First of all, the directions I got online for the best route there were mad extra. If I had known the joint was pretty much off of East West Highway, I could have pretty much winged it. But anyways…I get there, and when I do, my breathing is a little suspect. I’ve had a couple of scares regarding my breathing in the last few years and I’m not even asthmatic. Once I walked through the high school to find that the joint was basically right at the other entrance, I walked outside to get my breathing right. The air inside wasn’t going to help me out, so I opted for some fresh air. Besides…I needed to call Takia to tell her how damn easy it was to get to the school.
Now, allow me to backtrack a sentence or two for a sentence or two. This school…was off the rockers!. Dog, they had that joint lookin’ like an indoor college campus. Man, they got a damn Boys and Girls club and an adult learning center attached to the school. They had elevators in that joint, cuz. The joint was dope, for real.
Aight, back to my story…So as I go outside to call Takia, none other than Kanniki J comes out to say what’s up. Okay, Kanniki and 13 are mad cool, and 13 had agreed to make it out to the school. So when I got there, I asked had anyone else arrived. I was told no. So I was slightly surprised to see Kanniki, but then again, why should I have been? That’s like folks being surprised to see me roll with Lynn. So, the three of us rapped a bit outside, cause you know Lynn was with me, right?
Eventually, we went back inside and went downstairs to the café…yes, the café. I was a judge, along with Kanniki, 13, and Darius who arrived a bit late.. Being as though it was a high school slam, I wanted to not be to heavy on the score, so I made up my mind that I wouldn’t give anything beneath an 8.0 when I score them. Somebody should have told Darius that tho. Slim was on some American Idol, Simon Cowell shit. He was givin' folks 5.0's and 6.5's. Which, in honesty, was real and provided a balance. Some folks didn't come as hard as they should have, but I didn't want dissuade none of these youngyin's from writin or performing just to be "real" I give him props, tho'. Although I don't think there were any 5.0 performances, there were some that just needed to give more for the scores they were given. I judged them on content, clarity, delivery, confidence, pace, etc. Then, I weighed that against their second round performance, which made my second round scoring a bit tighter. Some folks stepped it up in the second round, but most kinda got a bit lax... All of them did their thing, but a few of them stood out, namely…ahem:
Clarrisa, Phillip, Katina, Jamar, Anthony, and this one shorty from Lancaster who to me had a dope voice. In actuality, there were to young ladies from Lancaster, PA, but I’m referring to the shorter one, can’t remember her name, right now.
I honestly thought Clarrisa had it, but Phillip pulled it out, besting her by a measly point. The top four were Phillip, Clarrisa, Jamar, and Katina. Ha, when they called Jamar for third place, he sat there for a moment like there was another Jamar in the competition.. Hey, ya all did ya thing. I have yet to win a slam. Go into a slam as solely an avenue to better your performance and your craft. Like I said tho’, they all had some fire. The cat Anthony clearly likes to rhyme, but did his rhymes like a poem because it was a poetry competition. That probably hurt him, because he had a lil somethin’ somethin goin’ on with the rhymes. Plus, it sounded like he had a bit of an accent when he was spittin, which was reminiscent of Slick Rick and what not. Next time, just spit it playboy.
Afterwards, we all did our thing…including Takia who was mad because I had the emcee call her out. What did you expect playa? You come all that way and riff on me because you got lost, and you just gon’ sit in the cut? Na playa, not even. I think Takia got their attention, I’ll just leave it at that. We all spat, and the students that stayed behind asked questions, which was mad cool. I thanked Katina for inviting me, and apologized for misspelling her name. The folks were nice enough to give us little books to write in, which I’ll be using for Haiku’s and Tanka’s.
Oh, they also have an art program. Son, if I could go back in time, I would make myself do the VPA program at Suitland, although Northwestern’s Jim Henson School of the Arts sounds more enticing. Dog, Jim Henson is an Alumnus of that school! These kids had some dope joints hanging in the hallway. I’m a big Jim Henson fan, didn’t know he was from Maryland. They had a timeline and showcase of his work…it was mad cool. The experience was mad…cool. Never did a high school slam, or judges a slam, period, so…I had a ball! 13 and Kanniki followed us back into DC where I showed them how to get to Soul Veg on Georgia Ave. I am not a vegetarian, so I ordered some greasy ass chicken fingers and fries, yum yum yummy (lol)!
*After the joint, I said I wasn’t going to make it to Kanniki and 13’s feature @ Bohemian due to being tired, but I rolled through anyway. So, I’m hella tired now. Can’t wait for Friday @ Suitland…my alma mater. Got to see the fly ass Ja Hipster, Tonya Mathews @ Java Head first, tho…tonite!
One!