INSIGHT
December 2005
" To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” ~Joseph Chilton Pearce
[ MIND THOUGHTS ]
[ INGREDIENTS ]
[ MIND THOUGHTS ]............................................1 Attention please, this issue has hit the Atiba Edwards collegefinalsbudgetnotright diet. Meaning it is slim and very light in weight but it is due to the timing of finals as people rejoice for school to end [ POETICS ].............................................................2 as if it was some unimaginable pain. Nice, France Linville, North Carolina Which it really isn’t because school and life are One Sunset just a bunch of things for you to sort out and put Her Contour in order. [ UNDER THE NEEDLE ].....................................3 Papoose Hip Hop Essentials
[ COVER ARTWORK ]
Front cover is a special compilation of our works over the years. This is our 12th official issue and boy does it feel good. We have progressed a long way from “The Letter.” Starting with issue number 4, we implemented a cover designed by various artists here on campus and across the nation. The covers have been designed by by Phil Simpson, Chamira Jones, JorOne, Max Fabick, Maggie Kantola, Alma Davila-Tora, Leah Yurasek, Hana Murray and Mindy Steffen.
Mark you calendars because this Saturday, Dec 10th, we will hold a talent showcase like none other. There will be arts and artists that normally are never put in the same stage. Next year, we are in the process of a lot of reorganization and improvement so stay tuned. To let you know what FOKUS is about and convince you that you need to take part: FOKUS’ mission is to create a community using the arts. We bring together diverse individuals beyond race, gender, and art. Diverse in terms of arts supersedes all other barriers and boundaries mankind has created. Send us an email. Join the movement!
Visit the website for more information.
-Atiba
[ CHIEF EDITOR ] Atiba Edwards [ CONTRIBUTORS ] Terra Bogart • B. Charles • Atiba Edwards • Amanda Rudd • Megan Smith • Leah Yurasek
www.onefokus.com
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INSIGHT
December 2005
[ POETICS ] .: Nice, France :.
~Leah Yurasek yurasekl@umich.edu
cobble stoned streets lead to markets where umbrellas cover rows of handpicked fruits placed carefully in wooden baskets, and French men with thick accents whisper “belle fille, voulez-vous une jolie fleur?” while their wives sell haricot verts and endives. We bought strawberries for two Euros and ate them on a white bench tossing their naked green tops towards the sea. Away from the ocean the smell of cheap Asian food keeps my chin buried in my chest as I avoid the eyes of strangers I count pieces of chewed bubblegum littering the sidewalk. Winding through the city we climb seemingly endless steps, seventy three, seventy four, seventy five, to where Nice is painted with pastels. Before leaving we watch as rain smears the city into a Chagall of water and land.
Rows of Christmas trees score the Appalachian hills. A forced forest only interrupted by the winding road and winter, when farmers harvest and ship them to doting Christians, eager to adorn the naked Evergreens with Christ-is-Born tinsel. We accumulate stares like old pennies the coppery burn stings behind our lashes. We eat at the diner, two queer little girls who have no business among the Bible breathing, stern-faced men and eye-lined women of Linville. The room an auditorium, our table the stage, the Forest Berry pie delicious. Confederate flags hover over our heads in the dated gas station. The man behind the counter barely breathes in his overalls as we ask for directions. As if a deep breath would kill him. We leave, go north, the Evergreen farms following us, our lips sweet with fresh berries, our minds sour with Christmas.
At night neon lights from laundromats form intricate patterns in puddles that reflect the scene from a third floor window. Drunk from red wine we create our own reflection as cold water grips frigidly to our legs leaving an oily residue of the day’s masterpiece on our shoes. We stumble to the ocean, reaching it by trusting the smell. I tilt my head back to look at the grey clouds, instead of doing the same you gently kiss my forehead.
and hair tumbles over my shoulders onto tomorrow’s tank top which will suffocate me with last night’s perfume of cigarette smoke and blood oranges.
~Amanda Rudd
Linville, North Carolina breeds Christmas.
Along the Côte D’Azur
The beauty of my French artist is coated in grey and white as my mascara drips filming the colors of our painting with black salt water
.: Linville, North Carolina :.
.: One Sunset :.
~Megan Smith
This one sunset, brilliant honey colors melting, every moment different, a slow dissolve, the image the moment before, lost. Perhaps if we could glimpse eternity, we would see that we are each a single sunset, beautiful and fleeting, a shooting star across the night sky. Our existence, a single spark of utmost joy and tragedy, so close in temporal proximity that they are one. We are a blooming firework, scattered raindrops in a puddle, an elegant crumbling into entropy in the eternal eyes of God.
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INSIGHT
December 2005 .: Her Contour :.
~Terra Bogart
The surface of her velvet river ripples and sways back and forth, strange metallic water trickles kindly, over the back of my eyes.
headliner of the mix-tape. How do you know you’re about to blow1? Answer: When you got a prominent DJ pushing you to the industry like cooked crack. Papoose is then destined to be the next hood success story. He is a mix-tape veteran, many times over with his newest being fronted by the Street-Sweepers Series (Street Sweepers Presents: Unfinished Business – The Best of Papoose). How can you have a best of album when you haven’t even been signed yet? This occurrence should attest to the potential that this Brooklyn emcee has. Another person that would cosign on Papoose’s potential would be the well recognized, D.J Kay Slay. The Drama King (the man behind the Street Sweepers and Celebrity States series) has put Pap’s career on the express train, basically making sure this artist’s name is known by all pushers of bootleg CDs. If you don’t have a Papoose mix tape in your inventory, you’re not legit in the 2-for-5, 1-for-3 game2.
