically pure," or "how do we win the debate," but "how do we mobilize and radicalize as many people as possible?" Some great food for thought here:

----

An extended series of Tweets from @BootsRiley from Friday, 11/24:

Not that we need that, but some dedicated non-violent folks in the movement should know that u have2work with others to make change.

Folks dedicated to blac bloc tactics shuld understand working w/others as well. We can't be dedicated2a tactic. We must b dedicated2winning.

I believe that breaking windows is not "wrong"- it just doesn't work. For a number of reasons. That is a tactic that puts the mask wearers

in a "vanguard" position. It says "We are the revolutionaries- everyone else needs to wake up!" This either turns ppl off cuz their not at

that point yet, or it causes people to simply cheer from the sidelines. It's problematic in a mass action where the masked ones know whats

about to happen and everyone else is caught off guard and more vulnerable to the police. The other problem is one of analysis. If we are

in the middle of one of the biggest, most overtly class conscious acts of the last 65 years- one that has the unity of action of 50,000 ppl-

one that caused millions in damage through an action that teaches class analysis and builds an apparatus for future action-why would u think

breaking a window at whole foods is taking it to another level? Its not. The message it gives to most is one of futile frustration. It makes

many feel that they can't win, that all we can do is break windows. We are making a movement that can stop the wheels of industry. That's

much more powerful than breaking some windows. Those tactics are ones that could b of use when masses of ppl aren't taking action. But w/an

action in which 50,000 people are making a huge step and having a general strike, the message should just be "We are all awake."

But, I think there is an ideological trend that i have encountered that leads to this- one that thinks that the ppl can't win.

When I critiqued someone around a similar action a few years ago, saying it didn't pull ppl in, & u can't win w that tactic. they resonded:

responded: "You can never win, you can only choose how to lose." Versions of this idea are at the heart of some of this, I believe.

I believe, now even more than a few months ago, that we can win. This is a new era. People are ready. We can win.

The other thing that I left out is that when a group of masked white kids break windows in a city that's many ppl of color, it feels like

the white kids are claiming ownership, not saying that this city is all of ours. It makes it harder to build a viable mass movement.

I'm saying this knowing the truth, many masked blac bloc folks are NOT white. But, if everyone perceives u as white cuz u have a mask on-

then it has the same effect. We need tactics that help build that movement. That's all. Black folks in the community I come from look at

marches on Washington and breaking store windows in a similar light- that they're futile appeals to power. So people stay away.

The thing is, no one can show me a successful revolutionary organization who relied on the tactic of breaking windows as a lynchpin.

It's like saying, in war, that ur gonna use 1 tactic in every battle, even if it doesnt work.

To be clear, I'm speaking to folks as comrades. Blac Bloc is not a group, its folks deciding2use that tactic at a certain time.

But, I have to say, there is a reason why ppl suspect that as bein done by agents:

Recently- During the OscarGrant case, proven police agent, Mandingo, did similar things. There r other cases as well. The problem comes w

using those tactics in a crowd. If u wanna break windows do it separately, don't have the crowd b the buffer btwn u & police.

Now, the only tactics I'm speaking of are vandalism and why that doesn't work. There are other tactics that do work.

There are tactics I've seen, and that we used for the march to the port, in which we have a group of folks with shields that can push thru

a police line, blocking themselves from batons and bullets & creating a spearhead for the march to go thru. That's a good one.There r others

Often as seen in OO's thanksgiving video, police will charge@ one person, causing our line to break and allowing them thru.

We can use our own distractions as well2get thru their lines. This takes not being dedicated2 a certain tactic, but being dedicated2winning.

The main thing I'm saying is that every situation, every terrain, calls for different tactics.

For example, most of you wouldn't know me if I had just made an album w different versions of "The Internationale". We'r in a new situation.

For everyone quoting Gandhi: His movement wasnt the only reason India gained independence. U think the British were only fighting Gandhi?

India had been fighting for its independence for decades via MILITANT movements that still existed during Gandhi's time.

Britain was involved in a BLOODY conflict w Palestine that soaked up resources. The Hollywood version of Indian independence amazes me.

Gandhi called strikes violent cuz they physically kept scabs out. He was at odds w many others in movement.

Lastly,2supporters of blac bloc tactics: it keeps folks away that would otherwise be militant supporters otherwise. We need the numbers.

We must be guided by what's rightðical,not what's legal. Blockin the port: illegal. Did we do it? Yes. Will we do it on Dec 12? Hell yes.

To answer some tweets- Nothing I said advocates assault. I advocate using numbers2make it so police can't stop our movements.

Sidenote: I'm in Paris, doing shows. When I say I'm from Oakland, many say "Oh! Caleeforneea!", but half say "Oui! Occupy Oakland!"

BONUS VIDEO:
Here's my old friend Josh Healey performing a poem for OccupyCal:

Some Thoughts on Big Quarters

2011-11-22T13:20:00.006-06:00

If you read my writing regularly, you probably know that I don't dish out praise easily. I tend to be more of a critic, partly because that's my personality and partly because I think there's already too much cheerleaderism in indie hip hop, especially locally. But Big Quarters have a new album coming out, and this is one group that I think really deserves all the hype they can get.

I don't know the brothers from Big Quarters (Brandon Allday and Medium Zach) all that well, but I feel like they embody the spirit of indie rap better than just about anyone. Here's a phenomenally talented hip hop duo from a scene overflowing with talented hip hop artists, a group that's put work into their community as much as their craft, a throwback boom-bap artist that isn't boring, a rap act that has zero interest in jumping on trends, selling out their principles or kissing ass. Have you heard of them? If you have, you probably already love them. If not, here's an introduction.

I feel like Big Quarters sometimes falls victim to the idea that an artist can't be good at two things simultaneously. We like to box people in-- you're either a producer who raps a little or a rapper who produces a little (or a slam poet who raps some, haha). And it's true, Brandon and Zach make some of the best beats in the Twin Cities. But I'd argue that they're also two of the best MCs in the Twin Cities.

Big Quarters' production (whether done in-house or with a collaborator like Benzilla or Mux Mool) is soulful and funky and organic and all the other adjectives that we use when we fail to describe music. I guess beyond that, there's an unmistakable earthiness to their beats-- partly from their sample sources, but I don't think that that's all of it. The beats sound like lava bearing down on a forest and the forest fighting back, soil churning up into walls, tree roots slithering through the dirt. I hate to get overly poetic, but that's really what I think of when I hear this stuff. It's traditionalist, sample-based hip hop music, but it never sounds like they're just doing the same old thing that the Beatnuts or DJ Muggs have already done-- it pays tributes to the legends without biting them.

And as MCs, Brandon and Zach are special. They're not flashy, but they're always engaging, which isn't easy to do. There's a confidence and poise in their deliveries that transcends the need for big punchlines and pop culture references-- it's grown-folks hip hop, but without the elitist baggage so often associated with that label. Brandon is the more recognizable voice, with a bass-y growl somehow deeper than Crescent Moon and Joe Horton combined. Zach is maybe a little more agile, but both display an understanding of the poetry of MCing that's rare and refreshing. And the lyrics don't just sound cool-- Big Quarters is one of the smartest, most political (without ever venturing into platitudes and rhetoric) hip hop duos making music today. Again, it's not punch-you-in-the-face lyricism-- it's subtle and thought-provoking and down-to-earth and utterly unique.

That combination of brilliant production work, truly smart, meaningful content, quality technical rapping and a cohesive sound/approach is simply not something that many artists can pull off. For "real hip hop heads" and casual listeners alike, this is a group that needs to be on your radar. I could talk more about why I like BQ, but it'd probably be better to just post some videos so you can listen for yourself.

Those are just a few, mostly from "Cost of Living," which is my favorite BQ album, even though it's a little older. "Painkillers" is probably my favorite track. What's yours?

Big Quarters' new album, "Party Like a Young Commie," will be released on December 16 at the Triple Rock in MPLS. You can pre-order it here.

Death Poetry Jam at Intermedia Arts, 11/28/11

2011-11-12T10:30:00.001-06:00

I've been wanting to throw this show for a while. This is an unbelievable lineup of artists, and if you have even a passing interest in spoken-word, this is not a show to be missed. We'll all be performing work that deals with death in some way-- some serious, some light, some heart-wrenching, some beautiful. Hope you can make it. Facebook event page here.

Bring Out Your Dead (prod. Big Cats!) by Guante

A Loud Heart: get the new album

2011-11-12T10:06:00.000-06:00

Here's the new album. Click on the image to go to the Bandcamp page and listen and/or download. We're pretty proud of it. Big thanks to Big Cats! for playing bass on the first two tracks and doing the mixing/recording, as well as Renee Klitzke, who played cello on the last three tracks. We hope you like it!

And in case you missed it, here's our video.

A LOUD HEART video: "The Illusion of Movement"

2011-11-02T13:12:00.001-05:00

A Loud Heart -- The Illusion of Movement from Unique Techniques on Vimeo.

Me and Claire stopped by the Unique Techniques studio to shoot a live video for our song "The Illusion of Movement," which is actually an acoustic remake of one of my older tracks. At its core, this is a song about struggle, about reaching for something even if you know that you might never actually get there, about valuing the process as well as the product. It's also a love song, which is a running theme on this project-- using love songs as entry points to talk about larger issues. Hope you like it.

Huge thanks to artist, educator and media whiz PCP, who shot and edited the video. You may remember that I stopped in a month or so ago and we had a great conversation for his podcast.

Anyways, don't forget about our release party, coming up 11/11/11 at Honey in MPLS. The whole A LOUD HEART album will be available online as well, but not until after the show. If you buy it at the show, you'll get a handcrafted package including the CD and lyrics sheet. Details:

EDIT: Listen to the full album here!

Guante: "The Hero" (Live at Occupy MN)

2011-10-26T20:21:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite songs that I've written (and I've included it on about three different mixtapes, haha). You kind of have to listen to the whole thing to get it, though. The beat is by Big Cats!, and fits the song perfectly. It's always such an honor to be asked to perform at events like this, and I think that some of my songs/poems really take on new meaning in that context. This is definitely one of them.

Here's a more in-depth commentary on the song and what it means to me, courtesy of Culture Bully. And here's a free download if you want the MP3:

The Hero (prod. Big Cats!) by Guante

Yes, Your Halloween Costume is Racist

2011-10-24T21:43:00.002-05:00

(photo from Party City's website; boycott as you see fit... this post isn't just about this image, though; it's about a long tradition of [generally white] people dressing up as cultural stereotypes.)

Here's the thing: I know you weren't TRYING to be racist. I know that I'm not getting "what you were going for." I know YOU think your costume is just "riffing on stereotypes" or only represents "one specific character, not an entire race." But dressing up as a caricature of someone else's culture is still a stupid costume idea and you should have thought of something better.

And make no mistake, these costumes are offensive. Even if you don't think they are. Even if you're friend who really IS Native American is cool with it. Even if I'm just being a big oversensitive PC baby. Even if your counterarguments to all of this are well-reasoned, you're still on the "uncreative jackass" side of this debate.

And that's what this comes down to, in the end. These costumes aren't just offensive, they're really boring too. I mean, if you have one night to dress up like something--anything-- that you're not, and the best you could think of is "Jamaican guy" or "Mexican," that's pretty sad.

So this Halloween, forget the sombreros, feather headdresses, turbans, kimonos and (ugh) blackface makeup. Be a robot instead. Be a vampire. Bake some muffins and be the goddamn muffin man. Or just stay home and eat candy. Isn't that what Halloween is all about anyway?

Read more over at Jezebel

What the Occupy Movement Has Already Accomplished, and What's Next

2011-10-19T22:18:00.000-05:00

That's a video from the incomparable Jay Smooth, one of the smartest voices of the hip hop generation. If you don't know him, watch ALL of his videos. He has a talent for breaking things down really well.

One thing he mentions in this video is how OWS has already been successful in framing the conversation, in making it perfectly clear "who the ringers are and who the muscle is." Of course, a lot of people already knew that, but this movement has made it the #1 issue of this moment-- not just "the economy is bad," but "the economy is bad because of unregulated corporate influence in politics, a broken banking system, the fact that the rich are making fortunes off of our labor while we make do with less and less, and maybe even capitalism itself." That's a significant difference.

And while I don't want to overestimate how much this movement is actually accomplishing, I also think we shouldn't underestimate how important that re-framing of the debate really is. If everyone went home tomorrow, they'd have already accomplished something enormous, a real cultural shift in how people think about class. That will play out in the 2012 elections, but it will hopefully also have an enormous ripple effect through our world beyond electoral politics, beyond Democrats vs. Republicans, beyond the old ways of thinking.

The movement has also opened up spaces-- people getting together, some for weeks now, to just build. Conversations happen, debates flare up, we all grow as activists and as people. One of the primary functions of large-scale protests is to radicalize new organizers, and a long-term protest like this one does that really well. Being out there, you learn what tactics are effective and what aren't, you learn about how to deal with the police, you learn about how to best fit your talents and interests into the larger movement. That kind of "professional development" stuff is invaluable.

It's also been a kick to the ass of progressive organizers of all stripes. We haven't had something big to easily coalesce around for a while. But one point I keep trying to make is that whether you work on environmental issues, anti-racist organizing, public education, LGBTQ activism, homeless advocacy or whatever, we all need to be working together-- we need to make the connections between issues explicit. The Occupy movement, even when it isn't doing this on purpose, is a "big tent movement" with a lot of space for flexibility and creativity, and it's created a space for everyone to step their game up-- even those activists who want nothing to do with Occupy and organize separately. At least that's what I've seen.

And if you know me, you know I'm not a cheerleader or even an optimist. I'm usually the first person with criticism, and I still have criticisms of this movement:

There still needs to be more of an effort to reach out to under-represented communities-- not just people of color, but working people, activists who work on other causes, suburbanites, hipsters, the elderly, high school kids, EVERYONE. I'm still seeing a whole lot of white college kids out there. Nothing against them, but a mass movement needs to include-- and be led by-- a truly representative group.
While I think the reasons for the occupation are perfectly clear, the goals and action plans still aren't. That's probably partly because it's incredibly complex and is going to take some time. But that's the next step. We've come together, we've raised our voices, what's next?
Personally, I think the protest needs to evolve. Winter is coming. An "occupation" outdoors, with no tents (at least here in MN) may not be realistic. But maybe we can transition into some other model of constant protest. That presence out there is powerful, but it's not sustainable.

All in all, however, this is a very special time, a very important time. While not everyone supports the Occupy movement, or feels safe physically attending the protests, or has the time to devote their lives to this movement-- I do think that we all need to figure out how we fit into what's happening right now. Maybe it's about making more of an effort to go to the protests. Maybe it's thinking up new ways to protest. Maybe it's about spreading the word and communicating these messages to everyone we know. Maybe it's something else. Whatever it is, though, now is the time.

Finally, I posted this as an addendum to the last post here, but in case you missed it, I found an HQ video of my speech at Occupy MN last Friday:

Mini-Documentary about Occupy MN featuring me

2011-10-17T20:10:00.002-05:00

Spilt Magazine, along with Above Ground Magazine, produced this video. It features me, Ilicit, Brother Ali and a bunch of the occupiers.

Occupy Minnesota from Spilt Magazine on Vimeo.

It actually features a lengthy segment of my last-minute poem/speech about how the word "revolution" has to be a concrete thing and not just an abstract concept, that progressives have to have a gameplan beyond "raising our voices," that struggle means sacrifice and hard work and paying attention to the day-to-day details of movement-building. I didn't want to just read a "rah rah we're so great" kind of activist poem (after all, the other speakers were inspiring and optimistic), so I ended up with this... a pretty awful poem, honestly, but a speech that spoke some hard truths. At least I hope.

The very best thing about the Occupy Movement that I've experienced is how it opens up conversations. I've talked to more people about activism and movement-building over the past two weeks than I have in a long time. That's incredibly valuable. But there's a lot more to be done. Follow the progress here and on Twitter here.

Also, I'll be performing a hip hop set down at the People's Plaza on Wednesday at 5pm before another march on the banks. Hope you can make it!

Related: "Thoughts on Occupy MN" by me and "How the Occupy Wall Street Protesters Can Defeat the Corporate Elite" by Yotam Marom (forwarded to me by Dan DiMaggio); worth a read.

EDIT: I just found a HQ video of my entire speech:

A LOUD HEART release party news

2011-10-11T20:41:00.003-05:00

Mark your calendars. For real. If you don't come to this show, I'll become a Republican or something. Here's the Facebook event page.

More promo, videos and details will be released over the next few weeks, but A LOUD HEART is the acoustic rap EP that me and Claire Taubenhaus have been working on. Some of you may have heard the first single, "Just a Song," on my mixtape or on the Best Love is Free compilation (if not, peep the link for a download). The album as a whole turned out really good, and we'll have 100 limited edition, painstakingly hand-made copies w/ lyrics sheets available at the show. It'll also be available online, but not before the show.

Best of all, we got BLACK BLONDIE and an acoustic set from KRISTOFF KRANE opening up. That's a very special lineup. For real. I want to see you there. It's the early show (7-10), so you can still go do whatever afterwards. And it's 18+. Like I said, more info to come, but please set aside the date. (Thanks to Ali Oswalt for the watercolor!)

Just a Song by A Loud Heart

Praise and Constructive Criticism for Occupy MN

2011-10-08T21:27:00.001-05:00

So yesterday was the kickoff for Occupy MN, the Twin Cities version of the big Occupy Wall Street protests. I wasn’t there all day, but was around for most of the afternoon and into the evening, and got to witness the rally (where I also performed), general assembly and milling-about time. Wasn't able to make it back today (I was speaking/performing at the Ramsey County Youth Conference), but I plan on being there throughout the upcoming week and beyond.

Anyways, I hate to be an arm-chair organizer (I haven’t been around for planning meetings or whatever), but I’d rather share my thoughts than keep them to myself.

First, a few thoughts and observations on what was good:

1. Spirits were high. All-day protests are tough because the crowd ebbs and flows. But there were a lot of people there, seemingly all day, and I didn’t get the sense that people were frustrated with all the milling about. People were having conversations, networking, hanging out—it was fun.

2. This movement is coming from a very ideologically pure place. I would argue that it doesn’t always work in practice, but at the very least, the intentions behind horizontal organizing and true democracy and wanting everyone to have a voice are very cool. Lots of people taking care of one another out there today.

3. I wouldn’t say that the crowd was super diverse, but it wasn’t as white as it could have been. Faint praise, maybe, but I think this is something that all of the organizers are really thinking about and taking seriously. Again, I’m not sure what they’re doing tactically to reach out to communities of color, working class people and other underrepresented groups, but the fact that the speakers’ list was genuinely diverse is a good start. And the speakers themselves did a great job.

4. The most exciting thing about Occupy MN, for me, is the opportunity to engage in some good community education. We’re going to have workshops and teach-ins and discussions all week, and I think that will be great.

5. Media coverage has been quite good, at least from what I’ve seen. Even our local Fox News affiliate covered the protest in a very positive, almost encouraging, light.

