Freestyle the Art of Rhyme (Screenshot 2)

When a young poet of the year 2005 can no longer stand my negative comments about 2005, Los Angeles poetry venues, like the show at Greenway Court Theatre, I must remember that such a young person does not share the vibe barely captured in the grainy image at left from the early 1990s of the stage at The Good Life from Freestyle—The Art of Rhyme. We have different memories, being different people from different times. What we see and feel looking at this image are most likely of two very different minds. As one speaker in the film says, there were nights in The Good Life that were “sublime” and this image reminds me of those nappy-few moments.

Most of the Good Life people back then were young enough to still remember how to be authentically joyful and improvisational—simply playful. No upper-class, “success oriented” pretensions and tensions… But without an African life science to study law to become lawful and fruitful, eventually many homies would end up “dropping science” and playing themselves with dope tracks of narcosis… but for a brief moment, freestyle bliss…

There was one speaker in the film who reminded me of the complaint many sucker MCs had about the “censorship” imposed upon them at The Good Life. To use his word, when you saw the mic’ at The Good Life you could not “curse.” Since these freestyle youngsters were supposed to be using words when they rhymed let’s really get down into them. You have a voice saying that they felt censored because they were unable to curse. Such a dumb-ass motherfucker should feel censored because they are unable to bless. Who’ J’ah bless, no one can curse.

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