Speaker 1: This is the Poet Speaks, a show all about or.
Speaker 2: Tradition, hip hop and cardboard Boxes on the Bloc, Reget
Speaker 2: Bandolero Soyo heavy metal punk rock and La Junior Hide pop.
Speaker 1: What makes poetry so amazing, so incredible is this absolute
Speaker 1: fascination and ability to change our lives, the old tradition,
Speaker 1: the reason why we speak.
Speaker 3: This is the Poet Speaks. Hello everyone, and welcome back
Speaker 3: to the Poet Speaks Podcast. Now today we're joined by
Speaker 3: a very special guest. He's a spoken word artist and
Speaker 3: social worker whose work explores grief, identity, and creative liberation.
Speaker 3: From his memoir A Diamond in God's Dirt to his
Speaker 3: forthcoming album Kiss My Art, he crafts stories that speak
Speaker 3: to the soul and confront life's toughest truth. Everyone, please,
Speaker 3: welcome to the Poet Speaks Podcast.
Speaker 4: Tariq Rashad Tarik. How are you?
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for having
Speaker 2: menap did the snaps absolutely, Amanda Again, like I said,
Speaker 2: I love your platform, so thank you for sharing it with.
Speaker 3: Me absolutely, and we thank you for being a guest
Speaker 3: on our platform today. Now, I kind of want to
Speaker 3: start off. I love you, have you I think you've
Speaker 3: created your own unique saying. So you refer to your
Speaker 3: home as Atlanticville. They were the first person I've ever
Speaker 3: heard say that. I hope you trademarked that that term.
Speaker 3: I hope you trademarked it. So tell me. I know
Speaker 3: you described that as Will you tell us what is
Speaker 3: what is Atlanticville?
Speaker 5: So it's a combination of two cities.
Speaker 2: I was born in Atlantic City, born and raised in
Speaker 2: Atlantic City, and then around my I want to say
Speaker 2: eighth grade, I moved over to Pleasantville. Most people don't
Speaker 2: know what Pleasantville is, no, exactly, so I just combined
Speaker 2: it to Pleasantville is where I lived from eighth grade
Speaker 2: until I graduated high school, and my family still lives
Speaker 2: there now.
Speaker 5: So I just merged it too.
Speaker 2: Most people know Atlantic City obviously, so I don't just
Speaker 2: say Atlantic City because I shared a great amount of
Speaker 2: time in both cities and you know, helping raise and
Speaker 2: ruin me to the person that I am today both cities.
Speaker 2: So Atlanticville is Atlantic City and Pleasantville together.
Speaker 3: So yes, absolutely, that's amazing. So I know there's a
Speaker 3: lot of Pleasantville all over the different fifty states. I
Speaker 3: know Pleasantville, California. I also know Pleasantville, Missouri. I know Pleasantville,
Speaker 3: New York. Yeah, tell me what New York.
Speaker 5: I know New York. I didn't hear California and.
Speaker 3: Miss Yeah yeah never, Okay, okay, for sure, we'll tell me.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, yeah, good to know.
Speaker 3: I mean, we'll tell us how was those those two
Speaker 3: places and how they kind of shaped your voice?
Speaker 4: I guess it's your your a melting pot of both.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2: Atlantic City, so most people know, and again you don't know,
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't know what pleasant it was.
Speaker 2: But Atlantic City people know as just being in the casino,
Speaker 2: Yes city, you know, everybody knows Atlantic City and being
Speaker 2: casinos where you come and the boardwalk and the.
Speaker 5: Beaches and stuff.
Speaker 2: But it's the hood, to be quite frank, it's the hood,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's rough neighborhoods and things like that,
Speaker 2: and I had to kind of navigate through a lot
Speaker 2: of the different things around the neighborhood.
Speaker 5: But aside from.
Speaker 2: That, just my upbringing in my household and just having
Speaker 2: to help raise my siblings from younger while also being
Speaker 2: in a rough neighborhood like Atlantic City was tough in
Speaker 2: its own but Atlantic City has given me everything, like
Speaker 2: just having friends, growing up with friends and playing football,
Speaker 2: literal League football, Atlantic City Dolphins, and running all throughout
Speaker 2: the city, riding my bike, walking around from uptown all
Speaker 2: the way to downtown and this the west Side and
Speaker 2: all the different places around Atlantic City. But mainly just
Speaker 2: being grounded in my household in Atlantic City is what
Speaker 2: kind of shaped me to be the person that I am.
Speaker 2: And then moving over to Pleasantville, it kind of there's
Speaker 2: the same things and whatnot, but they all, I say,
Speaker 2: Atlantic City raised me and then Pleasantville groomed me. They
Speaker 2: both groomed me, but they did two different things. And
Speaker 2: also Atlantic City and Pleasantville growing up and still to
Speaker 2: this day, but not as much as it was when
Speaker 2: I was growing up.
Speaker 5: They were rival cities. You have rival cities and stuff
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 2: Where in town will play Atlantic City would play Pleasantville football,
Speaker 2: whatever sports, and they're just clashing and people having fake beef,
Speaker 2: so whatever you want to call it, Yes, it was
Speaker 2: always rival city. So I remember when I was younger,
Speaker 2: when we were about to move to Pleasantville.
Speaker 5: I remember crying like, I don't want to move to Pleasantville.
Speaker 5: I don't want to move. I hated all of this stuff.