And a few thoughts and observations on what could have been better, because that’s always more interesting (and useful) to talk about:

1. Although the speakers were all good, I’m a pretty firm believer in the idea that at a rally, it is more important to put on an inspiring, dynamic program than it is to let everyone who deserves to speak get a chance on the mic. Maybe that makes me a horrible progressive, but I’m thinking about movement-building here. Have a meeting a week before the rally, figure out what people are most concerned about expressing, and consolidate those points into the speeches of three-to-five dynamite speakers instead of a dozen who may or may not be that engaging. Trim the fat, basically. At most rallies, most people say the same stuff anyway. Of course, the speakers’ list has to still be representative, but it’s something to think about. The audience has to come first, because that’s who you’re trying to inspire and motivate.

2. Although the turnout was good, it could and should always be more. We’re talking about an issue that directly affects everyone, not just this professional class of activists. How can we reach out to people who don’t normally come to protests? I think part of it has to do with the fuzziness of the protest’s goals and agenda. And I realize that that’s part of the open, democratic nature of how it was organized, but I would argue that “regular people” (i.e., not hardcore activists or college students) need something logical and pragmatic to latch on to—especially if they’re coming straight from a long day of work or have to find a babysitter for the kids. “This teach-in will feature this amazing speaker so come see it.” Or “this rally will spark a specific campaign to address a specific issue.” Or “this march will directly target this politician/CEO/jackass so come and be a part of it.”

3. The general assembly was kind of a mess. Decision-making with enormous groups is always a challenge, and this WAS the very first one here, but still—I’d argue for breaking people into committees right away. We’d already been standing around for hours, let’s get down to some action. That way, we can also do away with the ridiculous call-and-response speeches—just have facilitators in every breakout group explain the process to groups of 20-40 people at a time. When you have 200 people ready to get involved, ready to ACT, you can’t let them get bored. You can’t let them get frustrated. Not right away. Energy like that needs to be focused, immediately, into an activity or discussion that is truly participatory and inspirational.

4. The endless nature of this protest makes me nervous. You can mobilize a thousand people for one day. But day after day after day? Into the winter? I’m just wondering what the strategy is here? I’d rather have, say, a week of events, or an every-Friday protest ongoing, or something other than an every day, all day occupation. It just seems like the kind of thing that, aside from being logistically complicated, will turn more people off, like “I respect their goals, but I ain’t sleeping outside.” And besides, it’s not really the kind of occupation that’s truly disrupting anything. It’s visible, though, so that’s a good thing—as long as the numbers stay up.

5. If you can’t tell, I’m a pragmatist. I think this protest could benefit from having a flyer—maybe one side is what the protest is all about, and the other side is five concrete action points that people can take. Maybe this is something that comes out of the general assembly, or maybe it's something that I should just go ahead and do, but those two questions—“why should I care” and “what can I do”—are incredibly important when it comes to creating new allies (as opposed to continually trying to mobilize the same few hundred folks who make up “the usual suspects”).

But all of these are relatively minor points, and wide open to debate and disagreement. Did other people have similar thoughts? Am I off-target on any of these? Let’s talk about it.

Overall, I’m excited about the prospect of a strong, multi-issue movement that can challenge the powers that be. I’m excited about taking part in community education sessions. I’m excited about this movement—or more specifically, the people who make up this movement—figuring out what we’re doing and moving forward with concrete actions. It’s an exciting time to give a damn about the world.

Finally, I want people to check out this short essay from B.Dolan, one of my favorite hip hop artists and co-founder of KnowMore. It’s a suggestion for some concrete things that this movement can accomplish. Definitely worth a read.

Hope everyone can get involved this week. Follow on Twitter at @occupymn or #occupymn. Big ups to everyone already there. Keep fighting.

Unique Techniques Podcast featuring Guante, plus "No Capes" video

2011-10-07T07:44:00.000-05:00

Guante -- No Capes (Acapella) from Unique Techniques on Vimeo.

Unique Techniques is a podcast facilitated by Patrick Pegg, aka Precipitation. He's a producer, MC and youth worker, and his new podcast is something serious. Episode one featured Carnage (a local legend and one of the most talented people you'll ever meet), and episode two features me.

If you have an hour to kill, check it out; we had a pretty engaging conversation-- about hip hop, poetry, activism, influences, tattoos and a million other things. Here's the link to the podcast episode, and it should be on iTunes as well.

New song! The Rube featuring Guante & See More Perspective

2011-10-02T19:58:00.000-05:00

Rube - Shotgun Soliloquy feat Guante & See More Perspective by UrbanWorld Records

The Rube is a great guy and a really unique producer. He specializes in "electro-swing" with some hip hop undertones. This track is called "Shotgun Soliloquy" and features some shit-talking raps by me (first) and See More Perspective (second). A lot of fun. Check it out.

In other news, a bunch of really cool shows coming up-- benefits, college shows, club shows and two VERY special ones:

1. A LOUD HEART release party at Honey on 11/11. This is the acoustic rap project that me and Claire Taubenhaus have been working on. Expect more promo stuff for this soon, but mark your calendars now. It'll be an early show, 7-10pm.

2. DEATH POETRY JAM at Intermedia Arts on 11/28. This is a show I'm putting together that will celebrate life by talking about death. Expect poems, songs and stories about ghosts, zombies, ancestors and the life/death cycle. It's really going to be something special.

Hope to see you there.

Live Poetry, Sans Audience

2011-09-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it can be nice to perform or listen to a piece in an unnatural environment; you get to feel new things in it. Here are two pieces that I perform all the time, taken out of the slam/theater/club context and shot simply. For me, the most revealing thing about these is that they're both four minutes long, and that when in front of a big crowd, I speed them up. I like this pace, though, so it'll be something to work on.

Thanks to Amani Media-- check out her website for a ton of other stuff.

REACH:

The Family Business:

Ed Bok Lee and Bao Phi both have new books out; some thoughts

2011-09-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

It should be no surprise that the Twin Cities are home to some of the best poets in the country, spoken-word or otherwise. We’re particularly lucky to have Ed Bok Lee and Bao Phi, both of whom just released new books through Coffee House Press. If you like poetry, spoken-word or just good writing in general, you need to know these names. They’ll be having a joint book release reading on September 24 at the Minneapolis Central Library at 8pm.

Ed’s new book is called “Whorled,” and it picks up right where his last book, the excellent “Real Karaoke People” left off, with gorgeously-written lyric poetry next to prose poem storytelling, a dense multitude of characters, scenes, stories and moments, an unflinching exploration of the places where the immigrant narrative and the “America narrative” collide, overlap and devour one another.

The capital-p Poetry here is breathtaking. Coming from a spoken-word background, I tend to value content and how the writing serves the central thesis of a given piece more than the pure lyric qualities of the poetry. But Ed does both extremely well here—the writing is unpredictable, formally-challenging and downright pretty, but it also communicates. This isn’t art for art’s sake, but it’s as good (in a traditional sense) or better than most poetry that does identify like that. And that’s no small feat.

Highlights include “If in America,” a gut-punch of a poem exploring the 2004 Chai Vang case (video above), “Ode to Bruce Lee,” a deceptively complex meditation on race, masculinity and culture, and the sprawling, powerful “Whorled,” which creates connections between language and history, between human communication and inscrutable time itself.

It’s a hell of a read. Sherman Alexie and Li-Young Lee think so too, if my word isn’t good enough for you. Here’s a purchase link.

Bao’s debut collection, “Sông I Sing,” hit me in a different way. The poems here, at least to me, read like spoken-word pieces, and Bao’s understanding of structure and emotional arcs mirrors some of the tricks that we use in the slam world—for example, each of the poems in this collection has a knock-out last line. The result is an incredibly emotional journey through the issues that Bao explores—but it’s emotion that’s grounded in quality writing and thoughtful political analysis, not just raw melodrama. Again, that’s no small feat. If Bao ever decided to re-enter the slam world, I think he’d kick all our asses.

The highlight here is probably the section called “The Nguyêns,” a brilliant and even-more-brilliantly-realized concept that looks at over a dozen unrelated characters all with the same last name. These characters each own their culture(s) and struggle with their identities in different ways, and the result is a moving (in both senses of the word), impressionistic portrait of Vietnamese America. Other poems like “Race,” “Giving My Neighbor a Ride to Her Job” and more talk about race and racism in this country in a way that is eloquent yet unforgiving, righteously angry yet never once weighed down by the sensational histrionics associated with so much spoken-word.

The best poetry is transformative—it breaks you down, changes you, makes you see the world in a new way. “Sông I Sing” does that as well as any poetry book I’ve ever read. It’s gorgeously angry, laugh-out-loud funny and I even teared up a couple of times while reading it. And again, don’t take my word for it—Jeff Chang, David Mura and Li-Young Lee all loved it too. Here’s a purchase link.

I hope you'll check out both of these collections. They both remind me what poetry is capable of, and give me inspiration to keep writing, reading, listening and communicating. Maybe they will for you too.

Unsolicited Advice for Young Rappers

2011-09-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

(photo by Mark Louie)

Just realizing that I know a lot of young (age 16-25 or so) hip hop artists, and I find myself saying the same things to all of them. I figured it’d make sense to formalize some of that stuff and put it in an essay, kind of a “ten things I wish I knew when I was your age” thing. Not that I’m that old (I’m 28) or that successful (arguable), but I feel like these are some things that are worth having a conversation about. It’d also be great if other people left comments about things that I missed, or maybe things I got wrong. Let’s create a good resource for young artists.

One note, however: these tips aren’t about “getting on.” They’re about building a meaningful career. Those are very different things. If you just want to get on 2DopeBoyz or Nah Right, or play the First Ave. mainroom or whatever, go do that. But these ideas are for younger MCs just starting to think about music as a real career, as something they can leave behind, as a way to connect to people. A lot of it does overlap with traditional conceptions of generating buzz, but that’s definitely not the main point.

1. Before you do anything, think long and hard about what the word “success” means to you.
If you’re just rapping for fun or to express yourself, that’s great. Always keep that in mind. If you want to make a living off rap, that’s going to involve different tactics and strategies. And if you aspire to something even bigger, whether getting filthy rich, changing people’s lives, putting yourself in a position to influence policy and culture or whatever, you’ll definitely need a solid gameplan. This essay isn’t about telling you exactly how to do all of that stuff, but it’s important that you know why you’re doing what you do.

2. If you sound just like someone else, why would anyone want to listen to you?
It may make sense that if Artist X is famous, and you sound just like Artist X, then you will get famous too—but it doesn’t work like that. When a copycat artist DOES get on, it’s for a variety of reasons. Most of the time, though, biting a more popular artists’ style (whether consciously or unconsciously) just makes your music that much more disposable. If you can communicate to an audience that you’re a fresh and exciting original voice, they’ll reward you for that.

3. “Good beats and good rhymes” are not the end goal; they’re the basic foundation.
A lot of MCs seem to be just going through the motions—no creative song concepts, no memorable punchlines, no vulnerability, no heart, no honesty, no originality, no reason for me to give a damn. They might “work hard” at writing rhymes, but it’s not about the technique itself; it’s about what you’re doing with your beats and rhymes—what makes you different from every other rapper on the planet? A HUGE part of doing this right is the revision process. Your first drafts ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Write a song, and then go over that song over and over again, making it better. Tighten up rhyme schemes, replace filler lines with quotables, try to pour as much of yourself as you can into every bar. It’s not about writing a 16 every day of your life, or recording a hundred songs and then choosing the best 10 for your album—it’s about putting thought and intentionality into your songwriting.

4. Take your time.
The world might try to sell you the idea that hip hop is a young man’s game, but it’s not. Most MCs don’t release anything worthwhile until they’re 30—don’t let Mac Miller fool you. Have fun. Hone your craft. You only get ONE debut album, so don’t waste it on songs you’re going to hate in five years. Artists these days are way too quick to release music and go on tour; wait a year or two and really have something powerful to stand behind, something you can book a real, profitable, meaningful tour behind. A CD-R of the first fifteen songs you ever wrote is not going to do that. “Learning as you go” may be part of hip hop, but it’s not written in stone.

5. Get honest, constructive feedback from people who aren't your best friends.
No matter how brilliant you are right now, you could be a whole lot better. When you first start rapping, all of your friends (who may or may not know anything about hip hop) are going to big you up, buy your mixtapes, tell you how amazing you are and how you deserve to be famous. They’re all full of shit. Find people—maybe an older artist, a rap veteran, a music critic or whomever—who will tell you that you’re wack… and will also help you get better.

6. It’s not all about club shows and touring.
Until you’re relatively famous, club shows and touring are both kind of depressing and not all that profitable. Look into colleges, conferences, summits, community centers, rallies, house parties, abandoned warehouses, parks and other non-traditional venues for hip hop. You’ll meet more cool people, more attentive listeners and probably get paid better. Be careful not to over-romanticize the idea of hard work; hustle harder, but hustle smarter first. “Paying dues” doesn’t have to mean sleeping on floors, driving for hours and hours in a smelly van and playing dive bars in front of a dozen drunk jackasses. Be creative, and pave a new path for yourself. What worked ten years ago for Sage Francis is NOT what’s going to work today.

7. Creative song concepts are very important.
Underground rappers LOVE rapping about rapping, telling off ex-girlfriends, writing horrible love songs and talking really vaguely about all the abstract thoughts in their heads. Try writing a song about a topic that no other MC has ever written a song about. It’s not as hard as you might think. Tell a story we haven’t already heard a hundred times already. Remember: the word “hook” doesn’t just mean chorus; it also refers to the thing that makes a given song different from other songs, whether that’s the approach, the concept or whatever. Songs have hooks; sometimes albums have hooks; sometimes entire careers have hooks. Utilize them. This makes for better art, but it also makes for more marketable art; it’s a win-win. Even if I don’t like your music, if you write an entire song breaking down the U.S. military industrial complex through the lens of imperialism in the Philippines, I’m going to have to give you props for that… and I’ll remember you name, too.

8. Being memorable is more important than being good.
You’re not trying to impress people, you’re trying to connect to them. A flashy rhyme scheme or intense stage show might get people to say “wow” in the moment, but if you want them to really support you, buy your CD, etc., it’s more important to write songs that speak to them on a deeper level. Fans aren’t the same thing as supporters. Fans will nod their heads at your show, but they won’t spread your music around; they’ll listen to your tracks on Bandcamp, but they won’t pay for them. Figure out who your target market is (hint: it’s not “everybody”) and really try to reach out to them in a genuine way.

9. It is a far better thing to say something meaningful to ten people than say absolutely nothing to a thousand people.
Think about what you’re writing and why you’re writing it. Anyone can jump around on stage like a jackass and rhyme words together—what do you want to leave people with? How do you want them to remember you? If you died after this show, what would they say about you? At the end of the day, you have to be a good/interesting/experienced human being before you can be a truly great MC. Don’t get me wrong—you can have a wildly successful career while not saying anything new, interesting or meaningful. But if you’re an artist, you have access to a platform that very few people have. You will meet thousands, maybe millions, of people through your music. Do you really want to look into the eyes of a million people and say “I sure like rapping” or “let’s party?” I’m not saying that every song you write has to be some universe-shattering manifesto; but if being an artist is anything more important to you than a fun hobby, you should be thinking at least a little bit about your legacy.

10. Grab bag of random tips (that I sometimes forget myself):
Don’t cup the mic when you’re rapping. “Getting signed” is increasingly meaningless; go indie. Always be nice and polite to sound people, venue managers, bartenders and the other people who are at your show because they have to be. Use Twitter and Facebook, but don’t depend on them. Change up your stage show so it’s not 45 minutes of rah rah punch-you-in-the-face music; that stuff is exhausting. On that note, play shorter sets; you’re not Atmosphere—a half-hour is probably plenty of stage time for you. Leave them wanting more. Be serious about your money, but be just as serious about your relationships; playing a show “for exposure” is not necessarily a horrible thing. Every time you say the word “bitch,” no matter how you’re using it, you’re alienating a huge fraction of your potential fanbase (same goes for homophobic slurs, obviously). Do not ever perform over your own tracks; get the instrumental versions (it sounds a hundred times better with just one layer of vocals). Practice, practice, practice. Know what you’re doing on stage when you’re not rapping—don’t just stand there awkwardly. Get your friends the hell off the stage. Always have a business card or a handbill with your website/contact on it. Listening to an MC freestyle can be thrilling; listening to an hour-long freestyle rap jam session is torture (there are certainly exceptions to this rule, but you’re probably not one of them). Don’t spam people. Do send out press releases. Learn how to write a press release. Drink tea. Have fun. Be cool. Smile.

Finally, read this, and then go knock ‘em dead.

Summertime Hip Hop Family Business at the Asian-American State Fair

2011-08-15T09:35:00.001-05:00

1. Here's a new song featuring me, See More Perspective and Heidi Barton Stink. It's a remix to See More's song "Summertime Hip Hop BBQ Jam for the World." I'm the second verse. And it's a free download.

Summertime Hip Hop BBQ Jam for the World REMIX by SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE

2. Here's a new video of my poem, "The Family Business." This summer, I've figured out that almost all of my poems are three and a half minutes long (or longer), and I've been squeezing them into three minutes in order to compete in slams for the past five years. While there's cooler footage of this piece on the internet, this one is actually at the proper pacing:

3. I'll be playing at the MN State Fair, at the AFL-CIO pavillion, on Tuesday, 8/30 at 4pm. If you're going to go to the State Fair, why not just go that day at that time and check it out? It should be fun.

4. Here's an interview with me in the Asian-American Press. An excerpt: "Cowboy Bebop, the labor movement, comic books, legos, root beer, social justice activism and the Green Bay Packers."

5. From giving the keynote at the TLT conference in Duluth to opening up for the incredible B.Dolan here in MPLS to tearing down the UW-Madison Terrace with Kristoff Krane and the NEM crew, to playing various shows with Prolyphic, Prayers for Atheists, Toki Wright, Junkyard Empire and others, to having yet another installment of our Hip Hop Against Homophobia series, to helping run a weekly social-justice-and-the-arts series at the Canvas, to kicking off the MN Activist Project, to facilitating workshops at the APIA spoken-word conference, the Loft's teen writers' summit and Rivertown Commons, to writing and recording a ton of new material that's better than anything else I've done (stay tuned for that), and more, this has been a wild summer. And Fall is only going to get wilder. Thanks for listening.

proposed additions to the poetry slam MC spiel

2011-08-14T08:30:00.000-05:00

This post may only be relevant to a few people, but I figured it'd be good to make it public. After a long discussion, a few of us in the Twin Cities spoken-word scene proposed a few changes to the standard host/MC spiel that happens at every slam. Usually, the spiel just talks about the rules and philosophy of slam-- how scoring works, how the audience is encouraged to participate, how much time each poet has, where slam comes from, etc. Some of us, however, want to add a two things:

1. A note about maintaining a physically safe space in the audience. Cynthia French forwarded me a link to another event organizer's (Rich Villar) thoughts on this, and I think it's something we can apply too. Wording can change, but something like this:

"We are committed to maintaining physically safe spaces for all people attending these public programs. All participants are expected to maintain appropriate public decorum and respect all other individuals—and their persons—within the spaces we occupy. While we recognize and support every individual's capacity for change, anyone choosing not to follow this code by practicing threats, intimidation, unwanted advances, or unwanted physical contact on another individual will be asked to leave."

