SAY WHAT — WOULD G.U.R.U. DO?
We’re always stereotypin’
GURUS.
Singing is one’s purification.
Poetry said in verse.
That’s a guru.
A teacher.
Black and white stark
Good vs. evil
Street manifesto
Rap. All that.
RIP G.U.R.U. — Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal
AKA — Keith Elam — who’s dad was a judge, mom a librarian.
Did some time doing social work, so he learned.
Dropped getting’ a masters to become a master rapper.
Emcee Keith.
Unlikely ghetto rapper.
Guru: Brooklyn, the Boogie Down
All the boroughs… got positivity
Boston, Philly, New Jersey, Houston
The rest of the hip-hop world…
Baltimore?
Unlikely…
Baltimore?
Yeah. That CORNER of the world…
And, since THE WIRE,
(QUOTHE the GURU) they’re always stereotypin’ us.
Welcome to Brooklyn.
Yeah, NYC, we got 1 here, 2.
By way of
BMORE.
Inner City.
I know cause I DO
there…I DON’T just talk about it.
Word.
Make no mistake.
These kids are soooo bright…
Fast learners.
Maybe never knowing where you are going
to find it makes you sharper…
They vie for attention. I wish there were a couple more of me.
I am poor for having no
1 else with me.
No one.
No. I’m no teacher.
I’m there to help cats.
Yep. Cats.
Abandoned and feral.
And the kids help me.
I’m working with them (kids, that is) on a rap today.
I need all the help I can get.
(Hey, the rap part’s EZ. We got rapport.)
BUT — because people hate ‘em.
always stereotypin’ ‘em …
Cats…are hard.
And the people who help ‘em?
We’re CRA -ZEE. Yep. That’s the score.
The kids and me,
Unlikely ghetto rappers
but — here’s positivity
in Bmore City.
Stop the killing.
Save the ferals.
The kids and me.
We DO what we do.
GURU: But I can’t jeapordize,
what I have done up to this point
So I’ma get more guys, to help me run
the whole joint
SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. I TOLD YOU SHUT UP.
But, I wanna help.
The ladies are more than overwhelmed. Close to 40
after school kids under 14 in 1 room at the center today.
Nah, let them help me. It’s okay.
You got pretty hair Miss grabbing a strand of my hair.
STOP TOUCHING HER HAIR.
It’s allright. Really. I don’t care.
I went in by way of helping animals and found the kids.
We dance and clap and rap our song.
3 Blind Mice makes a good cat tune.
Buckets make 4 good beats.
We sound pretty good 2.
We like it.
GURU: The same sheisty cats that you hang with,
and do your thang with could set you up
and wet you up, n___ peep the language
It’s universal, you play with fire it may hurt you
or burn you, lessons are blessings you should learn through
Who’s Keith Elam and exactl
y who’s he talking to?
Nobody comes in here unless they live here, have to,
Or — unless they are paid (um, except for me, that is).
And it’s not G.U.R.U. I hear blaring on car stereos.
Maybe because it’s years after his prime time. RIP Guru.
Then again…how relevant is/was Spike Lee to the ghetto?
There isn’t a Jazzmatazz Thing going on in this part of the world.
Nobody talks Branford, or Ramsey, or Herbie, or even Billie,
and she started her life in CHARM CITY.
This is Bmore… the Projects.
GURU: LIVING IN THIS WORLD
WISE and Conscious one
Less greed
Rhyme divine
Soldier of truth
Protect the lives of our youth
Some cuss at me for simply being.
They don’t understand. They think no one smiles for nothin’.
Unless they’re up to somethin’.
She’s maybe 3 years old?
Maybe. … looks over her shoulder,
bouncing along,
scowls at me…
Always stereotypin’ …
Her mother yanks her arm as they move down the street.
But not everybody’s negative.
Some understand taking a stand.
And so I keep helping those to keep going…
GURU: For reasons that are so deep,
I don’t need no cheap
people to identify, I just say hi and bye
Since I’m an optimist, I’ll turn and walk with this
tape playing loudly, inside my headphones
But for the most part, kids are curious, and want something to do.
Miss, Miss! I remember you!
I want to help! I want to help, too!
Watch me. Look Miss. I’ll show you where the cats are!
Look Miss. LOOK what I GOT! I found him under the bush!
GET! GIT OUT! GIT YO KIDS OUTTA MY YARD!
I told you I don’t want them comin’up here touchin’ things.
Today, H., a neighborhood CAT LADY is with me.
H says to her. I told you they ain’t my kids.
Y’ALL ALWAYS GOT ‘EM WITCHOO!
C’mon kids, I say. You heard the lady.
Just don’t go up close to her house, ‘kay.
Stay away from all those bottles she’s got stacked there…
Maybe she’s makin’ art…or something.
GURU: Actions have reactions,
don’t be quick to judge
You may not know the hardships
people don’t speak of
It’s best to step back, and observe with couth
For we all must meet our moment of truth
Is that your cat?
For a second the guy looks at me wide eyed,
tries to hide
a reaction — He’s too cool.
(Who me? Why she talkin’ to me?)
Ain’t mine. Belongs over there. They done throwed it out.
Here’s a bag of food.
I ain’t gonna feed it.