Speaker 2: It was funny, but as I got older as I'm
Speaker 2: doing now, I look back and laugh.
Speaker 5: Like, what are you doing? Why were you going? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I was.
Speaker 5: So attached to Atlantic City, That's my town.
Speaker 2: But again, as I've gotten older and growing on mature
Speaker 2: and stuff, Atlantic City and Pleville have shaped to reek
Speaker 2: to be the person that I am today, just based
Speaker 2: upon our language, how we speak. Some of our and
Speaker 2: a lot of us will use some terms like from
Speaker 2: Philly because Philly is right there, so you might hear
Speaker 2: a ball some slang and stuff like that or whatnot.
Speaker 5: So it's all shaped me to be who I am today, so.
Speaker 3: Absolutely and so kind of dialing into that poetry, I mean,
Speaker 3: so you're writing, I mean it kind of sits at
Speaker 3: that intersection I believe of artistry as well as healing.
Speaker 3: I mean, and you know, as you kind of you know,
Speaker 3: you have these two careers. I guess people may not
Speaker 3: see them as similar social work as well as poet,
Speaker 3: but they do kind of converge into one, right, you know,
Speaker 3: tell me, how do you see poetry functioning almost as
Speaker 3: a form of social work.
Speaker 2: Social work is healing work, to be honest, and you know,
Speaker 2: you got to have empathy to be able to be
Speaker 2: in the field of social work, right. So poetry is
Speaker 2: a form of expression, and I've always expressed myself since
Speaker 2: I was younger, and I've always helped since i was younger.
Speaker 2: As I previously mentioned, just being grounded in my household
Speaker 2: with all of these siblings, and I'm being the second oldest,
Speaker 2: more like the oldest, because my oldest brother has several
Speaker 2: balls and autism. I was just kind of grounded and
Speaker 2: just helping raise him along with my the siblings. And
Speaker 2: that's kind of where the foundation of me being in
Speaker 2: social work started, just empathizing with my brother, not knowing
Speaker 2: what cerebral pause and autism was when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: just being tasked the responsibility of just helping raise.
Speaker 5: Him, you know what I mean, and.
Speaker 2: Also while doing that, having my own challenges and emotions
Speaker 2: and things like that, just finding a way to express myself.
Speaker 2: And I leaned on a notebook in a pins or pen,
Speaker 2: and I would just use I used to just write
Speaker 2: my emotions and my feelings out, and that kind of
Speaker 2: blossomed over the years into all of the works that
Speaker 2: I've wound up creating. So social work ultimately is my
Speaker 2: foundation from just when I was growing up and Obviously
Speaker 2: social work is empathizing and doing work that are that
Speaker 2: is healing. But I also look at it as for
Speaker 2: as a form of just expression, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: just being able.
Speaker 5: To express yourself.
Speaker 2: The art, the art in poetry, it's just a form
Speaker 2: of just expressing yourself and so many other healing things
Speaker 2: and whatnot. But yeah, yeah, it emerged beautifully and seamlessly,
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 3: Honest, absolutely, So tell me when did you kind of
Speaker 3: discover this? When did you discover poetry was in you
Speaker 3: or in your kind of in your blood almost When
Speaker 3: was that discovery for you? Was it in in that
Speaker 3: childhood or was it more so as you grew grew
Speaker 3: as an adult. Where would you say that moment where
Speaker 3: you knew writing was something you wanted to pursue.
Speaker 2: So I would write, as I mentioned, I would write
Speaker 2: when I would like some small things like I was younger,
Speaker 2: like I would write about girls or whatever like that,
Speaker 2: and sometimes, like my feelings would be heard about something,
Speaker 2: I would just write it out. But I never really
Speaker 2: thought of any I never thought anything of it. I
Speaker 2: was just writing, you know what I mean, but expressing
Speaker 2: myself along the way because I didn't necessarily go to
Speaker 2: anyone to kind of express myself. I went to my
Speaker 2: journal and my notebook. But I discovered that I would
Speaker 2: write when I got to college, when I went to
Speaker 2: Seat Hall here in New Jersey, in undergrad and all
Speaker 2: of the challenges and hardships and things that I've been
Speaker 2: through throughout my lifetime at that point, I always was.
Speaker 2: I was saying at that point, like, I'm gonna write
Speaker 2: my story one day. I'm gonna write my story one day,
Speaker 2: like I have something to say. I think it'd be
Speaker 2: inspiring and motivating and encouraging for people, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And I was just like, okay. And I
Speaker 2: wound up having to do an extra semester because I
Speaker 2: was boll crapping in college and not knowing what I
Speaker 2: wanted to do and all of these other things. And
Speaker 2: I had to do an extra semester so that I could,
Speaker 2: you know, finish up. But I finished up, and then
Speaker 2: commencement wasn't. I had a whole nother semester before commencement,
Speaker 2: so I had time in between the actual graduation ceremony
Speaker 2: and between that time. During that time, I didn't have
Speaker 2: no job. I had nothing, and I was just trying
Speaker 2: to figure out what I wanted to do next. So
Speaker 2: my boy now brother, he had family in Saint Croix
Speaker 2: in a Virgin Islands, and he said he actually did
Speaker 2: the extra semester with me. So he said he was
Speaker 2: going to go over the Saint Croi in the Virgin
Speaker 2: islist so he can figure out what his next move
Speaker 2: is going to be. So at that time, when he
Speaker 2: first presented it to me, I was just like, more
Speaker 2: power to you, kudos, shout out to you, do your thing.
