" Gangster Rap"

Early to mid 1980's era of rap and hip hop, big hair, pleather pants and those shining chains of gold... It was the time when I first came into poetry- or rather, poetry first came into me... it became my phoenix rising born of the ash of my misspent youth. Later, much later I embraced spoken word, learned of shared roots of rap as poetry ( its rhythms quite old) and of lines falling into pentameter, iambics... I listened to Kid Frost, read Tupac's " The rose that bloomed from concrete." and I understood, understood perfectly... Yes, me- Midwestern girl I felt the angst knew the pathos... Tone deaf I can't dance, but clever lyrics draw me, seep into my veins, trickle like rain... ( Perhaps I am a songwriter at heart.) and I have tried my hand at both country and folk, while my very first poem- ( written there, in that abyss) made its way onto a demo tape. I wasn't the vocalist, though the lyrics were all mine- all autobiographical, titled appropriately-- " Gangster Rap."