2. A more explicit call for audience empowerment with regards to policing what happens on stage. We already ask the audience to verbally respond to what they like or don't like, through snaps, cheering, hissing, etc. This would just be about emphasizing that a little more, and making sure it's clear that this applies not only to the poetry being performed, but to the hosts' behavior and any other public behavior happening. Again, the wording can change, but here's what I'm thinking:

"Performers are not censored here, and are free to talk about any subject matter in whatever way they want to talk about it. At the same time, the audience is not censored either. So even though only five of you have a scoring paddle, you're all judges. If you hear something beautiful or thought-provoking, feel free to respond, with snaps, with verbalizations, whatever... as long as it's sincere, respectful and doesn't drown out the poem. And if you hear something that offends you, whether it's a poet using racist, sexist or homophobic language, or the host talking to someone in the audience in an inappropriate way, or even another audience member screaming offensive things at the judges, it's up to you to let them know how you feel."

Both of these additions are really about holding slam to higher standards. We are not just an arts scene. We are not just a social circle. We are supposed to be on the leading edge of the intersections of art, community and social justice. That doesn't mean that we should all be writing political poems; it means that the very structure of slam is infused with these principles-- anyone can be an artist, anyone can appreciate art and anyone can criticize art. These spaces that we create should reflect those democratic principles. A slam should absolutely challenge the audience, and sometimes make them uncomfortable; but it should never make anyone feel unsafe. I don't see that as a "fine line."

And while this discussion has been slam-focused, I think it's worthwhile for the hosts and organizers of other events like open mics and community readings to think about this stuff too. We do a version of this spiel at the Canvas, the teen arts center that I help coordinate, and it seems to work pretty well.

But there's a lot to still figure out. Particularly with that first point, how will it be enforced? Who will field any possible complaints-- the slammasters? The hosts? The audience? If someone is going to be "asked to leave," who is responsible for asking? I'd assume the slammasters, but maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there's another line in there to be added about protocol. Feel free to post any thoughts or ideas in the comments section here.

Guante & Big Cats! plus B.Dolan on 8/13 at the Fineline

2011-08-01T20:27:00.001-05:00

Me and Big Cats! haven't played a full set together in quite a while, and I'm hoping we can debut some of our brand new material. I'm also excited to see B.Dolan live again; I just wrote a little blurb on his terribly underrated 2010 album "Fallen House, Sunken City," but if you still haven't heard the album (or the artist, one of the freshest and most passionate in progressive hip hop), here's what I said, plus a very cool video:

If you think Dolan is just a Sage Francis clone, you need to check this one out with an open mind, because there's a world of difference between the two. Both are big guys with beards, and both combine political messages with personal drama and a smartass attitude, but Dolan is much more of a pure spitter, and his voice is fuller and more powerful. This album has the ambition of a weirdo-indie-rap concept album, but that ambition is backed up by a rock-solid delivery and production (courtesy of Alias) that bangs as hard as anything coming out of the boom-bap traditionalist camp these days. Definitely one of the most slept-on albums of last year.

So I hope you can come to the show. I don't have a whole lot on the calendar locally for a while, so if you're going to come out, this is the one to go to.

DL the Lyrics and Commentary Booklet for "An Unwelcome Guest"

2011-07-26T12:15:00.000-05:00

Back in January of 2010, Tru Ruts/Speakeasy Records released "An Unwelcome Guest," the debut full-length from Guante & Big Cats!. It's still an album that I'm really proud of-- from the overarching concept to the individual pieces. We got to do a song with Haley Bonar. We got to go on the Local Show (footage above). Strange Famous Records helped us do pre-sales. Songs like "No Capes" and "Dragons" have become signature live songs for us.

If you don't have it or haven't heard it, you can preview the whole thing (and buy it if you like it) at our bandcamp page here. It's a concept album that's a love story, an exploration of the difference between the violence of the oppressor and the violence of the oppressed, a meditation on superhero mythology and the nature of power... and it's got zombies (though that's always implicit, because I'm so classy). All the radically progressive sci-fi romantics out there should dig it.

For those who DO have it, I'm going to post the lyrics booklet here. This was a fairly painstakingly hand-assembled thing that went out with the Strange Famous pre-sale copies of the album, including full song lyrics plus "director's commentary" on each of the songs from both me and Big Cats!. If you're a rap nerd, there's probably something for you in it. If you're one of the 1% of the population who actually listens to the lyrics and thinks about them, definitely check it out.

Finally, here's the video we made for "A Hug from a Stranger:"

Guante + Big Cats! - A Hug From a Stranger from Tru Ruts on Vimeo.

Free Download: "Harry Potter (Big Cats! Remix)"

2011-07-13T21:39:00.000-05:00

Why not? The movie is coming out this weekend. If you like the song, and want to get it for free, download the Guante & Big Cats! mixtape, DON'T BE NICE, at this link.

As I've said before, this song (if it isn't obvious) isn't about Harry Potter. It's about the idea of taking on the canon, coming out of nowhere and reshaping the artistic landscape, as that series has done. It's a handy metaphor. Hope you like it.

Guante interview + stage name origin + etc.

2011-07-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

(random photo by MaryCae Vignolini)

This music site called The Soullective is featuring my work this week: Full interview, plus some videos and song downloads here.

I actually told the truth about my stage name in this interview, by the way. I usually make up wild stories about bears or icebergs or electricity. It's a question people ask all the time, so check out the interview if you're curious.

Incredibly productive summer so far-- some great shows, new music, new poetry, Canvas stuff, MN Activist stuff, workshops and more. I also discovered iced tea. It's like guilt-free Kool-Aid. I've even found time to read the first three-and-a-half Game of Thrones books (so if I change my name to Dolorous Guante, you'll know why). Lots more (real) news coming in August and especially Fall. Thanks for all the support.

Talking about MNActivist.com at Fifth Element (video)

2011-06-30T13:11:00.001-05:00

I stopped into Twin Cities institution Fifth Element for their "Network and Parlay" night to talk about power, networking, organizing and the MN Activist Project. That's the great and powerful Kevin Beacham asking the questions. Check it out.

Late-Pass Reviews: B.Dolan, Aloe Blacc, Corinne Bailey Rae, Elzhi

2011-06-28T13:32:00.000-05:00

Been trying to get up on some new music. Well, new to me, haha. I should also clarify-- since this is just my own site, and not any kind of official music publication, I'm not so much "writing reviews" here as I am just sharing some of my thoughts for my friends who read this site and like similar music. I know most people wouldn't make that distinction, but as someone who is constantly criticizing the way that music is reviewed, I probably need to.

B.Dolan: Fallen House, Sunken City
If you think Dolan is just a Sage Francis clone, you need to check this one out with an open mind, because there's a world of difference between the two. Both are big guys with beards, and both combine political messages with personal drama and a smartass attitude, but Dolan is much more of a pure spitter, and his voice is a little fuller and more powerful. This album has the ambition of a weirdo-indie-rap concept album, but that ambition is backed up by a rock-solid delivery and production (courtesy of Alias) that bangs as hard as anything coming out of the boom-bap traditionalist camp these days. Definitely one of the most slept-on albums of last year.

Aloe Blacc: Good Things
As much as people go nuts about Raphael Saadiq, I think Aloe Blacc does the throwback soul-man thing even better. Admittedly, they're two very different artists, but "Good Things" was another unfairly slept-on album from last year. I think my favorite thing about this album is that Aloe Blacc writes R&B music that isn't always about love and relationships. That seems like such a simple little thing, but it really separates him from most singers these days and gives the album an edge. "Good Things" is one of the best music purchases I've made in a long time-- listenable from front to back, with a half-dozen highlights.

Corinne Bailey Rae: The Love EP
This was an impulse purchase. I really liked both of CBR's full-lengths, so I decided to pick up this little EP of covers too. I can't say that I've listened to it much since buying it, though. Covering Bob Marley, Prince and Paul McCartney is both safe and risky-- safe in the sense that they're well-known songs that people already like, and risky in the sense that you're attempting to stand next to some pretty big names; the covers here land somewhere in the middle in terms of quality-- they're well-done, but not all that different from the originals. The EP finds more success, however, with the Belly cover "Low Red Moon," a more obscure track that CBR knocks out of the park (though it also isn't all that different from the original). All in all, the EP is worth a listen if you're a fan, probably not if you're not.

Elzhi: Elmatic
If you haven't heard, this album is Elzhi, one of the best technical MCs in the game, re-imagining Nas' "Illmatic," generally considered the best hip hop album of all time. Again, it's simultaneously safe and risky-- you know it's going to sound great, but can it even approach the quality of the original? Does it matter? This album raises some interesting questions about originality, ownership and homage in hip hop. On a purely musical level, though, it definitely works. Elzhi's flow is airtight, and the old "Illmatic" instrumentals are brought to life by live instruments in a way that captures the brilliance of the originals while propelling the album out of karaoke-land. This isn't exactly hip hop boldly moving forward, but it is a lot of fun to listen to, especially if you're a rap head.

Photos from the MN Activist launch party at Intermedia Arts

2011-06-22T22:40:00.006-05:00

I'm proud of the fact that I'm a pretty good artist. But I'm probably more proud of the fact that I know how to throw a good show. The MN Activist Project launch party at Intermedia Arts back on May 24 was a really good show-- a whole bunch of my favorite spoken-word artists reading poems about social justice, community and activism (one original and one cover piece). Huge thanks to all of the artists and the audience who made it a great success. These photos are all courtesy of Susan D. Stirling of Mavericksprout Photography-- THANKS!

Here's me, your amiable host:

Khary Jackson, one of the most fearsome and fearless slam poets on the planet:

Kevin Yang, one of the most promising young voices in the Twin Cities spoken-word scene:

Tish Jones, the coolest human being I've ever met:

Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria, one of the pillars of our spoken-word scene:

Jake Virden, whose honesty and intensity are always inspiring:

Ed Bok Lee, whose book "Real Karaoke People" is one of my favorite books of poetry ever:

IBe, with his commanding stage presence and beautiful writing:

Kirstie, who runs an all-women's writing circle on Tuesday nights at the Canvas:

Madiba2013 (e.g. bailey & Sha Cage backed by twentythirteen), with the new baby:

And me again:

It definitely wasn't EVERY talented spoken-word artist in the TC, but it was a good bunch of them. All of the artists who performed were inspiring. Go out to their shows and see them. Let's keep building.

6/25: Junkyard Empire CD release show w/ Guante, Toki Wright, City on the Make

2011-06-19T00:02:00.001-05:00

Really looking forward to this show. Junkyard Empire is super underrated, and they're one of the best live band hip hop acts around. More than anything, though, they wear their politics on their sleeves and really walk the walk. And Toki is one of the best MCs in the country, hands down. This is a hell of a lineup. Tell your peoples. Here's the FB event page.

Also, huge thanks to everyone who came out to our Hip Hop Against Homophobia shows. It's been a great summer so far. Stay in touch on Twitter and Facebook.

Hip Hop Against Homophobia 2011: 6/17 and 6/18 at Patrick's Cabaret

2011-06-07T09:41:00.001-05:00

(photo of a past installment of the series that packed some 300 people into the Nomad, by Jon Behm)

Patrick’s Cabaret and guest curator Guante are proud to present the latest installments in the Hip Hop Against Homophobia series (FB event page here). Featuring both LGBTQ-identified artists and straight allies, the HHAH series has been going strong since 2009, bringing communities together, showcasing dynamite hip hop artists and providing a space to explore the intersections of culture, social justice and community.

Past shows have included Toki Wright, Maria Isa, Mike Mictlan of Doomtree, Tori Fixx, DJ Shannon Blowtorch and more, and these installments will feature even more diverse voices, from Heidi Barton Stink's radical trans-empowerment raps to Prolyphic's apocalyptic backpacker philosophizing to Guante himself, the fiery MC and slam poetry champion. Also featuring resources from local organizations, gender-neutral restrooms and music provided by DJ Optimus Prime, the two-night stint at Patrick's should be the biggest and best HHAH yet.

FRIDAY: Guante, Heidi Barton Stink, See More Perspective, Kaoz and DJ Optimus Prime.

SATURDAY: Prolyphic (Strange Famous Records), Guante, Heidi Barton Stink, the Tribe & Big Cats! and DJ Optimus Prime.

8pm-10pm both nights.

$10 at the door (per show), or find the performers for pre-sale tickets that are $8. Shoot me an email at elguante@gmail.com if you want one from me.

Co-sponsored by the U of M's GLBTA Programs Office and Transgender Commission, OutFront MN, Trans Youth Support Network, Join the Impact Twin Cities, Socialist Alternative, the Twin Cities Avengers and MNActivist.com.

www.patrickscabaret.org

Help spread the word!

A Prayer for Indie Rappers

2011-06-01T22:16:00.003-05:00

No matter how talented you are, you will never have as many Twitter followers as Ashton Kutcher.

No matter how hard you work or how many contacts you cultivate, your new music video will never have as many YouTube views as Miley Cyrus has for "Party in the USA.”

You are not a virtual basket of thumbs; even if you do everything right, not everyone is going to like you. As a matter of fact, if everyone does like you, you're doing something wrong.

You are not how many CDs you've sold, how many people come to your shows or how many big-name acts you've opened up for. You are not your co-signs. You are not your press clips. All of these things may matter at some point, but they will never define you.

You are not your label. You are not your labels. You are not the extra percussion instrument, the chuckle-inducing half a mash-up over jacked beats, the one-night stand of scenester trash, the punchline, the second act on a five-act bill playing for "exposure." Even when you are, you're not.

In less than a hundred years, every single one of your Facebook friends will be dead.

So forget the blogs. Forget the local media. Forget the national media. A good write-up in Pitchfork is nothing compared to a good obituary. You are not their background music, the soundtrack to their drinking/flirting/posturing. You are not a monkey, dancing for their pocket change. Nor are you a god, untouchable in the artificial smoke. You are not your hype; forget your hype, whether non-existent or hyperbolic.

And of course, they will tell you that you are, cram it down your throat until you are drowning in their shallowness, their rules and expectations. The haters, the cheerleaders, the yes-men, the tastemakers, the gatekeepers, the unelected leaders of this sinking kingdom-- they will point grenade launchers at your feet and ask you to dance. They will throw fat burlap sacks marked with dollar signs at your feet and ask you to dance. And you may actually be good at it. But remember:

Before everything else, you are a human being standing in front of a hundred other human beings.

They are waiting for you to speak.

So speak.

Def Jam is never going to sign you. So speak. Rhymesayers is never going to sign you. So speak. Say something honest. Say it because you have to. Say it like you mean it, like you’re scratching your epitaph across every mile of highway between Minneapolis and Chicago, between St. Paul and South Dakota, between here and wherever this culture takes you. Say it because no one else will, because it is so easy not to.

May the wind paint something beautiful with your ashes. May someone, somewhere, at some point in the future, find something to hold on to in your words. May every call have its response. May every hip have its hop. And when you ask the crowd to scream...

MN Original special on slam poetry

2011-05-20T23:31:00.001-05:00

TPT's MN Original did a very cool special on slam poetry featuring me, Khary and Kait performing some pieces and talking about spoken-word. It'll be on TV a few times from now until the end of the month. They really put it together well. The main segment is above, and here are two of my full pieces they filmed in-studio:

REACH:

The Fist that Lives in Your Neck:

Cartpusher Poem Video + MN Original appearance

2011-05-17T21:40:00.000-05:00

Me, Khary Jackson and Kait Rokowski recently shot a piece with MN Original about slam poetry. It'll air in full a bunch of times in May on TPT and you can also check the stuff online. I performed a few poems, including this one, and talked about spoken-word, as did Khary and Kait.

This piece (the official title is "The Fist that Lives in Your Neck") is a favorite of mine to perform. It's dedicated to anyone who has ever worked in the service industry-- cartpushers, servers, cashiers and everyone. I hope you like it.

Related to this, I'm not slamming this year. I qualified for the St. Paul team finals, but my summer is just too hectic already with shows, recording, promo, Canvas stuff, residency work, MN Activist stuff and a million other things. If you want to see me perform poetry this summer, book me, haha.

Musical Observations on the Drive to Karlstad

2011-05-15T22:33:00.000-05:00

(Breakfast, lunch and dinner for a whole week!)

So this week, I've embarked on a week-long quest to Karlstad, MN, a charming little town of 900 or so about a stone's throw from Canada. I'm guest-teaching poetry classes at the school here. I also had to drive here. If you know me, you might know that I don't drive. Like, ever. So six hours alone in the car was very, very strange for me. The upside, though, is that I got to listen to six hours or music.

And sure, I have the new Elzhi, the new No Bird Sing, a bunch of cool stuff. But part of not ever driving is not being very good at doing stuff WHILE driving. So I just put on a random seven-hour playlist of stuff that I like and let it go. It was nice to reconnect to a lot of my favorite music. Here's a journal of my trip:

Hour 1: Silence.
Trying not to crash. I'm driving. I'm driving.

Hour 2: Fall Out Boy
Now, I'll probably forever be a FOB apologist. I didn't discover them until relatively recently, so I missed both the bandwagon and the backlash to the bandwagon and can enjoy the music without a lot of social/cultural baggage. And I really enjoy the music. I know the lyrics are silly, but I appreciate the fact that they're in the foreground-- they're actually part of the music and not just window dressing (which I think is the case with most bands). I'd MUCH rather have silly (and occasionally pretty great) lyrics than forgettable lyrics. I also love the band's use of dynamics, engaging song structures (pre-hooks, breakdowns, bridges, double-hooks, etc.) and a singer who actually SINGS. If you take the best few songs from each of their last three albums, that's a pretty brilliant 15 or so tracks, critics be damned.

Hour 3: '90s one-hit wonder male R&B stars!
~Javier: October Sky (not his hit, but his best song and one that should be a classic)
~Musiq Soulchild: Half Crazy (I know Musiq isn't a one-hit wonder, but this is the only song of his I listen to regularly)
~Raphael Saadiq: Still Ray (also not a one-hit wonder, but this is still the best song he'll ever make)
~The Transitions: A Rainy Night In Harlem (I guarantee you've never heard this song, and it's beautiful; it's one singer, until the very end when one of the other guys in the group comes in and starts vamping and murders it).
~Calvin Richardson: Keep on Pushin' (this song sounds great, but when you listen to the lyrics it kind of sounds like the prelude to domestic violence; just noticed that)
~Donell Jones: Where I Wanna Be (I love the percussion in this one)
~Glenn Lewis: It's Not Fair (it really isn't)
~Tank: I actually didn't listen to any Tank today but it felt wrong not to include him here.

