The most immediate thought for most people in defining poetry is usually something rhyming or with a hidden (deeper) meaning than just the words on their own.  But for me, poetry has come most primarily through the entertainment avenues of music, movies, and TV shows. These platforms have provided me with insight to people's thoughts which have shaped my thoughts as a growing individual. And more specifically in my case, it was Hip-Hop music. Now, anyone who knows me is not surprised at all, but those who don't... well... are you?

​

I consider (good) Hip-Hop music to be the poetry of the poor; insights to why we think the way we do, and what matters to us. Now, let me just say that I do not use the term "poor" in a financial sense, but I use it more in a psychological sense. When you have a poor mentality it leads to poor decisions which can (the majority of the time) lead to poor results. The poor mentality doesn't have to be large - it can be small; minute; miniscule - but the results CAN be large - significant, long-standing, and debilitating. I didn't grow up financially poor, we were considered "middle class" but, in my opinion, we were just upper class poor. My parents had to work, because the moment they did not, our middle class would turn into broke in a matter of weeks. And being raised in that struggle, I adopted the struggling mentality. 

 

This is where the poetry of the poor came in. Songs like "Everyday Struggle" by B.I.G., "Survival of the Fittest" by Mobb Deep, "Hand on the Pump" by Cypress Hill related to me because it is what I grew up around - whether directly or indirectly.  When "Colors" by Ice-T came out in 1988, I was only 9 years old, but the opening lyrics are embedded in my brain til this day and I hadn't heard the song in at least 15-20 years! This poetry was fed to me on a daily and regular basis by the radio and by television. You could almost say it was equivalent to how social media is fed to our kids now-a-days. Hip-Hop had more influence in my neighborhoods than any self-help author or self-made millionaire did. Why? Because it was more realistic and it was more relatable.

​

Now that I'm in my 40's (cheers!) I have barely brushed the surface of authors such as Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, Florence Scovel Shinn, Louise Hay, and Zig Ziglar - whom all aim to promote a self-development and self-achievment within others. Something that I feel Hip-Hop also meant to do, but in its own gritty and dismal way. Talib Kweli says in one of his rhymes (it slips me which song it is at this very moment) in which he says "...many MCs talk about how it is...how it is... but we like to talk about how it is, but also how it could be..."

 

This is the powerful light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel that I wish would have been more prominent when I was younger (not only for me, but the hundreds of thousands around me that I grew up with). Life definitely just "was" at the time. It was bleak. It was violent. It was exploited. It was hopeless. But it could have been much more. 

 

And for those who are able to control their thoughts... it still can be much more. It still is. It is.

​

This is where I have journeyed to. Believing in my potential as a human being and not just as a demographic. Hip-Hop still remains the life-line to my soul. I could probably recite as many verses as could a academically achieved poetic scholar. Without Hip-Hop, (just as all those who have influence me) I would not be who I am today. But, it is also just a snapshot in time of a much bigger portrait of a much beautiful life that has been given to me, and a beautiful life that I continue to build. 

​

And I will forever love it for that.

​

​