Speaker 2: I love you, I pray for you, et cetera. And
Speaker 2: then fast forward, make a long story short. I wound up,
Speaker 2: you know, having a change of heart and I went
Speaker 2: And that was the most life changing decision I made
Speaker 2: in my life.
Speaker 5: While I was there, I was reading it was like
Speaker 5: Malcolm Xi's trip to Mecca.
Speaker 2: Like it was like a reawakening or an awakening for me,
Speaker 2: Like I started to find out who to reak was,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? At that point, and I
Speaker 2: was reading and writing and creating and applying to schools
Speaker 2: and doing all of these different things. And that's when
Speaker 2: I really really started diving deep into my poetry. At
Speaker 2: that point, I was just writing and creating and doing
Speaker 2: this and writing a script and writing about writing my
Speaker 2: poetry and where I was in my life and all
Speaker 2: of these different things, and it really started coming out
Speaker 2: during that time.
Speaker 5: So yeah, that's.
Speaker 2: When I really started, and I think not I think
Speaker 2: I know for a fact, it was because I started
Speaker 2: to really understand my purpose and where I was headed.
Speaker 2: I didn't quite get it at that point, but I
Speaker 2: was just starting to scratch the surface, like, Okay, I
Speaker 2: know what God is telling me, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, how important do you think those types
Speaker 3: of like you said, I mean, it's like a pilgrimage
Speaker 3: almost like your Malcolm X took a pilgrimage to Mecca
Speaker 3: and came back very a bit of a different person.
Speaker 3: How important for you personally is it to take maybe
Speaker 3: those I guess maybe almost those bodily breaks. Do you
Speaker 3: still find yourself taking those same exact breaks to maybe
Speaker 3: find that same inspiration again.
Speaker 5: Well, first off, it's super important.
Speaker 2: But with how everybody's life is set up. Yeah, people
Speaker 2: got kids, jobs, different things like that. I didn't have
Speaker 2: anything at that but I just had a girlfriend at
Speaker 2: the time, no disrespect, but I had a garling at
Speaker 2: the time, so I had a little more and she
Speaker 2: encouraged me to go too, so that was also helpful.
Speaker 2: But the way people's lives are set up, it's difficult
Speaker 2: to do it. But with how my life has shaped
Speaker 2: out to be, like, it's super necessary, it really is,
Speaker 2: like and people might not have that, Like I was
Speaker 2: away for about two and a half months, just I
Speaker 2: just left, you know what I mean. Everybody doesn't have
Speaker 2: the opportunity to do that, you know, but it is necessary.
Speaker 2: It is very necessary because we got to take care
Speaker 2: of ourselves. And before I went, I was lost, like
Speaker 2: I had Like I don't want to say I had nothing,
Speaker 2: but practically nothing. I didn't know what I wanted to
Speaker 2: do with myself. I just finished with all of my
Speaker 2: credits and everything for undergrad and I hadn't I didn't
Speaker 2: know what I was lost.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean. So just back to your question, though,
Speaker 5: it's super super important, super necessary, and at this point
Speaker 5: in my life, I still take those times to uh
Speaker 5: and I have three.
Speaker 2: Kids and a wife now, so I can't just say,
Speaker 2: all right, I'm out, I'm gonna go.
Speaker 5: To Virgin Islands for a few months.
Speaker 2: No, I can't do that, but there are spent Like
Speaker 2: you have meditation, you know you have therapy. You know,
Speaker 2: for me, I create, but I take my time and
Speaker 2: I take my time in space to be able to
Speaker 2: do those things so that I could create all of
Speaker 2: these things that I do.
Speaker 5: So it's super necessary, you know, making sure that you
Speaker 5: make yourself a priority.
Speaker 2: And that's ultimately what I did when I went away
Speaker 2: to Saint Croi's. I made myself the priority so that
Speaker 2: I can take care of myself, and so many beautiful
Speaker 2: things came from it.
Speaker 5: And that's the same thing.
Speaker 2: That I've done now that I'm doing now and how
Speaker 2: I've can how I've come to create the things that
Speaker 2: I've created.
Speaker 3: So absolutely and speaking of I mean beautiful things being
Speaker 3: created by beautiful, amazing people. Nikki Giovanni praised your ability
Speaker 3: to capture both the universal and the deeply personal. Well,
Speaker 3: first and foremost, tell me how did that come about?
Speaker 4: Did you to me?
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 3: Tell us how the story behind her giving you that?
Speaker 3: I mean that amazing raise.
Speaker 1: On your work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, first and foremost resting piece, Niggi, the great Missus
Speaker 2: Nigga Giovanni, rest in peace. So I never got the
Speaker 2: honor of meeting her in person or whatnot, but we
Speaker 2: were able to exchange through exchange emails and.
Speaker 5: Contact and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But with my poetry book, I was just everything I
Speaker 2: do is independent, So I google this trying to figure
Speaker 2: that out. I wish we had chat, GPT and time
Speaker 2: to reach her sooner, but I've went through all of
Speaker 2: these loopholes just trying to figure out how to reach
Speaker 2: her and so many other people. And I was just
Speaker 2: trying to get blurbed for my poetry book at the time,
Speaker 2: and she wound up reaching back out to me and
Speaker 2: you know, looked at my work and everything, and she.