Hour 4: Pop Music Gems
~No Doubt: Ex-Girlfriend (my vote for their best song, and one of the best pop songs I know. I really want to cover this someday)
~Van Hunt: At the End of a Slow Dance (one of my favorite songs-- such a weird mash-up of styles and influences, but it all comes together because of the songwriting)
~The Cardigans: Lovefool (this is the PERFECT pop song; catchy, well-produced, light-hearted but with an edge)
~Nelly Furtado: Powerless (remember THIS Nelly Furtado? What a brilliant song)
~NERD: Maybe, Provider, Sooner or Later (NERD is so hit-and-miss, but their hits are weirdly beautiful)
~P!nk: Who Knew (the distance between P!nk's good stuff and her awful stuff is HUGE, more than any other artist. Her bad stuff is REALLY bad, but her good stuff is bonkers-- she has such a powerful, unique voice)
~Amy Winehouse: Valerie (such a great cover; Marc Ronson is one of my favorite producers right now)
~Cee-lo: F*** You (Cee-lo was and is my favorite rapper. His rap work with Goodie Mob is probably my biggest influence as an MC. I wish he's still rap, but I'm glad he's at least successful. And this is just such a happy summertime song)
~Fiona Apple: Paper Bag (this could go in the next category too, but it fits here. Great lyrics and such an expressive vocal performance that really brings the words to life)

Hour 5: Depressing Singer Songwriters
~Brandi Carlile: Turpentine, The Story, Dying Day, plus covers of Creep and Hallelujah (her super-powerful-voice-that-gets-pushed-until-it-breaks thing that she does might be gimmicky to some people, but it gets me every time. These are the only songs of hers that I really like, but I listen to them a lot)
~Haley Bonar: Us, Am I Allowed, Big Star, Better Half (in what universe is Haley not a huge star? Oh yeah, this one. Because this one sucks)
~Regina Spektor: Blue (I love a ton of her material, but this one sticks out for me-- such weird, engaging songwriting)
~Bruce Springsteen: Atlantic City, Thunder Road, Born to Run, State Trooper (god these four songs are brilliant. He's a master of writing personal songs that speak to political issues, even if it's buried deep down)
~Mermaid Avenue (Billy Bragg and Wilco singing Woodie Guthrie lyrics): Birds and Ships, California Stars, The Unwelcome Guest (I love these albums. Hearing a political folkie writing songs about love and loss is the most heartbreaking thing in the world. And the songs that actually are overtly political have such weight to them)
~Corinne Bailey Rae: Young and Foolish, Like a Star (CBR can do no wrong)
~A Fine Frenzy: Almost Lover (this is by far the most maudlin song EVER and I still like it)

Hour 6: And Then Things Get Weird
~Madeleine Peyroux: Between the Bars (if you're going to cover a great song, put a unique spin on it. I actually prefer this one to the original)
~Emily Bindiger: Adieu (this is from Cowboy Bebop, and I can't separate the music from the emotional attachment I have to the series)
~Gogol Bordello: Wanderlust King (that line about presidents and generals gets me every time)
~Radiodread: Let Down (Toots and Maytals covering my favorite Radiohead song. Wow)
~Fastball: The Way (Is this a pro-suicide song? I know the story behind this song, but it's really easy to interpret it that way)
~Bush: Glycerine (such a pretty/ugly song)
~Rufus Wainwright: Hallelujah (my favorite version of the song; sue me)
~Sam Cooke: Bring it on Home to Me (one of my favorite songs ever)
~Doris Day: Que Sera, Sera (When I'm famous, we're going to end all of my shows with a group singalong of this song)
~Janelle Monae: Cold War (this is actually the song that was playing as I pulled into the hotel. Her latest album hasn't stuck with me the way I had hoped, but this song is still a monster)

And now here I am. There were more songs in there, but this is what I remember. It's fun to talk about WHY you like the songs you like. These aren't all my favorite songs (no hip hop represented on this drive), but it's close. I guess I'm not so much a music nerd (which connotes good taste, doesn't it?) as I am a music appreciator. As much as I talk/write about the importance of lyrics, substance and originality, I like pretty songs. I like well-produced songs. I like catchy songs. An interesting observation for myself.

So now you should drive up here and meet me and record YOUR six hour playlist.

MN Activist Project Launch Party on 5/24 at Intermedia Arts

2011-05-13T13:49:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, May 24, we'll be officially launching the MN Activist Project with a big show at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. The show will feature some of my favorite local spoken-word artists each reading a piece of their own, plus a "cover" piece from another artist they respect, all around the themes of activism, organizing and community.

Performers will include Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria, Jake Virden, Kirstie Kimball, Ed Bok Lee, Kevin Yang, Khary Jackson, Tish Jones, IBé and Madiba2013 (Sha Cage & e.g. bailey backed by twentythirteen), plus me and possibly some special surprise guests. Music will be provided by twentythirteen. The idea is that this show will be a spot where local activists can come and both network and recharge; these artists are all phenomenal, and I don't know about y'all, but I could use some inspiration right about now.

This will be a night of political poetry that transcends "political poetry." I'm really excited, and I hope you can make it.

The show will start at 7pm and there's a $5 suggested donation. Here's the Facebook event page and also the official Intermedia Arts page if you want to RSVP or get more details.

For those who don't know, the MN ACTIVIST PROJECT is a database of progressive activist organizations in the Twin Cities, a hub for resources, toolkits and conversations, and a promotional campaign with the goal of getting more Minnesotans involved in organizing and activism. We're launching now, but the site will be a constant work in progress, and I'd like to continue having "launch" parties throughout the year. Check it out.

Canvas Writing Circle and some thoughts on art and community

2011-05-04T10:24:00.002-05:00

So every Wednesday (EDIT: Mondays now), I facilitate a writing circle at the Canvas Teen Arts Center from 4:30-6. It's just an open space where poets, spoken-word artists, rappers, songwriters and writers of all kinds can come together, share their work and get constructive feedback. It's very informal and fun. Even though we're a teen center, the circle is open to anyone. I have a very broad definition of youth. And I'm there every week, so yeah.

I really like doing this, and this is why:

1. Good artists exist in communities, not as individuals. I don't believe that art is some magical, mystical force that lives in heads of a select handful of geniuses. I believe that art is communication, and to effectively communicate, it helps to have people critique your work. Anyone can be an artist, but your own thoughts can only take you so far.

2. Teaching is the best way to learn. While it's helpful to hear others' thoughts on your work, it's doubly helpful to express your thoughts about theirs. Giving feedback forces us to think critically about why we like the things we like, which is a vital step on the road to becoming a good artist.

3. It's a valuable educational model. While the opportunity to get free writing and performance feedback from a two-time National Poetry Slam champion, critically-acclaimed rapper and all-around lovely human being like myself might be part of the allure of this workshop, the power is really in the democratization of the learning process. We are all teachers. We are all learners. We sit in a circle. There are no lectures, just conversations. It's a pretty liberating feeling, and it gets results too.

So writers, I hope to see you there sometime. And if you know anyone who might be interested in this, please spread the word. The Canvas is located right across Snelling Ave. from Hamline University, inside the Hancock Rec Center. There's a parking lot. The exact address is 1610 Hubbard Ave. W in St. Paul. We have a ton of cool stuff planned for the summer and beyond, but the writing circle remains a constant. Swing by and check it out.

And don't forget, we're having a free outdoor rap show on May 12:

some upcoming shows:

2011-04-25T08:28:00.000-05:00

My full performance calendar is in the right-hand column, but here are two highlights:

I've been lucky to have a really great group of people in Brainerd who support my work. They'll be bringing me up this coming weekend for two performances (including both poetry and music) and a writing workshop. It's a great combination of entertainment, education and community-building; I wish I could do that kind of thing in every city.

I've been the arts coordinator at the Canvas for about a year and a half now, and while we offer a variety of workshops and classes, the shows have really been special. We've brought in Kristoff Krane, Carnage, Desdamona, Mike Mictlan from Doomtree, Unknown Prophets and a bunch of other people. I've been wanting to do an outdoor show for a while, and we're going to give it a shot on May 12. I'm really proud of the lineup too-- a really special mix of talent. There aren't a lot of places to see really quality hip hop at a free and all ages show these days.

Details TBA, but mark your calendar for May 24 for the OFFICIAL MN Activist launch party at Intermedia Arts.

more poetry stuff

2011-04-14T14:39:00.001-05:00

Lots of new visitors from various residencies I've been doing lately. Wanted to condense some info for y'all:

1. Database of interesting spoken-word videos here. My own videos can be found here.

2. Various tips and resources here.

3. You can download my new mixtape for FREE at this link.

4. Finally, find me on Facebook and Twitter!

Confessions of a White Rapper (new poem)

2011-04-10T15:06:00.001-05:00

AKA "The Invisible Backpacker of Privilege."

Some of you may have read my essays on sexism in indie hip hop and homophobia in "conscious" hip hop. I'd been meaning to complete the trilogy and examine racism and privilege within hip hop (particularly underground, independent hip hop... FAR too many essays, panel discussions and books are focused on "what Eminem did" or "what Lil' Wayne says" or whatever, and completely ignore the MASSIVE, dynamic culture of indie-rap) for a long time, but it was always a pretty intimidating subject to tackle. Turns out I could address it better in a poem than in an essay.

I usually like to let the poems or songs speak for themselves, but a few background points on this one:

1. I'm trying to walk a pretty fine line here. The argument that hip hop is a rainbow-colored racial utopia isn't true. And the argument that white people have no place whatsoever in hip hop is an increasingly abstract, academic one. Both of these arguments, however, are easier to stand behind than what I'm trying to say. I think it's important to recognize the facts on-the-ground, while at the same time being careful not to excuse anyone or cop pleas; we have to understand the history of cultural imperialism, and we also have to know how that history interfaces with what is happening right now. The ending of the piece is intentionally layered/muddy.

2. White privilege as a symptom of white supremacy plays out in many different spaces. When I was more actively doing social justice education/facilitation stuff, a common argument among students was that white people lose their privilege when they become the minority, or visit another country, or whatever. I think it's a lot more complex than that. Even in hip hop, a culture created by and still driven by people of color, white privilege plays out-- that's kind of a central message in this piece.

3. I think it's important for people who are an active part of hip hop culture to be speaking on these things (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., not to mention aesthetics and all that). If we don't, all of the commentary will be presented by professors, grad students and other intellectuals (and/or not-so-intellectuals) who don't have the real lived experience of going to hundreds of rap shows, performing around the country, knowing people who live and breathe the culture, etc. And we all know how that ends up.

4. Shout out to Bao Phi, who introduces me in the beginning. He's one of the best poets I know, and the series that he curates at the Loft, Equilibrium, is one of the most inspiring regular events in the Twin Cities.

5. There's a really big white privilege conference in MPLS this coming week. Registration is open.

6. Only halfway-related, but I just put out a mixtape called "Conscious is Not Enough 2011." It's a free download, and like I said in the poem, I am very, very good at what I do, haha. Check it out at that link if you're interested, and as always, I really appreciate the cross-posts, re-tweets, wall posts and everything, for the mixtape and/or for this poem. Thanks!

Conscious is Not Enough 2011 (FREE Mixtape Link)

2011-03-29T11:25:00.001-05:00

Here it is. The re-worked, updated version of my mixtape. Download it here for FREE. Here's the official press release:

GUANTE: CONSCIOUS IS NOT ENOUGH 2011
Twin Cities hip hop artist’s new mixtape is backed up by action

THE MUSIC:
In 2008, Guante released “Conscious is Not Enough,” a collection of songs written around the idea that while voting in the 2008 election was important, coming together as a community and organizing for change was more important. While hip hop albums—much less mixtapes—don’t generally have thesis statements, CINE was a progressive call-to-arms, a rallying cry for those who believe that hope and change aren’t things you vote for—they’re things you work for.

With the recent turmoil in Guante’s home-state of Wisconsin, revolutions sweeping the Middle East and an assortment of battles taking place in Guante’s current home, the Twin Cities, rising indie label Tru Ruts/Speakeasy Records is releasing an updated, re-recorded and re-mixed version of the mixtape.

Featuring original production from the likes of Big Cats! (Sage Francis, the Tribe), DJ Pain 1 (Young Jeezy, Chuck D), Calvin Valentine (Planet Asia, Phil da Agony) and others, plus a few jacked beats (including the crowd-favorite “Your Boyfriend’s a Republican” performed over the instrumental to Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good”), the mixtape is tied together by Guante’s relentless wit, political insight, technical virtuosity and pure, uncut passion for the subject matter. It’s also proof positive that political hip hop can have a sense of humor, and that smart rappers can also be entertaining.

THE WORK:

The mixtape also serves as the official announcement of the MN Activist Project, a database of progressive activist organizations that Guante has pulled together. That database (www.mnactivist.com) will be tied to a promotional campaign aimed at getting more people involved in activism and organizing. The site also includes toolkits and resources for young activists.

“There’s a natural connection between art, media, education and activism,” Guante says. “This mixtape, along with the MN Activist Project, is about drawing attention to that connection and to the overlap that’s already there. Hip hop can put 300 people in the same room who would otherwise never be together; that’s a powerful thing. The website is partly about trying to focus that power.”

Guante, a two-time National Poetry Slam champion, former City Pages’ “Best of the Twin Cities” artist and URB Magazine “Next 1000” artist, is a long-time social justice advocate. His work includes curating the “Hip Hop Against Homophobia” concert series, leading writing and social justice workshops in schools throughout the Midwest and serving as arts coordinator of the Canvas, a teen art center in St. Paul.

Also, check out this essay I wrote on what I think makes effective political art.

Hip Hop Against Homophobia series keeps going strong

2011-03-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

We started doing these HHAH shows back in what, 2008? I don't even remember. But it's been cool to see the thought grow and include lots of different artists, organizations and individuals. The whole idea behind the series is that most communities already overlap in some way-- let's shine some light on that overlap and try to make it even bigger so we can all work together in the future. Here's info on the next one, which might be the 7th installment? Again, I don't remember.

Here's the Facebook event page. It'll be on Monday, April 4 at the U of M's Whole Music Club. There will also be an open mic component, so come early to sign up. At 7pm we'll be having a community discussion, and then the show/open mic starts at 8pm. Since it's a Monday, we won't go too late, but there's a ton of talent on the lineup and it should be a lot of fun. And it's free and all ages!

And that's not it. We'll be doing a very special two-night installment of the series at Patrick's Cabaret in MPLS on June 17 and 18. We have some very special surprises in store for those ones. Also, it hasn't been announced yet, but we're thinking about doing yet another one at the Canvas Teen Arts Center on June 16 for the St. Paul family. It'll be a wild three days.

Every installment of the series features some different artists, different sponsoring organizations and different venues. It's inspiring to see people working together to build something positive. Let's keep it moving.

new mixtape in a week, plus thoughts on effective "conscious" hip hop

2011-03-22T22:20:00.005-05:00

(EDIT: HERE IS THE NEW MIXTAPE, FOR FREE DOWNLOAD)

Back in 2008, I put out a mixtape called "Conscious is Not Enough," talking primarily about the 2008 elections and the importance of organizing; how while voting was/is important, it's not the only way-- or the most effective way-- to create change. The mixtape was recorded in a day, and while it got a ton of downloads, some imperfections in it always bothered me. Long story short, we're releasing an UPDATED, remixed, re-recorded version of that mixtape in a week. It'll be available as a free download through Tru Ruts next week, and contains re-worked versions of old songs and some brand-new, never-before-heard tracks. Follow me on Twitter for updates. Cover design by Nickolas Davis.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few thoughts on what I think makes effective "conscious" hip hop.

First of all, I love “conscious hip hop,” “political rap,” whatever you want to call it. Those labels are generally hated by the actual artists that they’re attached to, but I embrace them. We’re all put in boxes, whether we like it or not—I figure I may as well be put into a box that actually means something. I grew up on Goodie Mob, PE, dead prez, the Coup and similar artists, and I still don’t think that there’s anything more invigorating than a hot song with real substance behind it. As I’ve written before, substance is what separates good songs from great songs, and talented artists from impactful artists.

All of that being said, I understand where the criticisms of conscious hip hop come from. It’s very easy to do poorly. The best socially-conscious rap music is able to balance form and content—if you go too far one way or the other, the end result generally isn’t effective. It’s either super preachy, didactic rhetoric-spitting that isn’t fun to listen to, or sonically-engaging pseudo-intellectual bullshit that doesn’t really make any kind of meaningful statement. There’s a lot of both out there.

Beyond that, I think that we, as artists, sometimes don’t give our listeners much credit. Here’s a fun activity: take your favorite conscious rap song and boil it down to its thesis statement, its one-line take-away message. If you even can, the odds are good that that message is something like “the world is messed up,” or “struggle is hard,” or “people need to rise up,” or something similarly simple.

And to be clear: there’s nothing wrong with songs like that. The Roots do it. Our favorite local artists do it. Any rapper who has ever had a token political track on an otherwise standard album has done it. I’ve done it. And I’d rather have platitudes of positivity than more materialism or emo-rap or thug talk or abstract super-scientifical stuff. But the point is that those kinds of songs are missing an opportunity to push further, to really explore the potential in the relationship between culture and society. We often assume that three verses and a hook isn’t enough space to really push the envelope in terms of content—but it is. It just takes more thought.

And I’m definitely not saying that every one of my songs is a brilliant political manifesto meant to change how you live your daily life, or that every song should be. I’m just saying that as a listener, as a consumer of art, I really appreciate artists who reach further than the obvious. Look at Toki Wright breaking down 400 years of American history and how that history always influences the present. Look at Invincible exploring the impact of gentrification and displacement in Detroit. Look at Sage Francis criticizing the media for the way it covered 9/11 in a song released right after it happened. Look at Brother Ali and Common writing new songs that make amends for homophobic language they had used in the past.

So what do these songs have in common? What are the elements of effective political rap? A few ideas:

First, the best conscious hip hop songs go deeper than platitudes. We already know that “the world is messed up.” Now what? Can you shed some light on why that is? Or what we can do about it? Or tell a specific story that inspires us to get involved in making it better? Or attack a given issue from a new angle that changes how we think about it? It's not 1988 any more; can we move the conversation forward?

Related to that, context matters. What might be obvious information to some is world-shattering to others, and vice versa. We need to understand who our audience is, and write songs that challenge them rather than pander to them. It’s not revolutionary when your entire audience already agrees with it.

Next, I think that if an artist chooses to engage with political material, the song should have an identifiable point. Subtlety and impressionism are important tools for songwriters, but too much is dangerous when you’re really trying to say something. If I can easily misinterpret your song, or completely miss the point of your song, it’s not a good political song. It may still be an amazing song, but do not mistake subtlety for wisdom. I still believe that there are ways to push the envelope artistically without losing the political point that is being made.

There are exceptions—a lot of Public Enemy songs, for example—but those exceptions are often based in context. A song as simple as “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas can (and did) become a radical call-to-arms if the conditions in the community call for it.

Finally, and most importantly, I think that artists who address social and political issues can and should be involved in actual activist work. It’s much easier to forgive a less-than-great conscious hip hop song if I know that the artist is down with the on-the-ground movements that he or she is rapping about. And of course, it’s hard to be a professional artist and a committed community activist… hard, but not impossible. Ask I Self Devine.

And maybe none of this applies to most artists, since most artists never talk about anything important in their work anyway. But I think it’s worth exploring and thinking about, especially for those of us who do believe in the power that art has to influence hearts and minds.

The most seemingly damning criticism of conscious rap is that people shouldn't look to rappers as role models or educators or leaders because in the end, we're just rappers. But I believe that everyone is a potential role model, educator or leader, rappers included. As MCs, we simply have a higher platform to shout from. That's a privilege. That's an opportunity. It seems foolish to waste it.

Any other thoughts? Disagreements? Hateful ad hominem attacks? Let’s discuss.

Idris Goodwin, Homeless, Kristoff Krane, Not Enough Mics, No Bird Sing, more

2011-03-15T11:40:00.001-05:00

Another installment of "my friends are cooler than you... and probably me too."

