the big payback (an ode to blackness & hip-hop)

//walter lacy

For Shedrick & Maimouna

We are afraid of this moment it seems
Unwilling to confront the truth, though it
Stands firmly in view
Unable to discern the wisdom of what is visible, to
Recognize the thread connecting this realm to the unseen

We’ve been blasted with microwaves
Had our consciousness stripped away
Fluoride bleeds through our waterways
Our food has been contaminated
There is poison on our brains

Nevertheless, we can ill-afford to
Duck our heads in the sand
There is no just cause for surrender,
No justifiable grounds for submission;
Lions must be released from their cages and
Fighters unleashed to wreak havoc upon heathens

Today is the day for the big payback.

Served at a temperature 20 degrees colder than
The polar vortex that has suffocated Michigan
Africa’s children: estranged and fragmented
Separated by land, language, and sea
Imperialism has left us with tortuous wounds
But we are still breathing, and a
Family reunion is long overdue

The time is now.
We are ripe for The Blooming, a
Reintroduction to the blood of our roots, to the
Soul in the soil that fertilizes our truth

The ancestors continue to till the ground,
Eternity has provided them rest,
Yet failed to induce their silence, or
Leave them grounded

Out from the dark past, a
Resounding boom-bap
Taught us to spit knowledge over
Kick drums and hi-hats

Beatniks over break-beats have long condemned the
Evils of Pax-Ameri-con hegemony
But are we prepared to take heed to the
Psalms they have offered as poetry?

From Pac’s deconstruction of the war on drugs, to
Chuck D’s assault on the entire power structure,
We are a Nation of Millions,
Called to greatness;

We can no longer hold each other back with
Ass-backwards nursery rhymes,
Lullabies used to slip inside the thighs and
Shattered minds of young
Black teen beauties, who
See themselves as hood-owned property

No matter what they think,
You will never be a thot,
But a divine spiritual being you were
Before you were even thought of;

Too complex to be reduced to a label so minuscule,
Understand that your womb is the
Sacred vessel that
All human beings on this
Earth had to pass through

You are the voice of Lyte as a rock,
Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation,
Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y and
Maimouna Youssef

I am a student of the game, from
Illmatic & It was Written, to
Chasing the Cool,
For that gold watch, and that gold chain
Until Flava Flav’s clock stopped at 9:11, and
Lupe Fiasco lambasted American Terrorists

We are live and in full-effect
Wise and intelligent;
Poor Righteous Teachers claiming freedom:
Mos Def-inite!

No longer will we forget our
Brothers and Sisters in the prison system,
Feed the youth bloodshed and misery in a
Shiny suit, called getting money and
Materialism
This is a call to the people.

From emcees independent of
Mainstream media attention and
Major label recognition, to
Budding lyrical marvels on the cusp of superstardom
The next movement in hip-hop starts right now

It is time to burn the house down
With a black ink pen; a composition notebook
5 dollars worth of gas and a matchbook to light
Credit the last word to Killer Mike.
Peace!

//Walter Lacy, born and raised in Detroit, is a spoken word poet and underground hip-hop artist. He has competed in the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (2009) and opened for artists such as Dwele (2010) and Saul Williams (2006) as part of the University of Michigan hip-hop collective, The Cypher. He looks to publish his first book this year. You can view more of his work here.