Speaker 5: Gave me that beautiful blurb that.
Speaker 2: Well, somebody gave me a beautiful idea to put the quote,
Speaker 2: not the entire quote, but some of the quote on
Speaker 2: the hoodie on a hoodie for the merch that I'm
Speaker 2: selling with a new project. So big, big love and
Speaker 2: respect to miss Nikki Jiovanni. She she means and she
Speaker 2: meant to me so much, to not just authors and
Speaker 2: poets and things like that, but just people in general.
Speaker 5: You know, she meant so much.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, tell me more.
Speaker 3: I mean, what does it mean when someone I mean,
Speaker 3: such a great literary giant, someone of such gravity gravity?
Speaker 3: What does it mean when you hear someone like her
Speaker 3: praise your work like that to you personally on a
Speaker 3: personal level.
Speaker 2: On a personal level, it just tells me that I'm
Speaker 2: doing the right things. You know, I'm headed in the
Speaker 2: right direction. My voice matters.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we do these things and podcasts and things like
Speaker 2: that and we think, you know, sometimes we question ourselves
Speaker 2: like am I you know, am I doing this right?
Speaker 5: Or about this the right way and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But when you get you know, nas like that, it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm doing something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 5: Doing something right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And just that that nod from her lets me know,
Speaker 2: like all right, and that reassurance of I guess of
Speaker 2: it being on the hoodie. I think that will also
Speaker 2: like be like okay, you know, that's a reminder like
Speaker 2: all right, you know, you don't have all the things
Speaker 2: that you want, you're not doing all that, You're not
Speaker 2: in the space that you want to be right now.
Speaker 2: But miss Nikki Giovanni gave you the nod, so keep going.
Speaker 2: You're doing the right thing.
Speaker 3: So absolutely absolutely now moving along a bit so your
Speaker 3: memoir it's called a diamond in God's dirt. It's a
Speaker 3: powerful I feel almost spiritual title what I mean, tell
Speaker 3: us where did that come from? And I guess when I.
Speaker 4: Hear a diamond in God's dirt.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, what dirt did you have to kind of
Speaker 3: dig through to find your own diamond?
Speaker 4: Tell me a bit about that.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean. It's dirt, but it's God's dirt,
Speaker 5: so you gotta dust the dirt off. And you know
Speaker 5: I'm the god dust it all.
Speaker 2: But I'm a huge Kendrick Lamar fan. So one of
Speaker 2: his songs, his lyrics like He's a diamond in guy's dirt.
Speaker 2: I just kind of took it to be honest, and
Speaker 2: I use it as mine and created, you know, my autobiography,
Speaker 2: And I mean the meaning behind it is kind of
Speaker 2: self explanatory. Is just like, you know, the dirt is
Speaker 2: me going through me being dirty from all of the
Speaker 2: hardships and challenges and everything that I've dealt with throughout
Speaker 2: my lifetime. But even though I have dirt and all
Speaker 2: of these things on me, I'm still a diamond and
Speaker 2: God is working on me shining the diamond off, shining
Speaker 2: the dirt off of the diamond so that I can
Speaker 2: be the best version of myself. And I can shine
Speaker 2: or help shine God's light on other people. So it's
Speaker 2: very spiritual.
Speaker 5: And when you see the cover, the cover is actually
Speaker 5: my mom's hand and my dad's hand. My uncle actually
Speaker 5: created the artwork and that's my mom's actual hand, and
Speaker 5: my dad took a picture and then he like drew it. It
Speaker 5: was beautiful.
Speaker 2: And then it's like milk and honey, which is in
Speaker 2: the Bible, spilled into the diamond, which created the diamond,
Speaker 2: which is me.
Speaker 5: So it means that artwork means a lot to me.
Speaker 5: It means everything to me because that's.
Speaker 2: My parents molding me to be the person I am,
Speaker 2: but also again against God creating them to create me,
Speaker 2: and then all of those other spiritud things and connections.
Speaker 3: So yes, well, I mean, what was the biggest thing
Speaker 3: you learned about yourself and writing that memoir?
Speaker 5: Oh me the wine.
Speaker 2: At that time, man, I was able to overcome a
Speaker 2: whole lot that I didn't think I'd be able to
Speaker 2: persevere through. And going back to the title of diamond
Speaker 2: and God's dirt, it wasn't me that got to that point.
Speaker 5: It was God that willed me.
Speaker 2: To putting that project together, will me through life to
Speaker 2: be able to create a project like that, but just
Speaker 2: me having allowing God to work through me to be
Speaker 2: able to create such an important body and work, and
Speaker 2: I was able to do so many different things with
Speaker 2: that body, Like I went to buzz boys and poets.
Speaker 5: And just some poetry and met so many people.
Speaker 2: And that what to answer your question, I started coming
Speaker 2: into my own I realized like, Okay, this is this
Speaker 2: is what it is, this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't just about me just because I love
Speaker 2: the process of creating and putting something beautiful together, but
Speaker 2: once it starts connecting, it's like, Okay, I'm doing this
Speaker 2: is this is the real work right here, and I'm
Speaker 2: starting to connect with people with the messaging and things
Speaker 2: that I the things that I'm writing about. So just
Speaker 2: realizing that what I'm creating is actually connecting and I'm
Speaker 2: doing the work that God wants me to do.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Now tell me, kind of speaking more of your work,
Speaker 3: what's so unique about it is? You know, you fuse
Speaker 3: a lot of jazz, hip hop and spoken word together.