1. First of all, I blogged a little about Idris Goodwin before, but you HAVE to pick up his new book, "THESE ARE THE BREAKS." It just dropped today. I had an advance copy, and it's honestly one of the best books I've read in years. A kind of prose-poetry hip hop creative nonfiction mash-up, it's a MUST-READ for anyone who loves hip hop and was born in the late 70s or early 80s, as well as anyone who just enjoys good writing. There's even a PM Dawn persona poem.

2. Kristoff Krane has a new video out. It's for the song "Inside Out." His last album, "Hunting for Father," was one of my favorite albums of 2010. Check it out at this link.

3. Homeless Ryan K. just put out a video too, for the Man Mantis-produced "Rest in Peace." I know Homeless from the poetry scene, but he's really come up over the past year as a rapper too, playing some huge shows and being tall and everything. Check out his music for free at this link.

Untitled from Not Enough Mics Collaborative on Vimeo.
4. I reviewed the debut release from the all-womyn's Not Enough Mics collaborative a while back. Here's a very cool trailer they put together. Definitely check that release out.

5. Finally, the homies No Bird Sing are putting out their second album. Just announced a release party for April 29th at the Cedar in Minneapolis. I'll be out of town that weekend (if you're in Brainerd, come to my show), but TC heads should definitely check out this show. Kill the Vultures and Kristoff Krane will also be playing. That's one of the best three-act lineups you'll ever see, and No Bird Sing put on one of the best live shows in the Twin Cities.

my poem REACH live at the Loft Literary Center

2011-03-08T09:46:00.001-06:00

The EQ show last Thursday at the Loft with Idris Goodwin, Lisa Brimmer and Ed Bok Lee was a great reminder for me of how powerful and important spoken-word poetry can be. So much brilliant, transformative stuff in there. Here's one of two poems that I did that night. The other one will be part of a special post coming soon.

Review: Not Enough Mics: Vol. 1

2011-03-05T14:34:00.001-06:00

“Pray for the 14 year old girls who will never know who MC Lyte is.” --Thiahera Nurse

I don’t do a lot of reviews on my own site, but every once in a while there’s a project out there that people really need to check out. The Not Enough Mics Collaborative is a new alliance of womyn-identified artists centered around Madison, WI (though they rep different cities). I’ve written about how and why women are underrepresented in indie hip hop before, and it’s great to see a debut from a collective like this that’s so confident, creative and fun to listen to. And it’s free.

After a solemn introduction from poet Thiahera Nurse, FM Supreme launches into the kind of slap-you-in-the-face rap song that can really only come from Chicago. It’s a great one-two punch of an introduction: the tension and release between an a capella spoken-word piece and a certified banger. FM Supreme may be one of the more experienced artists on the EP—she’s been doing some great things for a while now and is definitely someone to watch.

K.Raydio (who now lives and performs in the Twin Cities) serves up a nostalgic slice of neo-soul over a killer Man Mantis beat next. It’s a difficult thing to do neo-soul right these days—the genre was all but ground into dust by D’angelo and Erykah Badu imitators over the past decade. But this song has just the right amount of cool, originality and swagger to make it refreshing. K.Raydio has more free stuff to check out too.

Sofia Snow is one of the most talented people I know. And when I know talented people who also rap, I sometimes worry about their voices being boxed in by the traditional boundaries of hip hop. For example, someone who is a brilliant actor or spoken-word artist might feel obligated to write really cliché hip hop tracks, just to prove that they can indeed rap, rather than using their talents to push a new vision of hip hop forward. Fortunately, Snow’s track here is something very different; it’s very much a rap song, but there’s a playfulness to the patterns and complexity in the subject matter that is both intellectually engaging and a pleasure to listen to.

Myriha Burton just shows up for one verse, but it’s a monstrous 28-bar mission statement, very much a Detroit hip hop track. If you’re a fan of Royce and Em and them, not to mention Invincible and Finale and them, keep a close eye on Burton.

Bonnie isn’t an artist I’ve heard before, but I’m intrigued by her offering on this EP. She’s armed with a self-assured slow flow (a style I sometimes wish more rappers would employ), very different from the previous track, as well as a strong singing voice. The song as a whole comes together beautifully, capturing the bittersweet side of the struggle.

Twin Cities heads may remember Pyro. Even before she moved to Madison, she was one of the strongest young voices in the Twin Cities spoken-word scene. Her song here, “4 U Know Who,” manages to be the standout on an EP full of standouts. Whether rapping or singing, Pyro’s lyrics strike the perfect balance between specific and universal, and her voice is something really special. A lot of times, when critics say that someone has a great voice, they’re referring to pure power and control. But Pyro’s voice is something more than that—a truly unique instrument capable of communicating something beyond the big notes and the vamping, something transcendent. And she has more stuff for free at this link.

Including DJ BlaireBlanco’s short and sweet outro, the whole project is just over twenty minutes long. But it’s a twenty minutes that points to great, great things for the future. All in all, this EP isn’t just a collection of songs from artists who happen to identify as female; it’s one of the strongest collections of songs I’ve heard all year. Download it for FREE at this link.

Get at them on Facebook at this link. And they've got a Tumblr as well.

Download "No Capes" for free, WI updates, plus new mixtape announcment!

2011-03-03T16:18:00.000-06:00

For one week only, we're making the Guante & Big Cats! song "NO CAPES" available for FREE. Head over to the Tru Ruts main page for a download link

We released "No Capes" back in 2010 on our album, "An Unwelcome Guest." It seems to be the song that most people tell me is their favorite. I like it a lot too. We wanted to make it available for free now because it speaks directly to what is happening in Wisconsin right now-- people working together to do what's right when our elected officials have failed us.

If you haven't been following the situation in WI, I want to point you to two of Josh Healey's blog posts. Josh is a fellow poet/activist I know from when we both lived in Madison. He moved out to the Bay, and I live in the Twin Cities now, but he's always got something interesting to say. Read THIS ONE for an overview of the struggle, and THIS ONE for some thoughts on where it's headed.

We also wanted to make the song available as a prelude to my new mixtape. "CONSCIOUS IS NOT ENOUGH 2011" is an updated, re-recorded version of the mixtape I put out back in 2008. Lots of new songs, and better versions of old songs too. If you liked that one, you'll like this one better. If you never heard that one, even better. The mixtape features original tracks and jacked beats, and talks about the importance of organizing, the power of community and much more. I rap my ass off. And it's funny. And it's funky. Political rap has a horrible reputation-- often for good reason-- but this mixtape is definitely something different. Coming soon...

Quest for the Voice Schedule Announced

2011-03-02T20:33:00.002-06:00

Photo of Kevin Yang by Orin Rubin

If you don't know, Quest for the Voice is an annual youth poetry slam series organizing by the Minnesota Spoken-Word Association and its partners and allies. This slam series will decide which teens get to rep MN at Brave New Voices, the national youth poetry slam festival. If you are a young poet, or you know some young poets, spread the word!

Rules: youth 13-19 can compete. Most preliminaries are one round only, but come with two poems just in case. Semifinals and Finals are 2 rounds so come with two dynamic/original pieces. Any style/any topic is cool, as long as it's three minutes or less. The top 5-7 poems from each slam (based on sign up percentage) will advance to semifinals. Top poets at semis will advance to Finals.

Quest for the Voice Preliminary Slams

Edison High School - Northeast Minneapolis
700 22nd Avenue Northeast, room 225
March 9, 3-5pm
Free

Washburn High School - South Minneapolis
201 West 49th Street
March 10th, 6-8pm
Free

The Canvas - St. Paul
1610 West Hubbard Ave
March 10th, 6-8pm
Free

Perpich Center for Arts Education - Golden Valley
6125 Olson Memorial Highway
March Date/ During School
Free

St. Paul Conservatory - St. Paul
Partnering with Golden Deli @ Golden's
Located on the first floor of the historic Northwestern Building
275 East 4th Street Suite 102
March 15, 6-8pmFree

Oak Park Neighborhood Community Center - North Minneapolis
1701 Oak Park Avenue North
March 17, 6pm
Free

South High School - South Minneapolis
3131 19th Avenue South
March Date/ During School
Free

Writing Circle/Prep for Semis
March 18 at the 42nd Avenue Station Coffee Shop
4171 Lyndale Ave North in Minneapolis
4:30-6pm; Free

SEMI FINALS
Monday March 21 at the U of M - Moos Tower
515 Delaware Street Southeast, Minneapolis
Hosted by Voices Merging
6:30pm ($3 students/ $5 adults)

FINALS
Late May at the U of M; details TBA.

police join the protests in Madison

2011-02-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

Police in Madison were ordered to remove the protesters who have been occupying the capitol building for the past week. Instead, they JOINED the people. This video is beautiful.

Get my new song for FREE, plus more updates

2011-02-18T20:27:00.000-06:00

~Me and Claire Taubenhaus put a song on this compilation project called The Best Love is Free. You can get the whole thing for free (including tracks from Sims, the Tribe & Big Cats!, Macklemore, F.Stokes and more), and here's the direct link to our song:

Definitely something different for me-- all acoustic. Big Cats! added some nice bass touches and everything else is Claire. We have more acoustic stuff coming, and it's very exciting.

In other news, I've been posting a ton lately, but there's just a lot going on. Lots of big shows, new music, new poetry, lots of Canvas stuff happening, this whole mess back in Wisconsin... it's a wild February. A few quick points of interest:

~I got featuring in the TC Daily Planet. Read about my favorite restaurants, among other things.

~Empty recorded my whole set at the Fineline last week; you can download it for free.

~I did some writing about my favorite love songs over at Reviler.

~The homie See More Perspective has a new song out for free.

~Tru Ruts family e.g. bailey is up for an Independent Music Award, and Sha Cage is in a new play; all label updates here.

SO MUCH MORE happening between now and summertime. New music, new activist networking project, big shows, conferences and a billion other things. Get at me on Twitter for constant updates.

Idris Goodwin, EQ and "The Gangster Rap Question"

2011-02-17T13:30:00.000-06:00

So my next big show in the Twin Cities will be Thursday, March 3 at the Loft Literary Center. It's the ongoing Equilibrium spoken-word series. Me, Lisa Brimmer and Ed Bok Lee will be opening up for Idris Goodwin. It'll be free and all-ages. 7pm sharp. Here's the Facebook event page.

Idris is one of my favorite people-- as a rapper, as a poet, as a writer and as a person, he's consistently brilliant. His new book, "These Are the Breaks," just came out on Write Bloody Publishing. Buy it here.

Here's something amazing to watch:

And he can also rap:

Hope to see you there. I'll be unveiling a new piece about race and hip hop. And Ed, Lisa and Idris will all be great-- this is a can't-miss spoken-word show.

Audio Recording of Guante & Big Cats! at the Fineline

2011-02-13T20:15:00.000-06:00

Check it out-- Empty got a great audio-recording of our set at the Fineline the other night. You can download and listen to it for free. You just won't be able to see all the pyrotechnics, backup dancers and costumes we had.

Unrelated: 4 of my favorite 10 songs are covers

2011-02-10T10:48:00.000-06:00

Just something I realized today. Is that weird? Here they are:

Jerry Rivera w/ Voltio covering Frankie Ruiz's "Mi Libertad." To my ears, this is just a perfect song. The backing arrangement, the delivery of the vocals, the raps sprinkled in just for a few bars at a time-- it all comes together in a way that is more engaging to me than the original. I know that's blasphemous or whatever, but I really like this song.

Nirvana covering Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night." I love the tension and release in this version of the song, the steady build into the screeching climax. It'd be haunting even if Cobain were still alive.

Boyz II Men covering G.C. Cameron's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday." The OG version is also crazy good, and I think part of the reason I like the cover so much is just nostalgia-- I grew up in the early 90s. Still, though, it's a beautiful rendition.

Jodeci covering Stevie Wonder's "Lately." K-Ci and JoJo have such monstrously powerful voices. While the OG version of this song is a little more understated and probably a better all-around song, I've always been blown away by how these two can get away with over-singing here simply because their voices are so impressive (and contrast with each other beautifully). To me, at least.

How to Effectively Promote an Event

2011-02-08T08:45:00.002-06:00

This is another piece written for the MN Activist Project. A big part of that project is discussion and debate around "professional development" stuff for activists, stuff we're often too busy to step back and think about. This piece is about promotion, and it applies to artists as well as activists. I don't claim to be an expert, but here are my thoughts. Feel free to comment and add more.

(photo: Sha Cage at Ripple Effect, August 2008)

The bulk of this essay is going to be about the nuts-and-bolts aspects of promotion, but remember: an event is not worth promoting if it isn’t going to be big, meaningful and effective. Be intentional about everything, even before you begin. Whether you’re promoting a political rally, theater production or a rap show, set some goals. Aim big. Assemble a team. Know who your target audience is and who your secondary or ideal audience is. Know exactly what you want people to get out of the event. Schedule the date, time and venue for maximum effectiveness. All of this will help inform how you promote it. Again, a lot could be said about all of these things, but this essay is primarily concerned with spreading the word once these other details are in place.

I break down the process into these categories: mainstream promotion (print, radio and TV), internet promotion (social networking sites, blogs and email blasts) and physical promotion (flyers, posters and word-of-mouth). These days, you need all three.

MAINSTREAM PROMOTION

1. Start early. For most events, a month is enough time to properly promote. For bigger events like conferences and festivals, you’ll need more. One strategy is to have a few months of hints, vague information, save-the-dates and stuff like that, followed by a month of hard-core promotion leading up to your event.

2. Identify your hook. Your event has to stick out from every other event that’s happening. It has to be different and exciting. If your flyer says “Rap Show,” that’s not a good hook. If it says “Rally for Justice,” that’s not a good hook. A hook can either be super intentional, or it can be a silly gimmick-- it can even be as simple as a birthday party. Either way, figure out a way to make people care about your event beyond its actual content.

3. Write a solid press release. If you can’t, find someone who can. It should be one page long, and its goal should be to make the journalist’s job as easy as possible. Basically, write a short article about your event. Put the basics in the headline (“Twin Cities hip hop artists unite to combat homophobia”). Spell out the expanded basics in the first paragraph (“On this date, at this time, in this venue, this is going to happen”). Break up the paragraphs with some quotes, even if you’re quoting yourself. Use your hook as a thesis statement. Keep it as simple as possible, while still hitting your main two or three talking points. Be sure to have a line that says “For more information, contact this person” and fill in some contact information.

4. Work with other artists, activists or friends to compile an up-to-date list of press contacts in your area. Look at newspapers, weeklies, community papers, alt papers, magazines and newsletters. Look at major radio stations, community radio stations and podcasts. Look at all local TV stations. Put together as big a contact list as you can. Maybe someone you know already has a list like this.

5. Send your press release out no less than two weeks before your event. That’s the absolute minimum. For a lot of TV programs, magazines and other media, it’s going to have to be even more than that. If you can make personal contacts with media people, that’s ideal. Send a separate email out for every person you’re contacting and personalize it. In the body of the email, you could even have a line about why that particular publication or media outlet might be interested in covering this event. Ideally, that makes it feel less like spam.

6. For radio and TV, make sure you have a media point person (or two) who is a charismatic, engaging speaker, on top of actually knowing about the details and spirit of the event.

INTERNET PROMOTION

1. When it comes to blogs and podcasts, most of the above applies. Compile a separate list of bloggers and online publications who might be interested in what you’re promoting and follow the aforementioned steps. Be sure to include a JPG image (possibly of your flyer) or a video with your press release, since most blogs rarely print text-only stories. If possible, build up a rapport with the bloggers beforehand, by commenting on other posts and linking to their sites, over a period of months or years.

2. The key to spreading the word over Twitter and Facebook is to be intentional about it. Don’t just HOPE that people will repost and retweet things. Explicitly ask them to. Obviously, you can’t do this every week, or for every event—only the BIG ones. Avoid promotion fatigue. But if the event is a big deal, the internet promotion campaign should be as big or bigger. Call in favors.

3. When it comes to Facebook event pages, they’re not the most effective promotional tool but they are absolutely necessary. Set one up three or four weeks before the event; invite all of your friends, and explicitly ask individuals to invite their friends too. Get thousands of event page invites out; even if people don’t come, they’ll know about it.

3. MySpace is dead. Their recent redesign was the last nail in the coffin. If your band or organization has one, make sure that there’s a BIG link somewhere that will send people to a better site, whether that’s your Facebook fan page, your official site or your Twitter.

4. If you have the means, shoot a simple promotional video and post it on YouTube. Link to it from all of your other websites. Just like the press release, make sure it has a defined hook. People will spread it around if it’s something funny or interesting and not just the bare-bones information. Do this a month or three weeks ahead of time, so people have time to spread it around.

5. Do not abuse email lists, but do not underestimate their power.

PHYSICAL PROMOTION

1. A flyer is a piece of art. It is not just about information. The design of the flyer often communicates as much about the event as the content. Again, focus on your hook, and create (or commission) a design that makes it pop. Also, a human face on a flyer makes that flyer much more likely to be picked up and looked at. Have multiple people look it over-- not just for spelling mistakes, but to make sure that all relevant info is included.

2. Putting flyers out at coffee shops and putting posters on bulletin boards probably isn’t very effective, but if you have the time and energy, do it anyway. Even if it doesn’t convince people to come to the event, it will get your name and/or cause out there a little more in the general consciousness.

3. Look at a calendar and mark down all of the events during the month before YOUR event that are similar or will have similar audiences. Take a small team to each of these events and hand out the flyers there.

4. Word-of-mouth is always the best kind of promotion. If you have five friends, and each of them has five friends, that’s a party. Again, don’t just hope that this will happen—work to make it happen. For example, if someone you know has a birthday on or near your event, suggest that they celebrate their birthday at your event (put them on the guest list and buy them a drink). If they accept, they’ll probably bring in a dozen more people. Be creative.

5. Look for sponsorships, whether from business, organizations, artists or any entity that can help you promote. If they can help spread the word, you can promote them at your show or event, let them in for free, etc. These kinds of tradeoffs are win-win.

GENERAL TIPS

1. Event promotion is about two things: getting people to your event and getting people to know about your event, even if they’re not coming. It's short-term and long-term thinking. Always keep this in mind.

2. I want to re-emphasize this: if you’re organizing an activist event, think big. Think very big. Plan stuff months ahead of time and aim for thousands, not hundreds and certainly not dozens. I think we often convince ourselves that only so many people actually care about our cause, when this isn’t necessarily the case. If we do a good job conceptualizing the event and an even better job promoting it, the sky is the limit. We can't afford to just assume that people are lazy and uncaring. It's always our responsibility to convince them to come out.

3. If you’re an artist, you can follow all of these steps and still fail, if your music or art isn’t any good. One curse of beginning artists is to be really good at promotion before you’re really good at art. This will draw a lot of attention to work that you are going to later look at as inferior. So take your time. Get tons of feedback from people before engaging in a significant promo campaign. The City Pages isn’t going to do a feature article on your unstructured, lo-fi basement hip hop. Play some shows, let the buzz build organically, and then start pushing hard.

4. For both artists and activists, look beyond the "usual suspects." Work to combine and intertwine different communities. Reach out to people whom no one has reached out to yet. Strive to create events that are representative of your community, because that will affect who comes out to those events.

5. It really is about substance, in the end. You can get people in the door with a good promotional strategy, but you can’t get them to come back if your event isn’t engaging and awesome.

Any other tips people want to share? Or disagreements? Or addendums? Let’s share.

