Poets vs MCs

I'm often asked, what's the difference between a spoken word poet and a rapper? Or, to put it differently, why did you choose to be a rapper instead of a spoken word poet? Well, in January I had a chance to compete in an amazing event in Brighton called "Poets vs MCs" in which the hip-hop community and the spoken word community come out to represent their respective camps and talk some (good-humoured) trash about one another, so I took that opportunity to write a new rap/poem spelling out the difference as I see it. Brighton has an amazingly cohesive hip-hop scene and a parallel but equally cohesive spoken word scene and I don't know another city that could pull of an event like this with so much firepower yet also with such a good rapport on all sides year after year (it was the seventh annual!).

I was representing for the MCs, needless to say, and I got to spark things off in round one, but if you follow the youtube link you can watch the whole thing, round by round, and I have also posted the lyrics of my piece below. This one is dedicated to Shane Koyczan, who got more exposure for spoken word than any poet ever has before when he performed in the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics with more than 3 billion people watching on television worldwide. Long live rap and poetry both, and viva la difference!

Click here to watch the video on youtube.





Poets vs MCs

Rappers are so obnoxious! Even the most incompetent
And most impoverished of us pose like we pimp hoes for profits
It’s simply implicit when we grip our own crotches
So excuse me for exposing the obvious
But poets are fascinated with self-flagellation
With exaggerated emotions and vocal masturbation
With layer after layer of phony fashion statements
Folded into their words – the proper verb is “invagination”
“In•vag•in•a•tion: the folding of a membrane or surface
In on itself to create a pocket or pouch”
But rappers are obsessed with form and function
With the intricate syllable structures of words
And the juxtapositions amongst them
For rappers, rhyme patterns are like sign-language instructions
Like computer hackers programming the crowd to have eruptions
But for poets that’s disgusting, pathetic approval-seeking
Poetry is supposed to be about truth speaking
About exposing your soul and letting go of control like the beats did
At the Nuyorican; it’s not about the response you’re receiving
But for rappers that’s exactly what it’s about
If you’re not in it to win it then get the fuck out
And if the shit that you’ve written isn’t sufficient to uplift the crowd
Then go recite the shit to yourself
But wait, isn’t that just the same old artistic debate
Over whether our creations come from a strange mystical place
That gives them an intrinsic weight that we can separate
From any attempt to measure them in a functionalist way?
Exactly! Poets indulge in rank mysticism
Rappers recognize the direct connection
Between effort and discipline and getting recognition
Poets want to be exorcists instead of physicians
That’s the essential difference between rappers and poets
We’re all entertainers, but MCs just happen to know it
But, didn't I just re-define a “poet” as an “uncharismatic showman”?
Yes, so now it’s time for a diplomatic moment
When it comes down to battles and gets pushy
I can generalize, like: “rappers are arrogant rookies
They act like dicks, and poets are all just big pussies”
But up close, this definition isn’t so good looking
I mean, how can I speak with so much certainty
When my whole analysis is stolen from Team America World Police?
And why am I so determined to give the third degree
To my brethren who get their bread like me, from the words they speak
Here’s the reason we need poets and rappers to be contrasted
We need to understand our differences if we want to combat them
So here’s a definite to help with your thought patterns:
All rappers are poets, but all poets are not rappers
Rap is a sub-category, a sub-class of poetry
We both have talents with metaphors and allegory
But when it comes to rhyme and rhythm, rappers simply have authority
And as for hip-hop culture? Well, that’s another story
Life is bigger than hip-hop, and hip-hop is bigger than rap
And rap is bigger than poetry, if you measure it by its impact
But if rap is a limb of poetry, then poetry’s bigger than that
So pick a branch and swing from it, as long as you get ‘em to clap
But if you can’t get applause in spite of your metaphors
Or if it’s lukewarm instead of uproarious because you hit writer’s block
Or creative menopause, then just get off the stage
In this regard, poetry and hip-hop’s the same
Ninety nine percent of all contenders get washed away
So whether you claim gangster or you’re in the conscious vein
There’s a direct line of descent from Dr. Faustus to Dr. Dre
And there was a time when poets made history, but it’s not today

Phenotypic Plasticity

Fellow Bipeds,

Last week I did my first tour of the Southern USA with the Rap Guide to Evolution, performing in Houston, Texas and Springfield, Missouri. Brace yourselves. Controversy was brewing from the start when I got a "conditional" invitation to perform at Missouri State University, co-sponsored by the departments of Biology, Psychology, and Bio-medicine. The condition was that I had to "tone down the creationist jabs", and it was imposed by the head of the Biology dept, who felt it would be a turn off for the non-science audience if their beliefs were attacked from the outset. The primary offending material was of course the chorus of the song Natural Selection: "The weak and the strong, Darwin got it goin' on / Creationism is dead wrong!", plus the song's third verse with the line: "If there is a personal god, then he's been jerkin' off".