Speaker 4: I mean, what do you think specifically.
Speaker 3: Those genres again, jazz, hip hop, spoken word, what do
Speaker 3: you think they allow you to say or feel maybe
Speaker 3: that traditional poetry just cannot.
Speaker 2: Allows me to express myself, and however I want to
Speaker 2: express myself, you know what I mean. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: able to talk a little bit on it and be
Speaker 2: you know, cool, savvy, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: But overall for me is just me being able to
Speaker 2: really just express myself however I want on some cool beats.
Speaker 2: I'm grounded in nineties and jazz and things like that.
Speaker 2: So when you listen to my music, that's what you'll hear,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And that's not intentional, it's
Speaker 2: a subconscious thing. I just rap it towards I guess,
Speaker 2: those kinds of beats because again, that's what I love.
Speaker 5: I love the nineties music and things like that. So
Speaker 5: just being able to express myself as freely as I
Speaker 5: want to. And I don't even intentionally mean to, like
Speaker 5: like I have hooks on my my poetry and on
Speaker 5: my songs, I don't. It just comes to me naturally.
Speaker 5: It just comes to me.
Speaker 2: Like I'm not going like, I'm not going into it,
Speaker 2: like all right, I'm gonna write a poem and then
Speaker 2: I'm gonna write a hook.
Speaker 5: I'm not going into it like that.
Speaker 2: I just write the poem, right, and then as I'm
Speaker 2: hearing a beat, I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool,
Speaker 2: and then I'll just create a hook that goes with it.
Speaker 2: So again, I don't go into it wanting to create
Speaker 2: a hook. It just comes to me naturally. And I
Speaker 2: say that humbly obviously.
Speaker 4: Oh you know, it's okay to be not humble sometimes
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 3: So, you know, speaking, I thought, I find it interesting
Speaker 3: you love the nineties, and one thing about the nineties,
Speaker 3: I feel like that was a time of such it's
Speaker 3: so different from today's art, especially in terms of the
Speaker 3: spoken word, right, because in the nineties it was very
Speaker 3: much defiance. I feel like, you know, Lady of Rage
Speaker 3: was a big rapper, public enemy, you know, NWA. Even
Speaker 3: in the names of our groups, we had defiance in
Speaker 3: the title, and that I feel like, in some ways
Speaker 3: is a bit more difficult to find in today's cultural landscape.
Speaker 3: Without getting too political, we don't really have a defiance now.
Speaker 3: We have a system almost that wants to go with
Speaker 3: the system that reflects in the art. But what I
Speaker 3: love about your new album.
Speaker 4: It's called kiss My Art.
Speaker 3: So that title that feels both defiant but also very free.
Speaker 3: Tell me what what went into this new album and
Speaker 3: kind of what this new spoken word piece. What was
Speaker 3: the creativity process for you?
Speaker 2: I love how you put that together. And that's Spottle.
Speaker 2: It's really because when you hear it kiss my Art,
Speaker 2: it's like kiss.
Speaker 5: My you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: But I'm also just honoring where I am in my
Speaker 2: life and honoring my art. But before before I get
Speaker 2: to kiss my Art, my project When the Heart Speaks,
Speaker 2: which is Grammy considered right now. Thank God, it's super
Speaker 2: super important project. But that's the prelude to my album,
Speaker 2: Kiss My Art. But it all the rolls around art
Speaker 2: and me and bracing where I'm at in my life
Speaker 2: right now. And I always come to points where I'm
Speaker 2: going through so many different things in my life and
Speaker 2: then I just start creating. And I was just saying
Speaker 2: this with a previous interview. Sometimes I feel like I'm
Speaker 2: married J Blige. You know you gotta go through some
Speaker 2: struggle to create something beautiful or whatnot. But you know
Speaker 2: it's necessary, you know what I mean? And I know
Speaker 2: the work is uh, I take myself outside, I take
Speaker 2: myself outside of myself because I know my purpose is
Speaker 2: to help other people and my story and my journey
Speaker 2: is not about me, and that's what this project is about.
Speaker 2: It's about it's healing, you know, it's healing for me
Speaker 2: and just embracing who I am as a person, as
Speaker 2: a man, as an artist, truly coming into my own
Speaker 2: now because I said that before, but I'm truly coming
Speaker 2: into my own now. Like this project is elevated more
Speaker 2: than any other project that I've created, and it's so
Speaker 2: very important for people to listen to it so that
Speaker 2: they could heal, so that they could embrace where they
Speaker 2: are in their journey in life, whether it be through grief,
Speaker 2: whether it be financial hardship, family problems, jobs, whatever, it's
Speaker 2: a This project is about embracing it all good or bad,
Speaker 2: and just finding a way. If you don't like where
Speaker 2: you are, you know, you have to embrace it so
Speaker 2: that you can get to the other side, you know,
Speaker 2: And it starts with accepting where you are, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 5: That's the part of embracing. So yeah, that this body
Speaker 5: of work is also a tribute to my mom. I
Speaker 5: lost my mom.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one to a car accident, actually and
Speaker 2: tragic car accident. So my single to this album because
Speaker 2: my art No Regrets is a huge tribute to her,
Speaker 2: and a few other tracks on there is a tribute
Speaker 2: to her as well.