Superbowl Predictions

2011-02-03T12:01:00.000-06:00

1. Packers 377, Steelers 6. Just to get that out of the way.

2. We will see 32 different commercials trying to teach men how to "be men," whether by buying a certain kind of truck, drinking a certain kind of light beer or wearing a certain fragrance. It will be implied that if a man DOESN'T use said truck/beer/fragrance, he is either a simpering, whipped sadsack or "a gay." Dennis Leary will yell at you. You will be told to "man up."

3. The National Anthem will be undersung, because people got so mad back in the 80s and 90s when singers actually put some emotion and variety into their presentation of the song. Do you remember that? Do you remember your uncle or family friend or whoever saying "WHY CAN'T THEY JUST SING IT THE REGULAR WAY?"

4. John Kuhn will be praised as "scrappy, hardworking and tough." Who knows, maybe the announcers will finally just lose their minds and say "I LIKES THAT GUY 'CAUSE HE'S WHITE."

5. For four hours, women will only be seen as sex objects, sassy bartenders or white, middle-class stay-at-home moms who are always cooking up some delicious pizza rolls for their kids, their kids' friends and the token black kid in the neighborhood.

6. The Black Eyed Peas will be so awful that they'll open up a rift in the space-time continuum. Out of that rift will jump the "Behind the Front"-era Black Eyed Peas, and there will be a huge brawl. The present BEP will beat the past BEP because it'll be four against three, unless Kim Hill shows up. If she's there, the past BEP will win and they'll be immediately dropped from their label.

7. A player will be interviewed, and he will say "WE'RE JUST GOING TO DO WHAT WE DO, PLAY HARD AND EXECUTE." After the game, another player will say "WE HAVE TO TIP OUR HATS TO THEM. THEY PLAYED A GREAT GAME."

8. Aaron Rodgers will twist his ankle, and just as all hope seems lost... who's that? Who's that mysterious Green Bay player wearing number 1? Why, it's BARACK OBAMA. He's going in! Obama will go on to throw one TD and two interceptions, but Green Bay will still win.

9. All of my snacks will be gone by the time the second quarter starts. Damn it.

10. Not exactly a prediction, but promotion: the following Friday, I will be performing at UW-Madison's Memorial Union with the Tribe & Big Cats! and Sleepy MC. The next day, I'll be back in Minneapolis at the Fineline for the Best Love is Free Release Party with Culture Cry Wolf, Kristoff Krane, Soulcrate Music and more. Headed to St. Cloud the Wednesday after that. Life goes on. Go Packers.

some thoughts on gender and language

2011-01-30T15:17:00.002-06:00

Something I've been thinking about lately:

Of course, gender isn't really a simple binary. But just in terms of language, there's no real feminine analogue to the word "guy." Think about it:

"male" and "female"

"man" and "woman"

"boy" and "girl"

"guy" and...

It seems like a little thing, but there are implications to this. Because "guy" is used so often in American English, we end up needing a word that doesn't exist to refer to women-identified people in a playful, informal way. And rather than round up to "woman," we round down to "girl." Like "guys on the right, girls on the left" or "this party was all guys and just three girls." Grown women are referred to by a word that is infantilizing or at least condescending. All the time.

Similarly, most people address mixed gender groups like "hey guys," or "what do you guys think about..." and all that. Because these kinds of English pronouns are gendered, there's no easy way to address mixed gender groups, unless you rearrange your sentence, something that takes some thought. For most people, it's just easier to say "hey you guys" instead of "hey you all" or "hey everyone" or something that might be 10% more awkward syntactically. Again, this has implications. It implicitly says that the "default" for a human being is male, which is troubling.

In both instances, women (not to mention people who identify as anything other than male) get the short end of the stick; they're either made smaller or made invisible. And this way of speaking is extremely normalized

Language is powerful. While both of these examples may seem pretty innocent to many people, I do believe that they impact how our world functions. And fixing them-- saying "woman" instead of "girl" and addressing mixed-gender groups by a non-gendered pronoun-- isn't really THAT difficult. It's actually pretty easy. It just takes some thought and intentionality. I'm going to challenge myself to remember this. Hopefully you will too.

Any thoughts or disagreements or additions?

Some Fun, Unique Shows in the Next Two Weeks

2011-01-24T21:36:00.002-06:00

Like most local artists, I have to walk the line between getting more people to hear my music (by playing shows) and avoiding promotion fatigue (by not playing shows). It's a tricky balance, and I try to do it by playing lots of different kinds of shows-- not just rap shows in bars, but poetry stuff, variety shows, all-ages performances, fundraisers and more. And traveling as much as possible, obviously. Lots of cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks:

Thursday, January 27 through Saturday, January 29 at Patrick's Cabaret in Minneapolis: A three-day performance series called "Elements in Translation." It's a bunch of performers, all playing short sets-- from dance to hip hop to poetry to electronic and more. I know many of the performers, and there's a load of talent in this lineup; it'll definitely be worth the admission. It's $10 at the door, or less if you get at me early and buy a ticket from me. 8pm.

Sunday, January 30 at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul: Larry Lucio is throwing another Amplified Life showcase, and again, it's a lot of acts all playing shorter sets. Me, Bao Phi, Lipset, Muja Messiah, Mike Dreams, Mally, Maria Isa, Palabristas, the Usual Suspects and more. Kind of ridiculous. If you like local hip hop, it's a buffet of talent. 8pm. $5.

Thursday, February 3 at the Canvas Teen Arts Center in St. Paul: This will be the first night of the Canvas' spring hip hop concert series. I'm the arts coordinator of the Canvas, and Kristoff Krane is our "artist-in-residency" for this series-- he'll be hosting and performing at all four events; the shows feature established acts and up-and-coming teen acts-- it's a great mix. The first installment features me, Kris, Carnage, See More Perspective and Lady Ice & Man-Man. It's a full lineup, and should be a lot of fun. 6-8:30pm. Free. All ages. (Also, be sure to check out GASP at Intermedia afterwards!)

After that, I'll be traveling with the Tribe for a few out-of-town shows: February 5 at the Root Note in La Crosse and February 11 at UW-Madison. More being scheduled, but those are confirmed.

Saturday, February 12 at the Fineline in Minneapolis: The Best Love is Free Compilation Release Party. Me & Big Cats! will be playing a set, along with Culture Cry Wolf, Soulcrate Music, Kristoff Krane, Wesley Opus & Botzy and DJ Fundo. Me and Claire have a song on the compilation too, and it's something very different. 8pm. $8. Ticket info here.

Thursday: March 3 at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis: I'm honored to open up for Idris Goodwin, an incredible poet, rapper and writer. Ed Bok Lee and Lisa Brimmer will also be performing. 7pm sharp. I'm working on hooking up an afterparty that'll be more like a rap show, so stay tuned for that.

Lots more surprises coming up, including some new music. It's going to be a great year. For more timely info, follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook.

Advice and Resources for Spoken-Word Artists

2011-01-18T14:35:00.003-06:00

Had a great workshop at the Canvas a few weeks ago talking about taking your spoken-word and slam poetry to the next level. Lots of engaging conversations, debates and more. But as many people couldn't make it to that workshop, I wanted to share a few resources here for anyone who might be interested:

First, here's an essay I wrote about what standards I use when judging spoken-word. I'm not saying that these are absolutely right (a couple of them, in fact, are highly arguable) but they're what's important to me as a listener.

Second, here's a collection of spoken-word videos that are worth watching at least once. Not necessarily ALL my favorite poems (couldn't find good video links to some others), but a ton of really engaging, thought-provoking work. And NONE of them are from Def Poetry Jam!

Finally, be sure to check out this page listing local open mics, slams and readings. It doesn't have everything, and things change quickly, but it's the perfect place to start your journey.

Beyond that, I'd just add a couple of things:

1. Read lots of poetry. You can't just watch YouTube videos. On top of that, read lots of fiction and graphic fiction, watch movies, listen to new music and just devour art wherever you can find it. If you're a slam poet, and all of your influences are other slam poets, that's probably not healthy. Art is art, whether low or high, whether written or performed, whatever; find influences everywhere.

2. Find a group of people who will give you honest, constructive, helpful feedback. They can be friends, other poets, an online community or whatever. If you're a teen in the Twin Cities, be sure to check out the writing circle at the Canvas every Wednesday from 4:30-6 that I facilitate. Desdamona also runs a writing circle at Intermedia Arts. Or start your own writing/feedback circle.

3. Figure out why you write. If it's for your own enjoyment or therapy, great. But if you really want to build a career out of writing and performing, there are certain steps you have to be intentional about. Have short, medium and long-term goals and be disciplined about them. Talk to other artists who are where you want to be. If you can find someone to be your "mentor," that can be a huge step.

4. This is probably the most important point, to me, and a mantra that I live by, as both a poet and a rapper: it is incredibly easy to be a good writer, good poet or good performer. It is incredibly difficult to make art that is challenging, memorable and transformative. Your goal is not to "write well" or wholly embody some formula or mold; it is to blow people's minds. It is to make people see the world in a fundamentally different way than they did before. It is to create art that can have a meaningful ripple effect over communities, over time and beyond your own death. That certainly doesn't mean that every single poem you write has to change the world. But when you're carving out a career for yourself, these points are important to keep in mind.

Feel free to leave any other ideas or tips or whatever in the comments!

Local Hip Hop Artists to Watch in 2011

2011-01-15T09:51:00.000-06:00

Again, just trying to fill in the spaces where the local media misses some things. Here are a few Twin Cities hip hop artists to watch in 2011. I'm also going to include some constructive criticism. Not because I'm a hater, but because as much as ignoring or not knowing about hip hop acts isn't good for the scene, blindly cheerleading for them is also unhealthy.

Sims: Just as 2010 was Dessa's year, Doomtree is setting up Sims to have a monster 2011. The new album is coming out soon, and a few singles have been released already. I like Sims. His last full-length was really strong. As with all Doomtree artists, though, I think he's at his best when he's actually rapping about something, as opposed to just stringing together puns and references. "Osmosis," off his last album, was really good. The new single, "Burn It Down," (video above) is a killer song on paper (hot beat, hot rhymes), but it does nothing for me... mostly because it fits the Doomtree formula so perfectly that it doesn't seem fresh. Still anticipating the album, though.

Audio Perm: A crazy talented producer trio and a full fledged crew, these guys have been building steam all year and should be doing some big things in 2011. The extended crew also includes Yakub, who just produced a Ghostface (!) song, Fresh Squeeze (one of my favorite local groups) and a whole bunch of young and talented hip hop artists. Can they transcend the burgeoning weeknight party scene and release some memorable music? I think so, but we'll see.

Mally: I think Mally will blow up this year, at least in a local sense. He's already riding a wave of good press for his monthly free downloads (a collaboration with producer the Sundance Kid) and he's a good rapper and hard worker. He also has man-about-the-internet Jon Jon Scott on his side, which is always helpful. I think the challenge for Mally (as it is for any of us) will be separating himself from every other "talented, hard-working" MC both locally and beyond.

The Usual Suspects: This group is, and has been, super underrated. I think IBE is one of the best MCs in the Twin Cities, and the whole crew is smart, political and fun. I'm not sure that this is their year to break out or anything like that (there is a mixtape on the horizon, but that's all I know about); I'm moreso including them here because I HOPE it is. This is a good example of a group that might not be super fashionable to write about (you're not going to see them on the cover of Vita.MN anytime soon); but they make some of the best punch-you-in-the-face rap music in the Twin Cities.

And here are a few acts I know personally. So maybe I'm lying. But I think they'll have big years too:

Junkyard Empire: This is a radically political hip hop band that's been around for a little while, but 2011 should be a big year for them. New album, an updated live show and just more experience under their belts. The last time I saw them live they absolutely shut it down.

Heidi Barton Stink: The new album is very cool, featuring production from See More Perspective, and Heidi's live show has also progressed to the point where it's capable of stealing the show from the people she opens for.

The Tribe & Big Cats!: With an album coming out this month that features Ab Rude, Planet Asia, Phil da Agony, Toki Wright and more, the Tribe are poised to have a very big year. They also have a great live show, and have done a lot of networking over the past year. The pieces are in place to have a big album release, and hopefully a ripple effect into the rest of the year.

And as always, there are a million more. The hip hop scene here is huge and talented. I could talk about M.anifest and Culture Cry Wolf and Ill 3 and Kristoff and Maria and No Bird Sing and Des and Mnemosyne and a lot of people who are probably also going to have big years. These were just a few that sprang to mind right away. Google them.

Upcoming Shows

2011-01-10T20:56:00.001-06:00

photo by Jon Behm

A few fun shows coming up. Wanted to post this mostly just so the last post (which is ridiculous) isn't on top.

1. I've been the arts coordinator of the Canvas, a teen arts center, for a year now, booking workshops, doing school visits to promote our programs, facilitating events and much more. We're also a burgeoning concert space, and one of our February programs is a concert series featuring artist-in-residence Kristoff Krane. More details on that soon, but one confirmed detail is that I'll be playing the first date: Thursday, February 3. Free and all-ages. 6pm.

2. The Tribe & Big Cats! are about to release their debut album, Forward Thinkers Movers Shakers; the album features Abstract Rude, Toki Wright, Phil da Agony, Planet Asia and more. I'll be doing some traveling here and there during the Spring with them. We have confirmed dates at UW-Madison, La Crosse and UW-Stout, and more being set up. See the column on the right.

3. "The Best Love is Free" is a compilation put together by Botzy from Culture Cry Wolf. Me and Claire are on it this year, and there will also be a full Guante & Big Cats! set at the release party. The show is at the Fineline on Saturday, February 12 and will also feature Kristoff Krane, Soulcrate Music, Culture Cry Wolf and more.

After that, there's the re-release of "Conscious is Not Enough" (updated and re-recorded), the launch of the MN Activist project, a show at the Loft Literary Center and a billion other things. Should be a great year.

On Hyperbole in Music Writing

2011-01-10T20:37:00.001-06:00

REVIEW:
Guante & Big Cats!: “An Unwelcome Guest”

10/10

It’s been said by many that Guante is the perfect 21st Century Man. Indeed, as inarguably the best MC of his (or any) generation, a two-time National Poetry Slam champion, perfect physical specimen, hilarious Twitter personality, brilliant writer and masterful orator, Guante’s only real flaw is his flawlessness. An artist is supposed to create art that the common people can relate to in some way, to reveal the universal truths that connect us all. How can someone as inhumanly luminous as Guante make music that the rest of us can even comprehend, let alone relate to?

Amazingly, unexpectedly, beautifully, he’s done it. I’m still processing how it was possible, but he’s done it. This new album, “An Unwelcome Guest,” (buy it at this link or continue leading an empty life) a collaboration with super-producer Big Cats! (the exclamation point is absolutely necessary), is nothing short of an instant classic, a superlative masterpiece that ties together every thread and impulse that defines our existence in a way that is as familiar as it is revelatory, as challenging as it is compelling and as ugly as it is beautiful. This isn’t just the best hip hop album of the past decade—it’s one of the most inspiring works of art ever created by humanity.

A concept album, “An Unwelcome Guest” tells the gripping story of an unnamed narrator traveling from East to West in the wake of an unspecified (though likely zombie-related) disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Through this narrative frame, Guante weaves together a story that touches on illegal immigration, violence as a tool of social change, the mythology of superheroes, authority and rebellion and love and much more. The songs are dark without venturing into melodrama, political without being preachy or overbearing, and catchy without being saccharine pop nonsense. Every word of every bar counts.

Sometimes, a single line will allude to multiple ideas; sometimes, a single word or syllable will wrap itself around a complex philosophical concept in a way that will open your mind to the majesty of existence. A hundred years from now, English Ph.D students will be writing papers about this album. A thousand years from now, monks will furiously scribble its lyrics onto parchment as alien deathrays rain down destruction around them.

Big Cats!’s beats are relentless, multilayered hip hop symphonies, easy to lose yourself in, impossible to take in with just one listen. The give-and-take, call-and-response dynamic between the two members of this duo is nothing short of hypnotic—you’re absolutely enveloped in Big Cats!’s music, and Guante’s vocals are your lifeline, the only way out of the darkness… so you listen as though your life depended on it. Maybe it does.

Listening to—nay, experiencing—this album is like waking up with functional wings, like watching a million rainbow-striped, machete-waving koala bears dancing through your dreams, like God Himself has just destroyed the rest of the world so He can focus entirely on you.

What more can I say here? I’m not nearly talented enough as a writer to express the total ecstasy that is listening to “An Unwelcome Guest.” My favorite song is every song. My favorite line is every line. This will actually be my last review for this publication. I’ve handed in my resignation; this album has inspired me to actually do something real with my life. Thank you, Guante & Big Cats!. Thank you.

Twin Cities Hip Hop Awards Nominations

2011-01-06T17:27:00.001-06:00

I'm up for three different Twin Cities Hip Hop awards this year: Best Album (for "An Unwelcome Guest"), Best Label (Tru Ruts) and Best Knowledge Spitta. You can vote here.

I know a lot of people write off the TCHHA because of the seemingly random nominee list, the public voting system and the fact that last year's show got shut down because of a fight (I was backstage; was going to perform shortly after), and all of those things are valid. But it's still a really cool event. The Twin Cities hip hop scene is much bigger than most people give it credit for. It's not just Rhymesayers and Doomtree, and it's also not just them and the second tier of underground acts like Hieruspecs, Kanser, Big Quarters, Kristoff Krane, No Bird Sing, Maria Isa, me and a couple dozen others. The scene also includes a whole bunch of artists who represent a whole bunch of different communities and styles, communities and styles that are all but shut out of local media and segregated from the more well-known acts.

So if nothing else, it's very cool to see all these different people in the same room at the same time. It's really the only event in town that does that, and that should be applauded. I got asked to perform again this year, but I was already booked-- hopefully it's a big, beautiful night.

Eight invalid arguments regarding pop culture

2011-01-03T16:33:00.002-06:00

Part of being passionate about art and culture is getting into arguments about art and culture. Sometimes lots of arguments. I’ve had my share, especially when it comes to the intersection of social justice and pop culture. What follows are eight rhetorical devices that I’ve encountered in these arguments and reasons why they’re invalid.

1. “It’s just a (movie/song/book/etc.).”
Culture informs society. To dismiss pop culture as simple escapism or background noise is naïve. No, a racist portrayal of a character on a TV show isn’t going to magically turn all the viewers into racists, but offensive images and words, over time, do make an impact on the real world, especially when those images or words correspond with institutions that systematically privilege certain people over others. Seeing and hearing this content normalizes and reinforces harmful stereotypes. Even seemingly innocuous archetypes like “the sassy Black friend” or the “wise old Asian man” become harmful because of the prevalence of the images and the lack of alternative images.

2. “You’re just being over-sensitive. Lighten up.”
When someone is offended, that emotional and intellectual response is real. It’s both rude and arrogant to simply write that off. Maybe the person really is being oversensitive, but the least you can do is take a second to try to understand where they’re coming from and debate the specific points that that person is concerned about. If someone thinks that “Avatar” co-opts and distorts indigenous struggles, and you disagree, talk about why you disagree; don’t just dismiss them.