I must admit I was a bit indignant about this at first. I didn't mind dropping the third verse from the song, which I often do for the sake of pithiness anyway, but the chorus? How could a Biology dept not stand behind the statement that creationism is dead wrong? Was it my presentation that was controversial, or evolution itself? And even if they disagree, isn't it condescending to sanitize it for them? To see how the British react to the song, check out this video from the Cambridge Darwin Festival last July (a soft audience, I concede).



So here's what set me straight. My first stop of the tour was in Texas, where I did two different lunchtime shows at two campuses of Houston Community College. For the first show I did a mix of Canterbury Tales and Evolution, omitting the song Natural Selection along with a few other chapters as a necessary abridgement, and the show was an unmitigated success. Then on my second day in Houston I stepped to the stage in front of a packed crowd of over a hundred college students and bit the bullet. My cries of "creationism is dead wrong!" were met with incredulous (and mostly hostile) stares, and the call and response part at the end: "When I say 'creationism is...' you say 'dead wrong!" was virtually all call and no response. The half dozen or so brave souls who joined in at first quickly realized that a hundred of their peers were staring them down and their weak cries of "dead wrong..." quickly tapered off. In comedy parlance I "died on my ass", and then spent the next hour clawing my way back from oblivion.

To my credit and theirs, by the end of the show I had won them back and got a hearty round of applause, and I even got respect after the show from a few avowed fundamentalist Christians for the gutsy freestyle part of Performance, Feedback, Revision, in which I mocked: "My friends at home were all skeptics / Like: 'You're rapping about evolution in Texas? / You must have a death wish / Man, you're gonna get lynched!' / Why? No religions get disrespected / Unless they're specifically un-scientific." But talking to a number of the students after the show, the common theme was "great performance, but you almost lost me with that opening piece". Even more to the point is the fact that I did lose quite a few of them, since about fifteen people indignantly walked out in the first ten minutes.

Contrast that once again with the response I get in England. For instance, here's a version of Performance, Feedback, Revision that I did in front of 3500 skeptics at the Hammersmith Apollo in December, part of Robin Ince's comedy variety show "Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People" which was recently aired on BBC4. Click here to watch it.



So what did I do in Missouri? I decided that the "condition" imposed on my show was actually a pretty sensible adjustment, but what should I do with the song? Skip it? Water it down to something vague like "alternative theories are dead wrong"? Like a good academic I opted for strategic obscurantism, substituting specific individuals for the debunked theory as a whole. The Missouri State University students were treated to the first ever performance of Natural Selection where the chorus went: "The weak and the strong, Darwin got it goin' on / William Paley was dead wrong... Richard Owen was dead wrong... Etc". To my mind this preserves the strength of the statement without foreclosing on my opportunities to raise consciousness in the ensuing hour, and only the most historically astute creationists will get the dig. Think of it as a form of phenotypic plasticity, allowing the show to adapt to diverse environments rather than face local extinction. At least, that's what I told myself. What do you all think: sell-out or gracious compromise?

Oh, and by the way, the Missouri show was better received than I had imagined at my most optimistic. They even had me autographing CDs and flyers afterward! I fear the South no more.

Tonight I fly to Australia for twenty seven performances of the Rap Guide to Evolution at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, starting Friday. And yes, those Aussie festival-goers will be getting the wild-type, with extra vigor. All my best,

Baba

PS - If any of you have friends in Australia, please direct them my way, or send them to the Facebook event.

A Valediction: For Bidding Mourning

Val•e•dic•tion from the Latin words for "farewell" and "speech". And who or what am I saying goodbye to? My home city of Vancouver, for one, and my friends and family, though no girlfriend this time around. Where am I going? On tour, to London to perform the Rebel Cell, which will be touring the UK throughout 2010. In fact, I'm writing this on the plane en route. If you're in London, come see us at the Greenwich Theatre this weekend. Click here for details.

