Joshua Bennett – 16 Bars for Kendrick Lamar [Video]

By Button Poetry

Become a Member for exclusive perks and videos: https://bit.ly/ButtonMember
Joshua Bennett, performing at the Striver’s Row.

Help us decide which videos go up on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ButtonCurator

About Button:

Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.

We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:04
one
0:06
incomparably complex compositions kill
0:08
off commonplace conservative
0:09
condescension these
0:11
cocksure clowns can’t even come through
0:14
i commend compton that black future
0:17
super computer for producing you
0:19
flows decompose written form new growth
0:22
compost fills the booth two kendrick
0:26
you could have wrapped your entire album
0:28
over the sound of snow melting
0:30
and it still would have been the best
0:32
hip-hop record i heard last
0:34
fall three three
0:38
you are never a cornball you are always
0:40
crop circle
0:42
you are a mutiny in outer space 30
0:44
enslaved men
0:45
swinging sickles the same way sky
0:47
ripples before the storm
0:49
four you actually freestyle when you
0:51
freestyle
0:52
i know this because i’ve seen it
0:54
helicopter and hella proper and
0:56
get the doctor are all strangers that
0:58
sound like old friends when you spit
1:00
you do not fear the page but you are not
1:03
chained to it
1:03
five what are you chained to six when
1:06
schoolboy q
1:07
tells all the white people at his
1:08
concerts to say the n word does anything
1:10
inside you curl into a fist
1:12
seven at what age did you first trade
1:15
fist for microphone
1:17
whether booth or block did it ever stop
1:19
feeling like a fight to be seen
1:21
eight this is slightly off topic but
1:23
backseat freestyle
1:24
might actually have the dopest
1:26
instrumental in the history of
1:27
ever nine
1:31
do you ever get tired of the word ever
1:34
when someone calls you the best west
1:37
coast rapper ever
1:39
does it bruise like a birthday punch
1:41
does this question
1:42
of lyrics versus history versus
1:44
aesthetics
1:45
rest on your mind like a plucky barnacle
1:48
just taking up space
1:50
10. if there is ever a zombie apocalypse
1:53
and someone has to record the history of
1:55
the human race
1:56
i will nominate you i have a feeling
2:00
that you will make everything sound even
2:02
more electric
2:03
eleven does sharain ever call 12.
2:08
do you ever feel blackbird small
2:11
inside are you still a boy running home
2:14
from bible study
2:15
cursing the weight of your textbooks as
2:17
gunfire serenades the neighborhood
2:20
13. we real good we rap good
2:23
we sell dope we held hope we let it go
2:26
we never know when death comes no cop
2:28
show
2:29
them play clothes them real guns friends
2:31
all gone they stole my song we die
2:34
we die out here we fly magpies out here
2:38
black birds
2:39
black boys destroyed my world
2:42
they tried fourteen
2:46
black boy blues articulated pitch
2:48
perfect if nothing else your words make
2:50
the whole world worth it
2:51
15. every word is words worth work
2:54
turned up
2:55
word is bond word to kirkegaard words of
2:59
the murky psalms that fly from your pen
3:01
the reverb negro spirituals humming
3:03
under every act of lyrical dexterity
3:06
amen to that to the melody of all that
3:09
dark noise
3:10
word to the kids in the suburbs who can
3:12
no longer call their privilege invisible
3:15
words are bonds your bars
3:18
break the chains you sing the ineffable
3:23
sixteen we will sing about you
3:28
i promise
3:40
you

—

This post was previously published on YouTube.

***

You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:

White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism

Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box

The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer

What We Talk About When We Talk About Men

—

Photo credit: Shutterstock