Read This

I'm not too cool to admit: I had a bit of a stalker moment when Warsan Shire was in the country earlier this year. The poet was in Cape Town (along with a bunch of other Americans who are famous on social networks) for the Sex Money Power conference that no Capetonians really seemed to know about until it happened. Anyway, I really just wanted to see if her presence would make me feel the way her words do. And then I saw Stacy-Ann Chin (again) and forgot all about Warsan. The reason I'm writing about Warsan is a simple one, really. You know how I feel about dream hampton? Well, she adores Warsan and that's how the Kenyan-born Somali poet who is also a Londoner drifted onto my radar. I was totally ready to be like whatevs about her because I haven't read a poem or seen a poet I liked in so many years but Warsan completely blew me away. It was this poem in particular that threw me for a loop:

i think i know what we did wrong - (the realization)

i think i know what we did wrong
we loved like two people
who did not know God.
(as if we had not used
every prayer
every surah
every ayah
asking God for
something like this)
subhanallah,
what a shame.

And it was this poem that made me want to read more. Good thing she recently published her work then. Now, there are people who are on the Warsan bandwagon because it's the cool thing to do. Then there are those people who just genuinely dig her. I don't care what side you're on. If you liked I Think I Know What We Did Wrong (The Realization) then you may like her book, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth. This anthology of poetry is an extension of the Warsan we already know through tumblr and twitter. The work is about her faith, women, home and family. I've ordered mine so I haven't read it yet but if you guys have, I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

Ursula Rucker

When The Roots’ fourth album, Things Fall Apart, came out, The Ordinary Girl still believed in a lot of things. My fingers lingered over YMag articles. I carried MP3 compilations, which always, always listed some or other Aesop Rock album first, from school to home and back again frequently. I sat in on the recording sessions that saw my brother’s beats become the bed for budding rappers to lie on. Really now, straight from the dome in the booth? Ha. I’m just kidding guys, don’t be mad. Aaaaaaaanyway.

Everyone came to my house. It was like a mens hostel, except these rappers weren’t quite men yet. My brother’s room is where the computer stayed and the speakers were loud (even though my screechy voice was louder). So whenever I had a moment alone with the PC - which was rare - I would sit in my brother’s room. I’d listen to this Things Fall Apart album and watch the Media Player’s colourful lazer lines sprout from the centre of the screen with every thump of Thought’s rhymes. But my favourite bit of the album wasn’t even by a member of The Roots.

It was Ursula Rucker’s Return To Innocence Lost.

Rucker has often featured on The Roots' albums but this particular piece (all damn near 12 minutes of it) had a profound effect on me and especially in how I write today. I don’t know what Rucker’s words meant or mean to you, but I do know that they made me realise the world was a much bigger place than I thought it was then. And I didn’t even have to leave my brother’s room to find this out. Tracking down some footage of this beautiful woman performing Return To Innocence Lost is incredibly difficult, so shout out to Otis Groove for making this accessible. It’s obviously not exactly what you’ll hear on Things Fall Apart, but perhaps this will prompt you to go get this album if you don’t already own it.

Ursula Rucker return to innocence lost (prod by Otis Groove) from Otis Groove on Vimeo.

Caught On The Web

Yay for South African Music!



We've been holding on to this Donald The Neosapien track and you know what, it's just not fair that we should be the only ones to have it. So here you go. Donald was part of a rap crew called Planet Universe and let's just say they were out of this world. Bring on the cheese. Ha!

Ok, no for real, the group disbanded and although D has been lacing some verses on production by Marvin aka Sir Isaac Newtown, also formerly of Planet Universe, Donald has managed to make some moves on his own. Aside from working on his one man play that debuts at Joburg Promusica Basement Theatre in Florida Park on 31 July (so hurry up and get your tickets), this multi-Slam-Poetry-show winner has been working on some rap music. Yeah, we love it when poets don't hide behind a-line skirts, dreadlocks and headwraps to show us they can really rap. Here is Donald The Neosapien's Gotta Let You Know. Let us know what you think of it.



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What You See is What You Get

When I was in high school I thought Lebo Mashile was the best thing on TV, on stage, on radio, in books, in magazines, in my life. She could do no wrong. I never got tired of seeing or hearing her. I damn near threatened my friends with a Japan-klap if they didn’t agree that I look like her. This happened about 21 times a day – before first break.

Fast forward to a few years later. I’ve watched this lady a gazillion times, I’ve bought her book and her CD and feel like although I relate to her like we came from the same womb, I could never ever hope to write like her. So imagine the sweaty palms and hyperventilation I suffered when while doing a story for My First I was asked to give her a call.

Oh shit.

What if I opened my mouth and all she heard was htfsrhtnfotgjhgjfytfhvshjaugugugfgyfchljsoyyyst? Exactly. I was so scared that I would come across as a standard loser (wassup Bra Sauce) and I wouldn’t be able to get the article in the bag that I almost chickened out. Mr Editor was not having that. So I ring Lebo up and in my sweetest please-don’t-think-I’m-an-idiot voice I asked her the questions. She said she really couldn’t chat at that point but because the subject matter was so close to her heart could I please phone her in the evening?

Insert booby-prize music here.

I call her later and she gives me some great quotes – even throws in the word "shit." I’m in awe all over again. A few years later we’re both at a party and she’s looking for her crew and a glass of wine. I take advantage of the moment and reintroduce myself. She says how dope it was to be able to speak on a subject My First was putting a microscope on, telling me – I’m beyond starstuck for all five minutes of this chat – about how much she likes Zaki Ibrahim’s work and that perhaps people should start calling me Mr.

I smile.

Lebo is a cool ass chick. See? Who says I’m not easy to please? I bore you with all of this to tell you that there are very few people who are in the public eye that don’t disappoint once you meet them or talk to them. Lebo Mashile is one of them.
- The Ordinary Girl

That picture was jacked off her site lebomashile.com visit it sometime.