This "leaving on a jet plane" lifestyle of mine is also the subject of my new music video, which I'd like to invite you to watch. "Valediction" is a work of creative non-fiction dramatizing the impact these constant tours have had on my past relationships (actually one in particular, but it's a recurrent theme). Of course, the subtext is clear: if the relationship was really working, would I have been so keen to go on tour? But how can a relationship grow and thrive when one is always on the move? It's a catch-22 I have come to accept, and the music video is my best attempt to capture it. So if this is a "recurrent theme" you must be wondering: is it me or is it them? Lack of chemistry or lack of will? Ask yourself that question often, all you singletons, and let me know if you discover an answer.

The video was directed by Syd Woodward and features Aaron Nazrul on vocals, with Lin Gardiner's usual star production. I hope you like it. (If it doesn't embed then click here.)



In other glorious news, this morning I got email confirmation that my grant application to the Wellcome Trust has been approved, which means I now have funding to create a series of professional music videos for the Rap Guide to Evolution CD. The mandate of the grant is to promote the "Public Understanding of Science" and it is my hope that the videos will be used in Biology classrooms around the world to provide an accessible introduction to evolutionary theory. And of course they will be available online for the general public as well, so I hope you will all help me spread them (once we've actually made them that is). This is going to be an awesome project for 2010, one that I am seriously looking forward to. If you don't know about the Wellcome Trust, you should check them out. It's the largest charity in the UK, spending hundreds of millions of pounds per year funding projects like life-saving biomedical research and the human genome project (and the occasional rap music video). Click here for more info.

If you haven't heard my Rap Guide to Evolution CD yet, you can download it by donation from my website. Have a listen and let your visual imagination roam.

And if you like the song "Valediction" and want to get yourself a digital download, click here.

Off to the races,

Baba

Evolutionary Retrospective

Neo-simians,

In the final hours of 2009, let us take a moment to reflect on this: up until 150 years ago, no one had the faintest idea why we look like we do, why we act like we do, or where we came from. Now we know, and we have Charles Darwin to thank. Three cheers!

So what do we do with this knowledge? Well, each of us reacts differently, but for my part I've spent most of the past year trying to celebrate and demystify the implications of Darwin's insights, and I must admit I've been having a blast. I met some of my intellectual heroes along the way (ie Dan Dennett, David Sloan Wilson, Sarah Hrdy, Richard Dawkins). A troubled African American teenager declared her newfound passion for science after seeing my performance; in Edinburgh they gave me an award for my troubles, and wonder of wonders I actually made a living with it. So why stop?

In August I got an email from David Buss, co-author of the recent book "Why Women Have Sex", suggesting I do a sequel specifically about Evolutionary Psychology (he also wrote the EP textbook), and I thought that sounded like a fine idea. So right now I'm in the reading phase, including Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate" and Matt Ridley's "Nature Via Nurture" next. So if you were to do a rap album and hip-hop comedy show about human behaviour, what would the required reading be? I'm open to suggestions, insights, dialogue, etc, but not dissuasion. It's too late for that.

Why? Because the truth is too exhilarating to reveal. For instance, I recently had the privilege of performing with Dawkins, Robin Ince, Ben Goldacre, and many others at a truly inspiring variety night called "Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People", a rationalist celebration of Christmas. Now for those of you in the process of clenching up, rest assured it was more about celebrating science than bashing religion. Picture 3,500 people in the sold-out Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London declaring in unison: "I'm a African!" Click here to read a review from the comedy website Chortle (see paragraph twelve).

Why else? Because misconceptions about evolution are rife. For instance, I was recently the subject of a spurious article on the Discovery Institute's (intelligent design) website entitled "How Darwin Leads People to Eventually Say, 'Hitler Was O.K.'" What I actually said was that if our sex lives were like the sex lives of praying mantises (where the females eat the males during sex), then that's what our religions would be moralizing and our pop songs would be romanticizing ("She refuses to eat me / Cry me a river" etc). It's what comedians call a "joke" and philosophers call an "intuition pump", but according to the article what I said is an example of the "moral relativism" that leads to Nazism. Never mind the fact that Hitler himself was far from a moral relativist and indeed believed he was following God's will, the hysteria found in this article is the last bastion of the desperate, groping for an "objective" basis of morality while failing to imagine any conceivable alternative to divine injunction. As Robin Ince points out in one of his comedy sets: if Darwin leads to Hitler, then Newton leads to falling injuries (stupid gravity!) and Pythagoras leads to Toblerone. Follow this link for an exercise in intellectual cowardice and fallacious argument, from a History professor no less.

