1. Favorite line, right now, of yours:
SEKOU: my politics are too liberal to get me a place in your heaven;
my religion, too conservative to get me a place in your protest
2. Favorite line, right now, of someone else:
SEKOU: “click-click, i no longer find it coincidence that the sound of a pen is the same sound a gun makes.”—from “Open Mic” by Asia (Miami, FL)
3. It’s been __________ since the last time you __________:
SEKOU: “it’s been 6 days since the last time i went to the gym,
But so what, I really don’t need to be muscular. I’m a healthy cat.
Besides ladies don’t want one of those muscle-bound cats, with concrete chisled pecs,
and biceps that bulge to the size of melons and . . .
and…
syphilis.
They want guys like me:
Disease Free, baby!”
4. You knew it was a good/bad gig (pick one) when:
SEKOU: I knew it was going to be a good gig, when I stepped into the venue, WHILE another poet was featuring, and the whole room shouted out “cuuuuuckoooooooooo!” so loud I wanted to apologize to the poet who was reading before me.
5. The proudest money you ever made was:
SEKOU: I was late to a show after driving down to pick up my brand new, debut spoken word CD from the duplicator… I ran in the venue with minutes to spare … nervously pacing, sweating, and deep-breathing backstage before going up and ripping one of the best sets of my life. I then stood outside after and made my entire rent in CD sales. It was two days after I quit my job to become a full time poet, and I thought to myself, with a secret smile, “Oh shit! I can DO this.”
6. When I say “swingset,” you think (where?):
SEKOU: Any ghetto park, in any hood, USA; one swing hangs lobsided with one chain broken, another with leather torn at the seams, but there’s always just one that still works—"the last working swing in the park.”
7. When I say “covet,” you think (what?):
SEKOU: my neighbor’s house, his ox, his donkey, his wife, and his female servant . . . okay, just his wife and female servant together . . . butt-naked . . . what was the question?
8. When I say “credit,” you think (who?):
SEKOU: Rives and Steve Connell taking credit internationally for each others poems because, well, it’s just not worth it to correct anyone anymore.
9. When I say “habit,” you think (…?):
SEKOU: Rubbing my eyes and saying I’m tired at the beginning of my set.
10. What’s on God’s iPod?
SEKOU: 1. Psalm 13, sang by Prince, remixed by Timbaland, with a guest verse by Makavelli (and as it turns out, God’s IPOD has a feature that, whenever the same song is played by anyone else, it’s sang by that individual listener’s equivalent of Prince, Tim, and Makavelli … Apple hasn’t released that feature to the public yet, but I know a guy who knows a guy …)
2. a rough mixdown of the inspiration for my next CD (I’m still waiting for Him to let me burn it)
p.s. (anything else?)
SEKOU: “The kids better buy my Rookie Card now,
cause after this year, the price aint going down,
… It’s just a warning, as usual some cats won’t heed it,
The hard-headed always gotta feel it to believe it!”
-Mos Def
CUUUUUUCKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
|