Speaker 5: And like I said, this whole.
Speaker 2: Body of work is just in me facing you know,
Speaker 2: those tough times, tough situations. I'm not having my mom
Speaker 2: here but saying okay to Rick, you gotta face this
Speaker 2: so that you can take steps forward. And if you
Speaker 2: don't face this, you're not going to be able to
Speaker 2: take steps forward. So again going back to me saying
Speaker 2: it's not about me, like, all right, although this is
Speaker 2: my grief and these are other things that I have
Speaker 2: to deal with, I'm not the only one who grieves,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I'm not the only lone
Speaker 2: person who's lost a parent or lost someone. So it's like,
Speaker 2: all right, well I have to show people. And not
Speaker 2: that I intentionally went in that way, but at that
Speaker 2: I created, I'm like, Okay, I can be a voice
Speaker 2: for other people, like all right, well if I can
Speaker 2: do it, and I know it sounds cliche.
Speaker 5: If I can do it, the next person can as well.
Speaker 5: But I put it on wax if you may through
Speaker 5: my album, So yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that I mean, speaking of your mom, and
Speaker 3: again made her soul rest in perfect peace. I mean
Speaker 3: the album actually opens with a voicemail from your late
Speaker 3: mother tell us, I mean, how did weaving you know,
Speaker 3: your mother's voice into your art change your relationship maybe
Speaker 3: with grief and remembrance or it or did it?
Speaker 2: So when I first thought of putting her well, first off,
Speaker 2: I stumbled across putting her on the track.
Speaker 5: No, you do, somebody or whatever.
Speaker 2: You start going through old text messages and voice sales
Speaker 2: and things like that.
Speaker 5: So that's what I was doing. And I'm just.
Speaker 2: Listening and crying and questioning God and going through all
Speaker 2: of my emotions, my feels. As the kids would say,
Speaker 2: I'm just just going through the process of just grieving.
Speaker 2: It came to me like, all right, let me just
Speaker 2: put this on the track once. Once I was able
Speaker 2: to take that step forward, I knew I was ready
Speaker 2: to start creating again. But grief is forever. Grief is
Speaker 2: not all right. I grieve, I grieve this month, I'm
Speaker 2: over it. I'm good. No, that's not how grief works.
Speaker 2: They say grief gets better with time. For me, it
Speaker 2: does not, especially with the things that I'm doing, the
Speaker 2: things that I'm accomplishing. Having a family and all of
Speaker 2: these things. I want my mom here, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So it does not get easy, it gets
Speaker 2: more difficult. But just including her on the album it
Speaker 2: was healing for me. It was healing for me. And
Speaker 2: even these interviews and talking about her is healing for me.
Speaker 2: It's like a small piece that's being healed every time
Speaker 2: I talk about her and stuff. And sometimes it's difficult
Speaker 2: for me to listen to on the voicemail at the beginning,
Speaker 2: or even a song still and and and honestly it's
Speaker 2: because of repetition too, because the song has just been
Speaker 2: playing from playing him playing, you know how it is
Speaker 2: with singles, It's like, all right, I'm tired of it.
Speaker 2: But honestly, the creating it, it's it was healing. Just
Speaker 2: simply put, it was healing listening to her, putting her
Speaker 2: on the album on that track specifically, it was healing
Speaker 2: for healing from my spirit, healing for my soul, healing
Speaker 2: from my mind. It was a whole healing process for me,
Speaker 2: to be honest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean in healing seems to be kind
Speaker 3: of just the centralized theme of your work. But tell me,
Speaker 3: I mean this your new album again, kiss my art.
Speaker 3: It does seem like, how did you know it had
Speaker 3: to be infused with music as opposed to all your
Speaker 3: other pieces, you know, bodies of work you've created, not
Speaker 3: just poetry on the page. What made you this time
Speaker 3: kind of just say, you know what, this healing work,
Speaker 3: this has.
Speaker 4: To be infused with music? What really kind of put
Speaker 4: you on that track?
Speaker 2: Expression and connection as mentioned like, I mean, for me,
Speaker 2: the arts is no but the art you can express
Speaker 2: yourself however you want, right, Yeah, And with where I
Speaker 2: was and where I still am, to a certain degree,
Speaker 2: I needed a place to be able to just release.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: And I know I knew and I know that me
Speaker 2: releasing that in the ways that I did on each track,
Speaker 2: it's going to connect. So going back to the expression
Speaker 2: and connection, I just wanted to be able to. I
Speaker 2: cried on some tracks, I was angry on some tracks,
Speaker 2: and just going through the natural progression of my feelings
Speaker 2: and emotions.
Speaker 5: And that is just that.
Speaker 2: Human right, and those naturally human emotions and expressions are
Speaker 2: has and will continue to connect with people. And I
Speaker 2: know it's going to resonate and help the next person
Speaker 2: here along their healing process. So for me, it was
Speaker 2: just connection, expression and connection first and foremost it was expression.
Speaker 2: I had to let it out. I had to let
Speaker 2: it out, you know what I mean, Which is why
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to start getting on stages and perform
Speaker 2: in this body of work. I'm super excited because that's
Speaker 2: going to draw even more connection and amplify my voice
Speaker 2: and this project to so many more people.