It's claptrap like this that reminds me of the need for clear voices amidst the gloom, and in the words of Michael Franti: "If I don't have enemies I'm not doin' my job". Not that I'm necessarily the clearest of voices, but I've gotten pretty good at paraphrasing : ) So my plan for 2010, besides creating a new show, is to tour The Rap Guide to Evolution extensively and keep spreading laughter and light. If you have any ideas or suggestions of places I could do this, please get in touch, and in the mean time I wish you all peace and prosperity in the new year. Sincerely,

Baba


PS - here's a brief overview of my touring plans for 2010, in case you're curious: UK in late January, American South in early February, Australia in February/March, UK in April, New York in early May, Western Canada in May/June (tree planting), England in June/July, Edinburgh in August, UK Rebel Cell tour in September/October/November.

Mission Accomplished

November 16 2009

Bio-Brethren,

This USA tour has recently provided me with some great reminders of why the Rap Guide to Evolution is a worthy project, even if I do sometimes get accused of being an "evangelical" for Darwin or a "scientific fundamentalist" etc. Last weekend at the Concert for Darwin my performance got a standing ovation from the evolution-defenders who fought the Dover Intelligent Design trial back in 2004. I include this detail not to self-aggrandize (a doubtful disclaimer, admittedly), but to make the general point that out of more than fifty performances of the Rap Guide in the UK this summer I didn't get this response once. The last time I got a standing O was in March in central California. I attribute the difference not to British reserve, but to their acceptance of Darwin's theory as common knowledge, an open-and-shut case. In many areas of the States, on the other hand, Darwin is either the subject of outright hostility or defensive apologetic support, but rarely of exuberant celebration.

Speaking of exuberant celebration, I got the most amazing response yesterday from a teacher in Binghamton, NY. Carolyn Wilczynski teaches a group of "at risk" 9th and 10th graders at Binghamton High School, students who were put into the program because of behavioural problems or poor academic performance. She affectionately calls them her "stray cats" and at first they were not invited to the performance at the High School on Friday afternoon, a short 30 minutes "sampler" of the Rap Guide, but she lobbied to have them included on promises of good behaviour (they were fine). The most remarkable outcome was that one of her students, a 15 year old African American girl named Kadeidra, was the only one to come to the full performance at the University that evening of her own accord, even though I pitched it to the hundred or so regular students in attendance. They were a tough-looking bunch of kids too, so I was happy just to win them over, but having one of Carolyn's bunch attend out of sheer interest felt a bit like a breakthrough.

Below is the email I just got from Carolyn, which provides me with more steam than any ovation from any audience, standing or otherwise. Read it and try not to weep.

on 11/13/09 7:14 PM, Carolyn Wilczynski at ladyfern@mac.com wrote:

Hi Baba

I really enjoyed your performances today, and was especially glad that I was able to take some of my stray cats. When I saw the math teacher that I work with right after you left, he said "I heard that the performance was great". The kids told him. He said that they were all talking about it. But that you inspired Kadeidra to want to go to the University performance is something extraordinary. She is a stray cat in the true sense of the word - she's not bad to the bone, but has never bought into school. I have struggled with getting her motivated and until recently, haven't meet very much success. But she wanted to go to the university - and so I offered to take her.

But the most amazing thing is what she told me on the way home. She told me how much she enjoyed both performances and that she learned something too. That part is perhaps not all something that you haven't heard before. But THE most amazing part is that she said "I see science in a whole new way now - it's actually kinda fun". You accomplished that in an hour! I've been working at it for months! I wish I could buy you a beer!

Carolyn

The Devil in Dover

November 6 2009

Science Fans,

Greetings from York Haven, Pennsylvania (about six miles from Dover). The title of this message is also the title of a book by Lauri Lebo, the journalist who reported on the Dover Intelligent Design Trial for the local papers back in 2004. I'm writing from her living room sofa right now as she prepares food for a party, the annual reunion of the plaintiffs, lawyers, and expert witnesses who joined forces to block the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to Darwin's theory of natural selection in local high school science classes. For those of you unfamiliar with intelligent design as a concept, it's basically a fancy name for the biblical creation myth (tempered by some strategic deception), and likewise it has no scientific basis.