3. “I’m also (Asian/lesbian/blind/etc.) and I wasn’t offended by that” or “I have a friend who is (Asian/lesbian/blind/etc.) and they weren’t offended by that.”
Doesn’t matter. You and/or your friend are not the absolute authority on all things (Asian/lesbian/blind/etc.). If other people are offended, that reaction is real; see point #2.

4. “At least it’s better than everything else out there.”
Doesn’t matter. The fact that you’re not Hitler doesn’t mean that you’re a good person. Additionally, the current state of pop culture is pretty dreadful when it comes to representation and social justice. Being a little bit better isn’t good enough.

5. “Sure it was offensive, but they didn’t mean to do it. They weren’t trying to be (racist/sexist/homophobic/etc). They just didn’t know any better.”
Doesn’t matter. Impact trumps intent; if you accidentally offend someone, you might not be a bad person, but it does not absolve you of responsibility. Saying something stupid out of ignorance is only marginally better than saying something stupid out of malice. See point #4.

6. “They’re not saying that ALL (female/gay/Black/etc.) people are like that, just these specific ones.”
This is also known as the “but some women ARE bitches” argument. An artist cannot control how people ingest his or her art. Interpretations differ. Characters and images in pop culture are always symbols for larger communities, whether or not the creator of that culture meant it to be that way. Sure, Long Duk Dong from “16 Candles” is just one specific character. But in a movie (and corresponding cultural landscape) that has no other Asian characters, he becomes a vessel for Asian-ness and Otherness, both of which are characterized negatively. See point #5.

7. Anything involving the phrase “politically correct.”
As much as people try to characterize those who are offended as oversensitive whiners, phrases like “PC police” and “I don’t believe in political correctness” absolutely reek of whininess, like “boo hoo I actually have to think about what I’m saying and consider other people’s feelings; I’m so oppressed!” Political correctness doesn’t mean that you can’t be honest. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be offensive, if that offensive language is making a larger, important point. It just means “don’t be a jackass.” The “PC police” defense is a blanket rhetorical device that allows thoughtless people to dodge criticism. If you are going to say/do something offensive, it should serve a greater purpose, and you should take whatever criticism you have coming openly and honestly.

8. Why would you expect something better? They’re just trying to make money and most people don’t care about this stuff.
Of course this is true. But to simply internalize it is defeatism. We can fight back, make noise, start conversations, engage in boycotts, write articles, create better art, and make the connections between pop culture and society that need to be made.

Are there any more that I missed?

Things I Did in 2010

2010-12-29T01:25:00.001-06:00

I know some people read these kinds of lists and scoff or whatever, but New Year's is not a time for humility; it's a time for honest reflection. And if you're awesome, it's hard to be humble about things, haha. Of course I had a lot of help and support from my label, friends, co-workers and collaborators, but I'll admit: I'm halfway awesome. So here are some things I did this year:

~Released "An Unwelcome Guest" w/ producer Big Cats!, one of the most ambitious, original, quotable, poetic hip hop albums to ever come out of the Midwest (biased, but stop me if I'm lying). Don't take my word for it, read the press quotes... or better yet, listen to it.

~Released a free mixtape ("Don't Be Nice") w/ Big Cats! (all original beats, even though it's a mixtape) that proved that we not only do what we do well, but we do what other hip hop acts do well too, probably better. Also designed the cover, which I think is really cool.

~Took first place at the National Poetry Slam, as part of the St. Paul team, for the second year in a row. Performed "The Family Business," my best poem, on Semifinals stage and "Handshakes," a poem deconstructing how masculinity is performed, on Finals stage. Also helped organize a bunch of workshops on spoken-word and activism and education during the week-long festival. Got a ton of press too-- feature stories in the Pioneer Press, got to go on the Current and even on the TV.

~As arts coordinator, helped build the Canvas, a teen arts center in St. Paul, into one of the most dynamic, high-quality after-school programs in the area. Aside from coordinating a lot of the programs there, I personally facilitated a weekly writing circle, an MC workshop and a couple of different social justice-oriented workshops, hosted numerous events and built a lot of relationships.

~Played in multiple cities in the Midwest (often multiple times)-- St. Louis, Des Moines, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse, Brainerd, Stockholm and more I'm probably forgetting.

~Played dozens of shows here in the Twin Cities too, from Kristoff Krane's CD release party to opening up for Dead Prez at Voices Merging's hip hop conference to debuting a snippet of my one-man spoken-word show at the Bedlam to playing numerous progressive events from the Defend Public Education rally to the IWW's Fall Feast to much more. Not a lot of rappers can say that they got booked to perform at the CONvergence sci-fi conference, the Dragon Festival, the Twin Cities hip hop awards, the Loft Literary Center and the Uptown Pride Fest all in the same year.

~Also hosted some big events, something I'd like to do more of in 2011. This year, hosted the big No Bird Sing/LookBook/Kill the Vultures show at the Cedar, the Twin Cities Spoken-Word Sampler at Honey, Kristoff Krane's other CD release show at the Cedar and more.

~Continued the successful Hip Hop Against Homophobia concert series; the last one featured Mike Mictlan from Doomtree, Heidi Barton Stink and Kaoz and was held at the Canvas. The next one will be a two-day joint in June at Patrick's Cabaret.

~Got written up in a very flattering City Pages feature.

~Got one of my poems featured in The Progressive.

~My label, Tru Ruts, secured national distribution.

~Laid a ton of groundwork for the MN Activist Project, a database and promotional campaign aimed at getting more people involved in progressive organizing. Not public yet, but look for a launch in the springtime.

~Completed writing/performance residencies or single workshops in a dozen schools in the Twin Cities and beyond, on top of visiting almost every St. Paul high school and talking to students as part of my Canvas duties and mentoring a young poet one-on-one. Even got to go to my own high school and talk about spoken-word to students who had never heard of it. Hopefully I can get famous once all these kids turn 21, haha.

~Performed on 89.3 The Current's Local Show:

~Freelanced for Reviler, one of my favorite local music blogs, on top of providing all kinds of original content right here and on my Twitter.

~Facilitated workshops on topics from writing and performance to privilege and oppression to how to write a bio and more at the Giant Steps conference, the Minnesota OUT Campus Conference, the St. Paul Youth Commission's Youth Summit, the Vices to Verses Conference (where I also got to sit on a panel about hip hop and feminism) and elsewhere.

~Performed live in-studio on Radio K with Big Cats!.

~Wrapped up the first/second draft of a book of essays and creative nonfiction that I might go get published. Weighing options right now.

~Released a music video that I'm proud of:

Guante + Big Cats! - A Hug From a Stranger from Tru Ruts on Vimeo.

~On top of the two aforementioned albums, recorded some of the best music of my career; you haven't heard it yet. But soon.

So again, big thanks to all the people who have been around this year, supporting the work that I do. You're only as good as the community that surrounds you. It's been a great year (not even getting into my personal life, haha), but it's still really just groundwork time for me. Looking at the long-term plan right now, and things are good. Lots of big stuff planned for 2011. Stay tuned. Let's build.

New FREE Song w/ See More Perspective & The Rube

2010-12-21T21:14:00.000-06:00

Hella posts lately. But that just means life is busy. Here's a new song. Download for free:

"Shotgun Soliloquy REMIX" by Wake the City (Guante & See More Perspective), produced by the Rube.

It's a fun track; I finally got to use that stupid "woozle wozzle" punchline I've been saving. The actual song (this one is a remix) is a monster, though. We just can't release that one yet. Someday.

Some Guante & Big Cats! Live Footage

2010-12-20T12:00:00.000-06:00

Some footage from a Guante & Big Cats! show at the 7th St. Entry. Audio by Empty, video by Pure Optics, edited together by Rangel Arts. The band is Mike Ries (drums), Mike Coyne (guitar & bass), Chris Tures (guitar), Eric Blomquist (keys & saxophone), Big Cats! (MPC & bass) and Guante (vocals).

We are a very big, loud, angry band; I'm not sure how well that translates here (particularly in the instrumental parts of "Bleeds" and "Midnight" where it just goes nuts), but you get the idea. Come to a show. Most of these songs are from our debut LP, "An Unwelcome Guest."

If It Bleeds, It Leads:

1 10 20 200:

Dragons:

Red States:

The Damp, Foggy Midnight:

Winter Break Spoken-Word Institute

2010-12-16T13:10:00.000-06:00

Instead of visiting my family and relaxing like a normal person, I'll be doing this from 12/27 - 12/30.

I'm not mad though. It's actually going to be very cool. As some of you know, I serve as arts coordinator of the Canvas, a teen arts center in St. Paul. This year, we're having an intensive four-day spoken-word workshop over winter break, with a big open mic on the last day. While this is targeted at teens, I have a pretty broad definition of youth. If you're interested in spoken-word and want to get some pointers from some of the best in the Twin Cities (Tish Jones, Khary Jackson, Sierra Demulder, me), feel free to stop through. It should be a lot of fun.

Also, if you work in the Twin Cities with youth in any capacity, please spread the word about this and the Canvas in general. We offer a ton of high-quality, free arts programs for teens, from photography to hip hop to dance to drawing and much more.

The best thing I ever wrote

2010-12-14T22:22:00.000-06:00

I know it's super weird to find your own work hilarious, and I'm not exactly known for being funny, but I laugh out loud every time I read this. It's a one-act play I wrote about hip hop, bloggers, academics, rappers and much more. If you've ever gone to a hip hop conference, studied hip hop in school or sat on a panel, you might be able to relate:

HIP HOP: A PANEL DISCUSSION

It's an older piece, but I just updated it with some new content. Getting ready to put out a book, and this will probably be in it.

12/17: two all ages shows; one poetry, one hip hop

2010-12-09T21:19:00.001-06:00

It's going to be a busy night. First, I'll be at the Black Dog Cafe in St. Paul at 6:30pm doing a full poetry set for a COMPAS for the Arts fundraiser. Immediately after that, I'll be headed to Tarnish & Gold in Minneapolis for this:

Isn't that a nice flyer? Four acts, four different genres, in a beautiful all ages art gallery/sound space. Friday, December 17 at 7pm. I'll be playing a couple of new acoustic songs, plus the usual bangers.

Here's the Facebook event page.

Wednesday at the Loft Literary Center

2010-12-05T18:02:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday, I'll be performing with Imani Woomera, a spoken-word artist from Hawaii who has done a ton of work around spoken-word and slam throughout Africa. She'll be debuting her one-woman show in Minneapolis. I'll be performing a spoken-word set to open the show up.

It's 7pm at the Loft Literary Center. $12/$6 for students, but no one will be turned away. Hope to see you there.

Where does CHANGE come from?

2010-12-05T17:57:00.001-06:00

So as some of you may know, I'm currently working on this big project dealing with activism, involvement and social/political change. More details on that later. For now, here's some stuff that I've been kicking around in my head for a while. Basically, it's my philosophy of change. I'll be using it as an intro for the project. Any thoughts?

Change happens at four levels:

Personal: critical self-reflection and education (reading books, taking classes, thinking about issues).
Interpersonal: face-to-face direct service work, volunteering, raising awareness, starting conversations with friends and family, etc.
Institutional: organizing to challenge oppressive or unjust systems; attacking the root cause of a problem rather than its symptoms.
Cultural: broad-based "hearts and minds" change.

This project works from a pretty basic philosophy. Real, meaningful, lasting change comes from people working and struggling together to attack the root causes of problems. That isn't to say that volunteering at the homeless shelter, voting once every two years, writing poems about the issues you care about or reading lots of books don't do anything-- it's just that none of those things can create real change if they are divorced from organizing.

The four points above are really an activist ecosystem-- we need all four (not necessarily in equal proportions in a given context) if we really care about making the world a better place. That may seem pretty simple, but a whole lot of people get wholly caught up in one or another. Some people are all about knowledge and being the perfect more-progressive-than-thou super genius; they know the issues inside and out, but they don't ever do anything about them. Others are all for "smashing the state" or whatever, but never take the time to do the critical self-reflection that effective activists need. As the old saying goes: "thought without action is a daydream; action without thought is a nightmare."

At the end of the day, understanding is not enough. "Raising awareness" is not enough. Winning some abstract debate about an issue is not enough. Waiting for the previous generation to fade away is not enough. If we want to create real progressive change, we're going to have to struggle for it. We have to be smart. We have to be proactive. We have to be relentless.

That's all meaningless, however, if we don't know where or how to start. This project is about streamlining the process, about turning liberal thinkers into progressive activists by making it as easy as possible to plug in and get involved.

...more information to come.

New See More Perspective Album Available Now!

2010-11-30T20:57:00.002-06:00

We're having the release party Friday night at Hell's Kitchen.

You can get the new album now, from here.

I'm on a track (it's my rarely-performed architecture-themed love poem, with See More's music behind it). And the whole thing is just bonkers. Favorites: "Self Taught," "FLW" and "Bottleneck."

See More is one of those rare artists who truly deserves your support. And he makes great music, so supporting him is easy. Pick up the album. Come to the show. Hugs and Kisses.

New Guante & Big Cats! Music Video!

2010-11-27T08:51:00.000-06:00

Guante + Big Cats! - A Hug From a Stranger from Tru Ruts on Vimeo.

Big thanks to Tony Perkins and everyone at the E-Squared Cafe. This turned out pretty cool. It's one of the more understated songs on the album, but it's also one of my favorites. Hope you like it.

BIG show December 3 at Hell's Kitchen

2010-11-21T14:37:00.002-06:00

Friday, December 3 at Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis:
See More Perspective's "Architextual Design" Release Party
w/ Guante, Mayda, Heidi Barton Stink, Fresh Squeeze and the Rube
10pm. 18+. $5
(affordable parking is available in the ramp right next to the venue)

Here's the Facebook Event Page.

Now, I realize that there are a couple of other big shows in town that night. But let me make an argument for this one:

1. See More Perspective is very talented, and talented in a way that really sticks out from everyone else in town. The new album has been three (!) years in the making, and it's worth the wait. The music is smart, sincere and funky all at once. Much more in the tradition of acts like Lyrics Born and Blackalicious than most Twin Cities acts. He's also a hell of a live performer.

2. The supporting acts are honestly some of my very favorite performers in town. Mayda is a pop/soul/rock singer/songwriter who should be internationally-known, and hopefully she's on her way. Heidi Barton Stink and Fresh Squeeze make fun, radical hip hop that's incredibly refreshing. The Rube is one of my favorite DJs in the world. And I'm f'ing awesome.

3. Hell's Kitchen has quickly become our favorite place to play-- great food, staff, drinks and atmosphere. And this show is only $5, so you'll definitely be getting your money's worth, and then some.

Really hope to see you all there. See More has been putting in work for years, as a producer, studio engineer, rapper and activist, and this show is going to be bonkers.

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Hip Hop

2010-11-19T13:41:00.001-06:00

I’ve been rapping for about ten years, and running workshops and classes dealing with hip hop for about five. I don’t claim to be an expert on all of hip hop culture, but there are a few fairly basic things that a whole lot of people seem to regularly get wrong—at conferences, in workshops, in classes and just in conversation. It still amazes me how even though hip hop is a global culture enjoyed by millions upon millions of people, it still has to deal with racist and classist critiques from the right, wishful thinking from the left, not to mention plain old ignorance from all sides. A few thoughts:

1. The rap music you hear on the radio or see on TV is less than 1% of the hip hop that is actually being made in the world.

2. Hip hop music has as much stylistic diversity, from song to song, as any other genre of music…if not more. Through TV and commercial radio, we are generally given one style or approach, but the community is unbelievably large and varied in terms of aesthetics. We just don’t often get a chance to hear the hip hop that doesn’t fit into the boxes that the record companies have built.

3. That stylistic diversity is mirrored in the identities of the participants. Hip hop was born out of the black and brown struggle in the Bronx of the 1970s, and it is very much a piece of the African-American musical tradition. But practitioners of the art today come from every community—every racial/ethnic group, gender, sexual orientation, immigrant status, nationality, class background, geographic origin and any other marker of identity. Some see this as another example of black art being co-opted; some see this as a truly multicultural art form capable of transcending borders. Some see it as both.

4. Every city in the U.S. has a hip hop scene. It’s not just New York, and it’s not just major cities. Even suburbs and smaller rural communities often have one or two kids who rap, or at the very least take part in the culture in some way. On top of that, just about every country in the world has a hip hop scene. At this point in time, it truly is a global culture.

5. There is a difference between “hip hop” and “rap,” but that difference has nothing to do with the quality or style of the music. Rap is the physical act of rapping, of speaking lyrics over beats. Hip hop is the culture that umbrellas over rap, but also umbrellas over other elements of the culture (see next point).

6. The traditional four elements of hip hop are DJing, rapping, graffiti and b-boy/b-girl dance. KRS-ONE and others have identified other elements that are sometimes thrown into the conversation: beatboxing, fashion, knowledge, entrepreneurialism, slang/language, music production and many more. It helps to think about hip hop as this impressionistic landscape, not just as “rap music.” It’s much bigger than that.

7. Hip hop started out as party music. People having fun and dancing. It wasn’t evil gangster music, as some detractors might assume; it also wasn’t people making grand revolutionary statements, as some supporters seem to believe. It helps to keep that in perspective. The act of having these parties may have been implicitly political, but the content of the music itself generally was not. For a full history, read Jeff Chang’s “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.”

8. Hip hop is not inherently violent, sexist or homophobic. Subject matter and approaches to writing in hip hop are as diverse as any other form of art. The reason we hear/see so much violent, sexist, homophobic hip hop is that record companies (almost universally run by rich, white men) know that they can make money by pushing (through money for media campaigns and promotion) artists who speak to the lowest common denominator. That’s not to excuse the artists themselves, but one cannot ignore this larger picture.

9. On the flipside, underground or independent hip hop is not inherently progressive, intelligent and revolutionary. Lots of underground artists are simply trying to emulate their mainstream counterparts. Others are just rapping about whatever they feel like rapping about. “Mainstream vs. Underground” is a false binary that simplifies the culture in a way that makes it easy to not really engage with the art itself.

10. And that’s a key point. To effectively teach using hip hop, or even just to intentionally take part in the music, you have to really engage with the culture. It takes research, time and energy, and it can't just be in books. Hip hop didn't end with the deaths of Biggie and 2pac, or with the rise of Eminem and Kanye, as many scholars seem to imply. Attend events, talk to people and LISTEN. Here’s a start, a few songs that I find are useful when talking about hip hop:

Toki Wright: A Different Mirror (Twin Cities)

Invincible: Sledgehammer (Detroit)

Denizen Kane: Holdin' Up the Wall (Chicago/Oakland)

No Bird Sing: Devil's Trombones (Twin Cities)

Orishas: Que Pasa (Cuba):

videos you should take a second to watch: Eyedea, Toki Wright, more

2010-11-16T20:17:00.000-06:00

This is video from Michael "Eyedea" Larsen's tribute show. I never knew him that well; we just had some mutual acquaintances and he came out to a few of the events that I did, but over the past few weeks I've just met tons of people who were affected by his life somehow. It's one thing to be a beloved artist; it's another thing to have a physical, measurable impact on other human beings, which Eyedea really, really had. In all this sadness, that's definitely something to celebrate. Check out this piece that Andrea Swensson wrote about the show.

This is the video for Toki Wright's "A Different Mirror," which I think is one of the most well-written rap songs of all time. There's so much going on in those lyrics, and the way he ties the past to the present is just chilling. Toki is one of the best MCs in the country right now.