Speaker 5: So I'm super excited for that.
Speaker 3: And when you have such a project that kind of
Speaker 3: has engaged you in such ways all of your senses,
Speaker 3: but also it seems a spiritual sense, how did you know?
Speaker 3: And I always want to ask an artist this, and
Speaker 3: sometimes I never have the chance to.
Speaker 4: How did you know when.
Speaker 3: You were finished making the album? Or how did you
Speaker 3: know you were finished with this body of work? When
Speaker 3: did you just say, hey, you know what, I'm done,
Speaker 3: this is complete now? Or do you ever have that feeling.
Speaker 2: Like finished, like completing this actual the album or just period.
Speaker 3: Just completing the actual, the whole piece, the body of work,
Speaker 3: the actual album, You're like, you know, let me send
Speaker 3: it in for mastering.
Speaker 4: I'm done now. We no more to add, no more to,
Speaker 4: no more to split this up. We're done. We're going
Speaker 4: to send them for final editor you know.
Speaker 2: I think that was my producer. Shout out to my producer,
Speaker 2: Keene Dunkley. He's actually rem nominated producers. Shout out to him.
Speaker 2: But I had a couple other tracks that I wanted
Speaker 2: to include as well. For me, sometimes I don't know
Speaker 2: he's finished because I'll be having so much to say.
Speaker 2: But I guess that's also why you have a team.
Speaker 2: It's like, all right, we got to cut it at
Speaker 2: this point.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And that's difficult being independent too, because sometimes like prior
Speaker 2: to this project, yeah, prior to this project, actually I
Speaker 2: was just doing everything myself.
Speaker 5: So I can want to cut it.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean so if I you.
Speaker 2: Know, with me having a team, like I was cut
Speaker 2: at eleven tracks, Yeah, yeah, eleven tracks.
Speaker 5: But I could have I have like four or five
Speaker 5: additional tracks. But going back to the nineties.
Speaker 2: Right the nineties, it was ten nine, ten, maybe twelve
Speaker 2: tracks total, you know what I mean. So I mean
Speaker 2: subconsciously I give you that with the eleven tracks, to
Speaker 2: be honest, versus today where a lot of artists are
Speaker 2: giving you twenty tracks or something like that.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So, but just to answer your question, just having a
Speaker 2: team and with my producer helping me to kind of
Speaker 2: narrow the tracks down, and honestly being there in the
Speaker 2: studio with him and listening to each track from start
Speaker 2: to finish, it felt like it was finished, to be honest.
Speaker 5: With the very last track from No Regrets to Still Here,
Speaker 5: it was like, all right, that's it. It sounds like
Speaker 5: it really sounds like it's done. It's finished. We're done.
Speaker 5: That's a rat you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So it's a feeling, it's definitely a feeling. But I
Speaker 2: had to get to that feeling, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because I had so much more to say. But that's
Speaker 2: what the performance is in Everything is for stage, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, absolutely, now tell me about I mean, so,
Speaker 3: this show, this podcast, it's really about the power of
Speaker 3: the voice of the poet, you know. So I want
Speaker 3: to know you as someone that you're a poet. I mean,
Speaker 3: what do you think is the role of the poet
Speaker 3: today in our society?
Speaker 4: You know, with our.
Speaker 3: Changing discourse, things are changing by the day.
Speaker 4: What do you think the role of the poet is
Speaker 4: in today's world?
Speaker 2: The role of the poet is to connect with people
Speaker 2: first and foremost through emotion and expression.
Speaker 5: That's how that's my mentality.
Speaker 2: I always want to encourage other people and poets along.
Speaker 5: The way to just express yourself as freely as possible
Speaker 5: and to be yourself.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people out here try to
Speaker 2: emulate this one or that one and try to do
Speaker 2: this or that when that's not really who they are.
Speaker 2: So just being authentic in your approach to creation, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. I think that's a huge responsibility,
Speaker 2: and just trying to connect with people through that expression
Speaker 2: of authenticity, you know what I mean. I think just
Speaker 2: being authentic to who you are, your goal, your purpose,
Speaker 2: your mission, will allow you to connect with so many
Speaker 2: other people, you know what I mean. It's it's tough
Speaker 2: out here watching some you know what I mean, It's
Speaker 2: tough he just watching some artists or whatever whatever, jump
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: It's tough.
Speaker 2: So it's a breath of fresh air when something authentic
Speaker 2: comes around.
Speaker 5: And when something authentic comes around, you know.
Speaker 2: It, you know what I mean, and you can leave
Speaker 2: out the the fake or whatever you want to call
Speaker 2: it as well. So I think the role of the
Speaker 2: poet is to just be authentic and express yourself authentically,
Speaker 2: be yourself, be bold, and be yourself no matter what.
Speaker 2: There's millions and millions and millions of poets that we
Speaker 2: never even heard of, you know what I mean. I've
Speaker 2: gone to like poetry slams and stuff like that in
Speaker 2: New York, and there's so many different types of poets,
Speaker 2: so many different types of poets, and sometimes I be
Speaker 2: blown away, but I always it always takes me back
Speaker 2: to when I was playing sports, when I was growing up,
Speaker 2: and it's like, all right, don't worry about everybody else.
Speaker 5: Just worry about yourself. You know that.