This is a remarkable story, and Lauri's book tells it better than I ever could, but here's an overview. In 2004 a group of fundamentalist Christians on the Dover school board began arguing at public meetings that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science classes in the district. However, teaching "creation science" had already been banned by the US Supreme Court as a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution prohibiting the state establishment of religion, so under the advice of their lawyers the school board members changed their strategy (and their story) and began advocating instead for the teaching of intelligent design. They also claimed that they had never said "creationism" even though over 100 witnesses heard them and one of them was filmed by Fox News saying it. They ordered the Biology teachers to read out a statement to students that evolution is a theory and not a fact, while encouraging students to look into intelligent design as an alternative "explanation of the origins of life", so a group of parents sued the school board.

During the trial the school board continued to claim under oath that they had never said "creationism", and that their advocacy of intelligent design was motivated by scientific rigor and not religion. Evolutionary Biologists testified at the trial, outlining the evidence for Darwin's theory, and one biochemistry professor, Michael Behe, testified in support of intelligent design. However, to justify the inclusion of intelligent design within the category of "science", Behe also advocated changing the definition of science so that it would include astrology, and under cross-examination he conceded that intelligent design actually offers no alternative explanations. If you want to learn more about Behe, here's Richard Dawkins' very sharp NY Times review of his latest book (his whole career really) click here.

At the end of the trial, the Bush-appointed Republican federal judge ruled that the school board had acted with "breathtaking inanity" (translation: they were total morons) and called their claims of secular purpose "disingenuous" (translation: they were lying for Jesus). Intelligent design was banned from the classroom. It was a grand slam.

So what does this have to do with me? Very little, except that one beautiful outcome of the trial was that the parents, biologists, journalists, and lawyers involved in defending evolution from this cynical religious assault all became fast friends, and they now hold an annual reunion celebrating their win. I met Lauri Lebo and Cyndi Sneath (one of the parents) in England on our Darwin Day tour back in February, and they invited me to perform at the reunion, which is now beingi re-imagined as a Darwin-themed concert featuring readings, lectures, songs, and of course the Rap Guide. The story of how these people came together is truly inspiring to me, so it's a real privilege to be part of the celebration.

This is officially stop number four on my twelve-city USA tour celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, and the next two weeks will see me traveling all over NY, MA, PA, and CA bringing Darwin to the American masses (who, according to recent surveys, badly need it). However, you'll note that my stops are mostly in "Darwin-friendly" states (central PA being a possible exception), which is something I regret, but of course I can only go where I'm invited. So when do I get to perform "The Rap Guide to Evolution" in the American South? I repeat, all I need is an invitation...

All the best from god's country,

Baba

The Tree Planter's Waltz

October 15 2009

Tree People,

Many of you have heard about the phenomenon of Canadian tree planting culture, but for some of you it will be a completely alien concept. For those who know it as intimately as I do, this video is for you, a little rush of nostalgia for the wilderness life. But for those of you who know nothing of the tree planting existence, this video is especially for you, because it will provide you with a window into a realm of raw experience that will surprise and enthrall you. Plus, you get to see me rapping shirtless in the woods, exciting!



The people in the opening scenes of the video (filmed in 1976, not 1977) are my parents and aunts and uncles and their circle of close friends, and the people in the scenes shot in 2009 are my brother and sister and I and our circle of close friends, so tree planting is very much in our blood. If you're curious about the company and the history of tree planting in Canada, visit check out the website of my dad's company, Brinkman & Associates Reforestation.

Smoky Tiger is the latest artist to join my Lit Fuse Records label, and his debut album "Smoky Tiger and the Seven Doors" was released in September, along with my new record "Apocalyptic Utopian Dreams in the Western Wilderness". Smoky Tiger and I worked together planting trees this Spring in my brother's camp near Merritt, BC, which is where we filmed the video for "The Tree Planter's Waltz" (Have you watched it yet? You're missing out!). Both of our records are now available from CD Baby, so please take a moment to buy them if you feel so inclined.

Here are some other platforms where you can watch the video: Facebook, Vimeo, Youtube.

Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!

Baba