The Rebirth of Slick

The long-forgotten hip hop act Digable Planets' most well-known hit is becoming the motto for this time of renewal in my life.

Over the past ten days, I've had a lot to deal with - getting my head around the passing of my grandfather, thinking a lot about the awkward interactions with my father at his funeral and plotting my course for the next little while, to name a few.

Writing has taken a backseat to getting my ducks in a row.

They're all straightened away now and it's time to rekindle the fire that brought both you and me here in the first place.

I used to wake up on Mondays not very interested in the week ahead.

Talib Kweli put my feelings on this particular Monday best in his contribution to the Soundtrack of My Life:

This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lows
In my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smokin, and stop drinkin
And I've been thinkin - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by), just to get (by)

I took the last couple days off to just get home and get right; relax from a taxing ten days and plot a course for the summer that is rapidly approaching.

I set some goals for myself:

• Drop some weight - 20 pounds or so
  
• Get in shape
  
• Stop smoking - I know, I know... you've heard that before
  
• Write every day
  
• See if anyone is interested in publishing the ideas that rattle around in my head
  

We're going to Vancouver in September to spend some time with Sarah's Mum, brother and West Coast friends and that is the target date I am using as a measuring stick.

Imagine how nice it would be to roll out to VanCity all tucked up, off the darts and able to tell my future Mother-in-Law that instead of worrying that I am going to be a low income, starving artist, house husband as originally expected I am a full-fledged, well-received, soon-to-be-published author.

As cool as that news would be to deliver to Jane, I want to deliver that news to myself and Sarah more than anything.

This is the first step to that end.

This is The Rebirth of Slick...

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Soundtrack of My Life

Song: Get By
Artist: Talib Kweli
Album: Quality (2002, Rawkus Records)

Whenever I hear some bullshit hip hop song polluting the airwaves and giving the music I love a bad name, I have a small collection of artists and songs that make me feel better and remind me how powerful and incredible hip hop can be. Kweli is one of those artists and this is one of those songs.

The thing I has always loved about Talib Kweli, since he first entered my eardrums alongside Mos Def as Black Star with the song "Respiration," is that it's never been about anything besides the music and real life. There are no songs about rims or e'rbody in the club gettin' tipsy or what the temperature is in a certain location. It's about the things he sees in his life and in his neighborhood and his reactions to them.

Now, with this song specifically, there is a lot to love.

I love the Nina Simone piano sample.
I love the hand-claps at the tail end of the song when Kweli breaks it down one last time.
I love the chorus that, once I hear it, is stuck in my head for hours on end.

Most of all, I love exactly what has always Kweli done best - deliver intelligent, incredible rhymes:

We go through "Epidodes II," like "Attack of the Clones"

I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer

We do or die like Bed-Stuy through the red sky
with the window of the red eye
Let the lead fly, some G. Rap shit, "Livin' to Let Die"

The TV got us reachin for stars
Not the ones between Venus and Mars, the ones that be readin for parts
Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargers
Saturday sinners Sunday morning at the feet of the Father
They need somethin to rely on, we get high on all types of drug
When, all you really need is love

Personally, I like that the airwaves are littered with one hit wonders and flashes in the pan; it lets me keep cats like Kweli as my own, not that there haven't been chances for the masses to catch on.

Jay-Z famously name checked Kweli on "Moment of Clarity" off The Black Album, dropping the lyric "If skills sold / truth be told / I'd probably be / lyrically Talib Kweli" but still not a lot of people have caught on, probably because the song wasn't one of the singles off the album and never made heavy rotation on the radio...

For anyone out there who is a fan of hip hop - the real hip hop, not the junk you hear in heavy rotation - this song and this MC are a must. Equally as incredible as this track is the remix featuring Mos, Jay-Z and Kanye. Go pick'em both up and enjoy.

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