Speaker 2: Obviously there are so many other better point guards shooting
Speaker 2: guards than you, but we ain't worried about that. Just
Speaker 2: focus on you better in your craft, be true to
Speaker 2: who you are, and you're good, you.
Speaker 5: Know what I mean.
Speaker 2: That's the same reproach that I take with creating poetry
Speaker 2: and writing and things like that. So like when I
Speaker 2: created my autobiography, obviously there's trillions of autobiographies, I made
Speaker 2: a conscious effort not to read any autobiographies because I
Speaker 2: didn't want to emulate the next author's style of writing.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And the same with you know, my poetry book and
Speaker 2: my project right now with kiss, my art and things like.
Speaker 2: I try not and obviously I listen to music, but
Speaker 2: I try not to like listen to poets so much
Speaker 2: or artists so much, because I don't want to, because
Speaker 2: I think naturally, you know, we emulate other people too,
Speaker 2: But I try to stay away from those things so
Speaker 2: that I can lock in and focus and it's easy
Speaker 2: for me to create because it's my story, right. I
Speaker 2: can't emulate somebody else talking about my story, right. So
Speaker 2: you just being authentic to yourself and expressing yourself authentically,
Speaker 2: That's what's up.
Speaker 3: That's what's up, all right, Tyreek, We have one more
Speaker 3: question for you today on the Poets Spics podcast, Trek.
Speaker 4: Why do you need to get your words out?
Speaker 5: My words are?
Speaker 2: Why do I want to get my words out? Why
Speaker 2: do I want to get my words out to people?
Speaker 2: Or why do I just want to get my words out?
Speaker 5: In general?
Speaker 4: Well, why do you need to get your words out?
Speaker 2: Expression? I gotta get this out and self sabotaged man? Sometimes,
Speaker 2: you know, we carry these thoughts and ideas and whatever
Speaker 2: else we have in our like grief. We carry all
Speaker 2: of these things trauma, all of these things we carry
Speaker 2: with us from over the years, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: And it's important for us to release and let it
Speaker 2: out because it becomes starts to decay and rocks and mold,
Speaker 2: and then we're walking around heavy and feeling sick and
Speaker 2: things like that, and it's important for us to release
Speaker 2: those things and hit a reset.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And that's that's been my process throughout my life and
Speaker 2: specifically with this product, just trying to embracing again, embracing
Speaker 2: where I'm at in my life by accepting all of
Speaker 2: the things that has occurred with the loss of my
Speaker 2: mom and the loss of this one and all of
Speaker 2: these things, accepting it first and then saying, okay, let's
Speaker 2: go to the drawing board. Let's figure out how we're
Speaker 2: gonna move forward, you know what I mean. And the
Speaker 2: drawing board is me my spirituality, talking to God, trying
Speaker 2: to figure out where he wants me to go, how
Speaker 2: he wants me to approach.
Speaker 5: It, and different things like that. So that's for me,
Speaker 5: you know, just just just trying to find that space
Speaker 5: to be able to let it out, just let it out.
Speaker 5: We carry it on, carry all of that stuff on.
Speaker 5: It's not it's just self sabotaged.
Speaker 3: Absolutely all right, Well, thank you so much, Tyreek, big
Speaker 3: thank you to you for showing up today being a
Speaker 3: guest on the Pope Speak podcast. Now before we wrap up, wrap,
Speaker 3: but we would like to know please drop any social
Speaker 3: media links, website links and tell us what do you
Speaker 3: have for the rest of twenty twenty five till and beyond,
Speaker 3: for the rest of the year going off.
Speaker 2: For you now, well, thank you again a man for
Speaker 2: having me on. I'm super, super, super super grateful for
Speaker 2: you sharing your platform with me and.
Speaker 5: For the rest of the year.
Speaker 2: So I think next week they announced the nominees for.
Speaker 5: Grammys. So I'm praying.
Speaker 2: And I'm hoping to God that I am a nominee
Speaker 2: for a Best Spoken Word Poetry Album with my EP
Speaker 2: when the heart speaks up, anybody listening out there, just
Speaker 2: sending prayer up for your boy. So now I can
Speaker 2: get the nomination and everything, but you can find my work.
Speaker 2: I'm an independent artist. My work is on band camp.
Speaker 2: You can just type treikashot In and my album Kiss
Speaker 2: My Art would come up. I have merched with Hoodies.
Speaker 2: I have a journal, Kiss My Journal, which is pretty dope.
Speaker 2: The vinyl is on the website as well.
Speaker 5: Click the link. Connect with me. I'm on social media.
Speaker 2: My Instagram is to Reak underscore Rashad, Send me a message,
Speaker 2: follow me whatever. I love connecting talking to people about
Speaker 2: my journey and.
Speaker 5: Carriaging and inspiring.
Speaker 2: I put up posts all the time every day, so
Speaker 2: just connect with me and I appreciate all the love
Speaker 2: and support along the way.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely again everyone, a big thank you to Tyreek.
Speaker 3: Tyrek's all of his details all the links will be
Speaker 3: down below in the detailed section of wherever you're listening
Speaker 3: to this amazing podcast. Again, thank you so much for
Speaker 3: being a guest on today's show. Tyreek, thank you absolutely
Speaker 3: all right, and everyone again check out all his links
Speaker 3: the detailed box down below. Everyone, this is the Poet
Speaker 3: Speaks podcast. We'll see you next time, but bye.