I promise myself it is only An Optical Allusion. My eyes linger, stretched wide, ready to devour an explanation. The leaves on her branches tremble, hanging candidly off their stems, like children. Dancing weightless, they offer no sign of resistance to the rolling wind.
In my opinion Papoose success thus far is well deserved. He has the talent that many other aspiring emcees will never achieve. I’ve heard his style being compared to that late great artist; Big L but his style is truly unique to me. At first it may seen similar to the witty punch lines of Fabolous or Cassidy but the delivery shows that to be false. You can find him following suite like everybody else, doing lyrics pertaining to a certain subject or actually telling a story lyrically. If you don’t know what I mean, go cop one of his mix tapes (I’m bumping Election Day: Papoose for the Streets right now) and take a listen for yourself. It’s worth the purchase, but I must leave this disclaimer: His style is made for the streets – Not meant to be used by RnB types.
Their arms hold form, standing idle, shortly in fascination they quiver. I watch from behind, marveling over the brilliant splendor, the gentle murmur of her lazy river. A lustrous liquid riding over her bumps and dips: moguls in my vision, the contour of a woman’s body, the shape of nature personified.
1. 2.
blow – hit the mainstream, get a record deal 2-for-5, 1-for-3 game – The career of selling bootleg CDs whether it be on the corner, train, etc. The prices for these CDs are one for $3 or two for $5, hence the name of the occupation.
[ UNDER THE NEEDLE ] .: The Underground Movement:.
~B(dot) Charles
Papoose Representing: Bedstuy, Brooklyn – New York Rating: A Sergeant in the Underground trenches (4/5 Stars)
“Hear my footsteps [explicit]? Count them. The more you hear the closer I’m getting to you.” These are the words from the newest lyrical product from Bedstuy, Brooklyn; Papoose. His unique style, diverse word play, bars and hooks have all gathered him a position in the spotlight in the heavily populated and highly competitive underground rap scene of New York. How do you know you’ve got potential in the Hip Hop underground? Answer: When you’re featured on a mix-tape. When do you know you’ve made it in the Hip Hop underground? Answer: When you’re the
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INSIGHT
December 2005 .: Hip Hop History :.
~Atiba Edwards
“Hip Hop started out in the heart, uh huh, Yo, now everybody trying to chart” ~Superstar, Lauryn Hill Words spoken by one of Hip Hop music’s most gifted wordsmiths to describe the current situation of Hip Hop as a music and a culture. Currently, you would think that fans, industry and artists are all certified statisticians based on their concern with Soundscan, BDS and more other number based assessment of their talents. It has shaped and influenced some of the current music because artists and labels are trying to make a “club banger,” “street track,” “something for the ladies,” “something conscious” and other labels, rather than make music from their heart and soul. As a result of this factorization of the industry, music sounds the same give or take a few outliers.
my journey through time. It stops around the start the N.W.A. phase and the music that resulted. This collection contains many tracks you will not be able to download. It is a time before Hip Hop had a dominating presence as it does today. Imagine (this may be hard) a time when Hip Hop was not welcomed in the mainstream and it was viewed as a fad. Imagine a time when Hip Hop barely paid the bills but it did not stop the music from growing and spreading through parks, sidewalks, houses and more make shift areas.
[Enter Tom Silverman.] Tommy Boy (aka Tom Silverman), the person and the label, helped shape and create most of the music that helped build Hip Hop and is often heard through samples in today’s music or in areas of music appreciation. [Enter Stu Fine.] Stu Fine, founder of Wild Pitch Records, helped launch the careers of Lord Finesse, Gang Starr, O.C., Ultramagnetic MCs and others. Together both of them executive produced one of the most definitive box sets ever. No double discs to serve as a copout; 12 albums spanning 12 years to bring the essential tracks that have survived to bring the past to the present. Each disc has liner notes from prominent journalists who know Hip Hop, such as Jeff Change, Davey D, Toure, Bill Adler, and cover work from notable Hip Hop photographer, Martha Cooper. The discs are released bi-monthly in sets of four starting in November. The press release (thanks Christie Z) gives you the basic elements/rules that once defined Hip Hop: 1. There’s no biting in Hip Hop. 2. You must have a DJ and sometimes he is leader of your crew! 3. Everything can be turned into Hip Hop if you sample it right 4. Rap is just one element of the culture not the whole culture! 5. Being experimental and unique is best. 6. Dancers provide hype and don’t have to be strippers. 7. It’s OK to have a message, be educational and/or take a stand. Fast forward to today and you realize that all the rules have been broken more or less. I’m an ‘80s baby (April of 83 to be exact) but I have spent time going back and learning the music that virtually defines and influences the global culture. This boxset can be viewed as the audiobook to accompany
Volume One: Of the 12 artists on this disc, I would estimate a max of 8 being recognized by your almost above average listener. The number of tracks that can be recognized either by listening to the full track or through samples increases to about 10. It is hard to say this album is missing something because you have 132 other tracks to solve what you think may be missing. It features the beat box champ (Doug E. Fresh) with a young MC by the name of Ricky D doing one of the best live tracks ever. It also features the perennial hit by the Sugar Hill Gang, and if I have to name the song then you better hit the reset button on your PS2 or Xbox 360 because you missed something. Admittedly you may have to look on the internet to find out who some of these artists are and what they have done. The only track I never heard of was Egyptian Lover, which probably is due to my tender age of 22. Nonetheless, this album inspires you to go and learn about Hip Hop and where it came from. If you are tired of the music that is flooding the airwaves, well it’s not really flooding when it’s only a limited amount of music being played on the radio; you need to pick up these albums as they are released. It makes you go and breakout the Adidas track suit with matching shell toes and look for a cardboard box to ROCKIN IT! Visit HipHopEssentials.net for more information as well as samples of the tracks.
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