Here's Kristoff Krane's Local Show performance. I've written about Chris on my site before, but he remains one of the most creative, engaging, genuine artists I know. He's a phenomenal rapper, and this song shows he can also sing.

On a less serious note, here's a quick little YouTube link for the "Harry Potter" remix that me, Big Cats! and Chantz did. Figured it'd be a good time to post it, with the new movie coming out. I'm seeing it Friday night. Here's a link to our free mixtape too, if you don't have it already.

Support Equilibrium, lyrics essay, See More Perspective, random news

2010-11-11T11:43:00.000-06:00

1. Hey-- first of all, you can donate to Equilibrium here. If you don't know, EQ is one of the best spoken-word shows in town. Creating a space for spoken-word artists-of-color, EQ has won all kinds of awards and consistently puts on a great show. In these rough economic times, they need support. Check out this video too:

2. Our show last night at Honey went really, really well. It was beautiful to see so many people from so many different scenes and communities come together. Hopefully, there'll be some photos up soon at MN Mic.

3. I wrote a point/counterpoint on the importance of lyrics over at Reviler. Guess which side I'm on. You can read it here.

4. Friend and label-mate See More Perspective if FINALLY releasing his album, "Architextual Design." The release show is scheduled for Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis on December 3 and I can honestly say that it's going to be one of the best shows we've ever put on. Not announcing the lineup or sponsors just yet, but please mark you calendars. The album is phenomenal, and this show is really going to be something special.

In the meantime, check out some FREE stuff that See More has released at the Boombox Emporium.

5. There is just SO MUCH going on right now. I'm involved in a dozen different projects, between music and poetry and activism and youth work and residency stuff and just life in general. For more up-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter or get at me on Facebook. Thanks!

good stuff by people I know

2010-11-05T10:59:00.002-05:00

My friends are very talented:

Strange Perspective: THE LOST SOULS BOYS CHOIR IN JAZZ FUNERAL

This is a free download, and one you should grab right now. A weird mix of spooky indie-pop, indie hip hop and jazz, this group/album is a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Dameun Strange and MC/producer See More Perspective. It's very atmospheric without being too melodramatic, maybe a little less Halloween and a little more Dia de los Muertos, if that makes sense. Through all the doom and gloom, the album retains a sense of absurd positivity, a playfulness that's really refreshing and fun. And they put on a killer live show, too.

Graham O'brien: Live Drums
Graham is the drummer in two of my favorite bands, No Bird Sing and Junkyard Empire. He's also a producer, and one of the few people I really trust when it comes to forward-thinking hip hop aesthetics. His debut solo album mixes dark, brooding production with crackling live drums, and the result is incredibly engaging. Think a less-busy El-P meets Thom Yorke's solo material. Most of the album is instrumental, though the few guests (including Kristoff Krane, Eric Blair from No Bird Sing and Adam Svec) really shine. The last track, in particular, is starkly beautiful-- it's a remix of Svec's "Wolves in Milwaukee." Get the album here.

Idris Goodwin: These Are the Breaks
I'm cheating on this one, since I haven't actually read it yet. But there's no doubt in my mind that it's brilliant. Idris is one of the smartest, funniest, most talented hip hop heads in the country, and his work as an MC, as a poet, as a theater artist and as an essayist is always great. You can order the book now from Write Bloody.

live video: Guante: Your Boyfriend's a Republican

2010-11-01T09:54:00.000-05:00

Some footage that filmmaker, actor and beat-maker Daniel Rangel caught at my last show. A fun little song over a jacked Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson beat.

This song is from my 2008 mixtape, "Conscious is Not Enough." My label, Tru Ruts, is actually going to be re-releasing that mixtape this month, but I'm re-recording a lot of stuff to make it sound better and be more relevant to today. So be on the lookout for that.

Finally, make sure to check out my last post here, about progressive voter guides.

Voter Guides

2010-10-31T22:40:00.000-05:00

Hey. So if you're voting on Tuesday, but you haven't really been following the races or whatever, there's a site that posts user-made voter guides. You can find an organization or entity that you trust and see who they're endorsing. Whatever state you live in, there's a guide (probably multiple guides).

Here's the link: www.theballot.org.

The site was set up by the League of Young Voters, a very cool organization.

My only obligatory "get out the vote" pitch is this. Voting isn't the only way to create change. It may not even be the most effective. But it is the easiest. There really is no excuse; I've come around to the idea that important tactical and short-term gains really CAN be created through the ballot box. I still believe that we all need to get involved in progressive organizations that work on important causes all year-round, no matter who is in office, but I ALSO believe that voting really is as important as everyone always says it is. So don't just vote; get everyone you know to vote-- family, friends, co-workers, whatever. Organize your social circle. There's going to be a lot of close elections this year; let's be ready.

various things I've written recently

2010-10-28T08:43:00.000-05:00

I do some music/arts writing here and there. A few recent pieces:

Reviler: top five scary Halloween songs

Reviler: top five sad songs

Reviler: definitive Minnesota playlist

Minnesota Microphone: Standards in Spoken-Word and Slam

This Blog: NEW Twin Cities Hip Hop Acts You Should Know About

If anyone wants to give me a thousand dollars because I'm a good writer, that'd be great.

Halloween show 10/30 at Hell's Kitchen w/ Strange Perspective, Mayda

2010-10-24T12:25:00.000-05:00

Definitely looking forward to this one. A special Halloween show. Costumes encouraged.

Tour Update

2010-10-20T14:25:00.000-05:00

So far, we've been to Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago-- five shows down. It's been great. Milwaukee is one of my favorite places to visit-- so many beautiful, genuine people there. And Madison is my second home, so that was fun too. I'm writing this from Chicago, where we've played two shows and have one more to go (Sunday at the Green Mill, ground zero of poetry slam culture). It's fun.

I'm touring with Inky, who is a good poet and also a vegan, which means I get to eat at places I wouldn't otherwise. Total blessing in disguise. I had some Chicago deep-dish last night while she was out, but I actually didn't enjoy it as much as the black bean burger, mashed potatoes and vegan shake I had at the Chicago Diner the other day. Maybe she's on to something.

All in all, this tour has been great for making me rethink certain strategies. As much as I enjoy rapping, spoken-word shows are really special for me-- more of an attentive audience, more room to be creative, less drama, more profitable... This might be the future. I'll take a smaller crowd who is actually interested in what you have to say over a big crowd who just wants to drink, flirt and nod their heads any day. I know that's a false binary, but still.

Mostly, I just wanted to post that picture Inky shot in Madison. It's a sad bear. Go Packers.

P2C fallout: new Twin Cities hip hop acts you should look out for

2010-10-20T12:19:00.004-05:00

Since Picked to Click didn't feature any hip hop acts, and the Twin Cities has one of the strongest hip hop scenes in the nation, I figured I'd highlight some of the newer artists that have potential. As with P2C, it can be hard to define "new," but I'll give it a shot:

The Tribe & Big Cats!
A Chicago transplant (Truth Be Told) backed by some of the most epic, radio-ready production the Twin Cities has ever heard, this group has dropped a great EP and a very entertaining mixtape, and their debut, "Forward Thinkers Movers Shakers," is slated for January. It'll feature Abstract Rude, Phil da Agony, Toki Wright and more.

I.B.E.
Also a member of the Usual Suspects, I.B.E. is just a beast on many levels-- smart, technically proficient and a good songwriter. Check out his video for the song "Make the Road by Walking" featuring Toki Wright.

Heidi Barton Stink
One of my favorite new artists, Heidi is unabashedly political and also a very strong songwriter. She also picks some unique, engaging production to rap over. There aren't a whole lot of artists repping for the trans and queer communities, but Heidi should be one to watch over the next few years.

Audio Perm
A three-person production collective, Audio Perm is responsible for some of the best beats that all these younger TC acts are using. The Ants and Lazerbeaks and Medium Zachs of our scene have a very worthy heir.

Culture Cry Wolf
In a scene that values brooding, angry, dark hip hop (I know I do), a band like CCW can be pretty refreshing. They've got a strong singer on top of their MC, make great use of horns and put on one of the best live shows in town.

Fresh Squeeze
Radical politics and party music. That'll get me every time. These three kids also have the most energy of any hip hop act in town. A very exciting act to watch.

Wide Eyes
Good old fashioned underground rap. Nothing revolutionary, but this group's energy, charisma and pure rhyming talent is infectious. Great beats too.

Mally, Mike Dreams, Lipset, Just Wulf, Max Haben, Bobby Richardson, D'Allen White, Irenic, Lazlo Supreme, Mnemosyne and more I'm forgetting
There's a whole crop of really solid MCs and hip hop acts coming up; I can't write about all of them. But you can hear many of them on the same track here. While time can only tell which ones will break out from the pack, they're all very talented.

I'm excited to see all these acts reach out and do new things-- that's really what the TC scene is traditionally about; being fearless and unique and different. I don't see that happening as much with this newer crop of artists yet, but it'll be very fun to watch that develop.

And that's not even to mention the "not-quite-new-but-new-to-a-lot-of-people" artists like No Bird Sing, Junkyard Empire, Kristoff Krane, Kill the Vultures, M.anifest, See More Perspective, Chantz, Ill 3, Ill Chemistry, Usual Suspects, Maria Isa and (of course) Guante/Guante & Big Cats! who are all making some really great, original, creative music.

Again, I'm sure I'm forgetting some great ones, but the bigger point is that it's a beautiful time to enjoy hip hop in the Twin Cities. Go see some shows.

Going on tour: Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, Indianapolis, La Crosse

2010-10-11T20:12:00.001-05:00

Me and Inky are going on a quick midwest spoken-word tour. Here are the dates:

10/14: Still Waters at Sweet Black Coffee in Milwaukee, 8pm
10/15: Voltage! at Milwaukee Public Library, 6pm
10/16: Genna’s Lounge in Madison, 7pm
10/18: Mental Graffiti at the Butterfly Social Club in Chicago, 8pm
10/19: Young Chicago Authors workshop and feature, 6pm
10/22: Root Note in La Crosse, 8pm
10/23: Indianapolis, details TBA
10/24: Green Mill in Chicago, 7pm

For addresses and more info, check out my full performance calendar here.

Bricks and Bones Tour, Rally to Defend Public Education, Halloween, more!

2010-10-01T23:05:00.002-05:00

What a week. Facilitated a workshop on race and music at Inver Hills college, visited a bunch of schools promoting The Canvas, slam team showcase at McNally Smith and the "Don't Be Nice" mixtape release party at Hell's Kitchen. Even more exciting stuff coming up this month:

The next show I'm performing at is a rally/concert to defend public education on October 7. 6pm in Loring Park in Minneapolis. The Usual Suspects, Junkyard Empire, Fresh Squeeze and Poetic Assassins are also performing. It'll be a great show, but it'll also be a great opportunity to get involved in this very important struggle. Check out PJAM.ORG for more information!

After that, I'll be going on a short midwest tour, the Bricks and Bones Tour. We haven't made the official announcement yet, so look out for that soon. In short, it's a spoken-word tour through Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, La Crosse and elsewhere, with multiple shows in the Mil and Chi. I'll be on the road with Inky, who runs MN Mic. Again, more info soon.

Finally, I'll be finishing up the month with a monster show Halloween eve at Hell's Kitchen. It's the debut of Strange Perspective, a collaboration between See More Perspective and Dameun Strange, two of the most creative, wonderful people I know. Costume contest, fortune telling, burlesque, sideshow oddities and more, plus sets from me and the always-amazing Mayda. Definitely a can't-miss kind of show.

big show September 30 at Hell's Kitchen in MPLS

2010-09-21T17:54:00.002-05:00

FREE Guante & Big Cats! mixape, DON'T BE NICE (w/ link)

2010-09-07T08:44:00.004-05:00

So today is the day. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE. Once there, just click "Free Download" and all 13 tracks are yours. It might take a minute or two to prep, depending on your connection, but the DL itself should be pretty quick (it's less than 90 MB and also includes some photos and press materials).

One note-- in Itunes, it'll list the artist as "Tru Ruts/Speakeasy Records" so you may have to change it to "Guante & Big Cats!"

And if you like the free mixtape, please check out our full length album, AN UNWELCOME GUEST, here.

Thanks! Let us know what you think at www.facebook.com/guanteandbigcats.

New mixtape coming soon!

2010-08-27T17:24:00.000-05:00

Early September. More info soon.

National Poetry Slam odds and ends (video)

2010-08-11T22:58:00.005-05:00

A few odds and ends related to last week:

1. Want to see something weird? Here's me on Kare 11's Showcase Minnesota.

2. Here's the poem I did in Semifinals, courtesy of 3 minute egg:

3. Here's some footage of one of our prelim bouts, focusing on us and Urbana:

4. Here's some footage from Finals stage, focusing on us and the Nuyorican:

5. Matt from 3-minute egg also captured some of my teammate's poems. Explore his website here-- lots of good Fringe stuff too.

We Won the National Poetry Slam Again (thoughts)

2010-08-08T00:59:00.007-05:00

(I grabbed this photo from the Pioneer Press article). A few thoughts:

1. For those who missed it, my team (Saint Paul) just won the National Poetry Slam for the second year in a row. We faced NYC Nuyorican, Durham and Austin Neo in the Finals. It was a close bout.

2. NPS, all in all, was a good time. A few teams I'd have liked to have seen in Finals didn't make it, but that's how it goes. Hip Hop Headquarters was a great time. The Asian/Pacific Islander Open Mic was the most inspiring event I went to. The bouts themselves were pretty good, at least ours were. As the home team, we had lots of people at each one-- definitely an advantage, but whatever-- it was fun.

3. Quick note on the "victory lap" poem. It was actually my idea. Not conceptualized as a victory lap. Just wanted to get our fifth member on stage, and he happened to have a PERFECT "thank you and safe travels" poem-- the HOST said "victory poem." Sorry if it came off differently.

4. Did the new repeat rule make Finals a better show? Probably. No, it wasn't the most mind-blowing finals ever, but I doubt the no-repeat rule would have fixed that. It's weird. We won last year largely because of the no-repeat rule, but Finals suffered for it. I like the idea of forcing poets to have deeper pockets, but I hate an underwhelming Finals. It's arguable that this year was still an underwhelming Finals, but I don't think we can blame the repeat rule. We all just have to step our game up as writers and performers.

5. That said, I performed my handshake poem tonight. Not my favorite/best poem, but very strategically useful. I want to have something more suitably epic next year. That's the best part of NPS-- being inspired to get better. Lots of writing to do.

6. I have to immediately get back to work. A show tomorrow night at the End Slavery Now Conference at the U of M, finishing up the new mixtape, setting up a Fall tour, organizing workshops and events for the Canvas' fall schedule, a million other things. Please don't ask me how it feels to win nationals. I ain't got time for feelings!

For real though-- huge thanks to everyone who has supported us this past week. Winning NPS is cool, but it's only worthwhile if we can USE all that attention and press to BUILD our local scene-- poets can grow as artists, new poets can emerge, audiences can multiply... that's what I'm really excited about.

We made NPS Finals!

2010-08-06T23:29:00.002-05:00

What a week. I may post some extended thoughts later, but in short: we won both our prelims and our semifinals bout, beating some great teams. Next up is the National Poetry Slam FINALS.

It's Saturday, August 7 at the Roy Wilkins. 8pm. $25. I know it's kinda pricey, but we'll be up against Durham, Austin Neo Soul and NYC's Nuyorican team, the last of which is, by all accounts, a monster team. As an added bonus, Doomtree's P.O.S. is playing a short set too.

Also, watch out for us tomorrow on Fox 9 in the morning. Also also, in the afternoon, I'm going to be at the Asian-American/Pacific Islander open mic-- 1pm at the Lowry Lab Theater. Should be a great show.

Huge thanks to everyone who has been supporting us. Go Twin Cities!

National Poetry Slam update (we made semis!)

2010-08-05T16:36:00.003-05:00

Wow. Very good week so far. My team (Saint Paul) took first in both our prelim bouts, so we're going on to semifinals on Friday night at 8pm. I don't know which venue yet, but check www.nps2010.com late tonight and tomorrow to find out. We've been performing pretty flawlessly, if I may say so, and are very excited for semis.

If we win our semifinals bouts, we'll move on to Finals on Saturday night at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. P.O.S. will also be performing at Finals, so there's that.

A few random highlights:

~I facilitated a workshop on "Engaging Youth with Spoken-Word" and it was AMAZING. No broad philosophical rambling about nothing-- just smart people sharing concrete, practical tips, strategies, activities and more. I'm going to email out our notes to every teaching artist that I know-- there's some GOLD in there. If you want to be included in that email, leave a comment.

~I also hosted the Hip Hop Headquarters open mic and-- though I sometimes have misgivings about (other) poets trying to rap-- the event was beautiful. Local and national artists blessed the stage, from Eyedea to Desdamona to Jive Poetic to Kristoff Krane to Bamboo MC to No Bird Sing to Sean Anon to Ezra to Bugs to Tish Jones to See More Perspective and many others. Even a poet named "President Obama," played the piano and rapped Lupe's "The Cool."

~Our bouts were both packed-- shoulder to shoulder sweaty packed. Thanks so much for the love. Home field advantage.

~It's been disgustingly nice outside, at least today and yesterday. There was a freak windstorm during Albuquerque's bout, but that's about it.

~I got to be on the Current, KFAI, Kare 11 TV, the Star Tribune, Vita.MN and the Pioneer Press, which also published my op-ed about why slam poetry matters. Whatever happens in the tournament, I'm getting lots of press, haha. More importantly, the Twin Cities spoken-word SCENE is getting lots of press. Our September and October slams had better be huge. Oh also, Khary and Sierra got to go on Kerri Miller's show on MPR.

~Chocolate-covered potato chips aren't my pre-bout ritual-- I just like them. Candyland is right around the corner from the AQ.

~ @wardrubrecht and @fishdesmith have been live-blogging/tweeting bouts, and are going some great play-by-play analysis. Ward, in particular, is being a hard-ass, which I whole-heartedly support.

~Follow the #NPS2010 hashtag on Twitter for all kinds of random thoughts.

More soon.

How to support my team at the National Poetry Slam

2010-07-24T20:47:00.005-05:00

Just posted time and place details for our two prelim bouts at my MySpace page. GET THERE EARLY.

Come see my team (Saint Paul, 2009 National Champions) try to get into semifinals. We have two prelim bouts, one on 8/3 (Artists' Quarter, 7pm) and one on 8/4 (Wild Tymes, 9pm). If we do good, we'll make semifinals on 8/5. If we win our semifinals bout, we'll make finals on 8/6. They're all going to be bloodbaths. NPS is crazy this year.

Also lots of great side events. I'll be co-hosting Hip Hop Headquarters with Tish Jones that Wednesday night. The APIA open mic on Saturday is going to be amazing. Lots of workshops, open mics and discussions. Full schedule at www.nps2010.com.

Guante on Facebook

2010-07-23T23:07:00.000-05:00

Two ways to get at me:

www.facebook.com/GuanteSolo is for my solo stuff, poetry and music.

www.facebook.com/GuanteandBigCats is for Guante & Big Cats! music.

"Like" both of them and maybe you'll win a million dollars. Maybe.

Just wanted to post this now because MySpace is a wasteland and Facebook isn't a wasteland yet. Get at me!