Who will?
That guy over there. He throws stuff out for them to eat.
Who’re you?
I get them fixed and shots. No Rabies. No Babies. It’s free (out of my pocket, of course)
The dealer drives by slow in a white caddy.
GURU: Selling d-r-u-g-s and clocking dollars, troop
Cause the phat dough, yo, that suits me fine
I gotta have it so I can leave behind
The mad poverty, never having always needing
He’d been sitting there for awhile wondering
Who’s the woman in the dark glasses,
in that hatchback. He drives by slow, sees me wave,
so he lowers his window …
I say “fixin’ cats –– they’re comin’ back tomorrow .
They have no where else to go.
He nods. His girl says something to him.
Lowers window, Do you de-claw?
Hell, no.
They need some kind of protection out here.
GURU: Now is the chance to advance
and get an outlook, Create the circumstance,
because I doubt books
can relay, words this way, so I’ll portray
a new image, and let’s begin as
a beautiful world, though we’ve been led to
That guy’s walkin’ his Pit and he got a hold of a cat.
B, the real Cat Lady of the projects calls me. It’s 10:00 PM.
I drive down each alley with Ms. B as the wind blows.
There’s a cop car. No cop.
Can’t find the carcass, either. We drive around the alley again.
Finally. A cop in the car.
He takes off. We follow, flashing my lights HEY.
He hits a right turn and speeds off.
Over there, Cat Lady says.
I flag a car of detectives. Must be a bust.
They got ‘em lined up at the center.
Who are you? You shouldn’t be in here without police protection.
I want to laugh because he’s serious.
Always stereotypin’…
You shouldn’t be in here.
He isn’t unfriendly. More surprised.
I point to the Cat Lady in the seat next to me.
She lives here.
While you were bustin’ those guys
A guy’s killing cats with a Pit.
What’re we supposed to do about it?
Call 311.
GURU: Moment of Truth.
My only crime, was that I’m too damn kind
And now some skanless motherfuckers
wanna take what’s mine
But they can’t take the respect,
that I’ve earned in my lifetime
And you know they’ll never stop
the furious force of my rhymes
So like they say, every dog has it’s day
And like they say, God works in a mysterious way
I watch the couriers on dirt bikes.
They scout for cops. That means woods tonight.
Pit fights and cat baiting. I hear about it from the kids.
The good folks call the cops. When they hear the dogs tied up to the trees on a warm night and see the groups gathering to bet. Someone throws a rock through the window of one white lady.
B____h! I know where you live.
But, they don’t know where I live.
So, I call the task force for them and report it. No one calls back.
Who cares…Just kids. Just dogs. Just cats.
Always stereotypin’…
GURU: It doesnt matter if the cops be scoping
They cant do jack, that’s why a young brothers open
To do anything, anywhere, any place,
Buck wild in another court case
Its the code of the streets…
Another cold blooded murder over turf.
Not cats… people.
The girl got out of the car and ran.
They chased her down intah the alley and shot her
in her head.
She ran. They caught her.
Wrong girl, they said.
Mistaken ID.
MISS! Take that alley.
The dogs jes ran after the cats and pick ‘em up by the neck and yank till it dead.
Miss I want a kitten.
GURU: So much anger built inside
so don’t stop to say hi, muthafucka just die
my shit holds a mouthful
so i guess you know what’s up
why punks get killed at the end of the month
The way of the world, n___z fiendin to pull it
You either bite the dust, or just dodge that bullet
B. tells me things are getting bad in here.
I watched him from the winda. Here came back with a glock.
I KNOW a glock! He stood over him and fired and hit him in the stomach up close, and he went back and it wouldn’t shoot. TWICE! DAMN, lucky ass son of a bitch. I saw his face. Like he was dead. They called him white boy. The shooter. He wasn’t white! Light skinned, yeah. He wasn’t no white. That’s why he came back wit d’gun. Kept callin’ him WHITE BOY. It’s that damn snack truck. I told ‘em they’s sellin’ s__t out da back. He didn’t see me.
GURU: To all my brothers in the streets
I know you feel you gotta hustle
cause your peeps gotta eat
Makin moves right and exact;
don’t wanna see you layin flat
Don’t wanna see ya catch a bullet black
If we don’t build we’ll be destroyed
That’s the challenge we face in this race of poor
and unemployed
The kids grab my hand an
d hug me and yell over top of one another
Miss Misssss Miss Cat Lady. I want a kitten.
I tell ‘em, kittens grow up to be cats.
You have to learn how to take care of the cats you’ve got first.
You be nice to the cats and to other kids,
you might learn to care for a kitten.
We don’t need cats having kittens that no one can care for.
They just grow up to be cats. More cats.
How’re you doing in school? I ask as we walk along.
Are you being good?
GURU: Why do bad things happen, to good people?
Seems that life is just a constant war
between good and evil
The situation that I’m facin, is mad amazin
to think such problems can arise from minor confrontations
Over here…the guy pull’t up and shot her, Uh huh, he got out and shot thru the uh..winda a the car.
(Guru. Sang in verse. Sings purification. Sang mercy. Contentment.)
Miss, Miss. CAT LADY!
I’m not the Cat Lady, but if you want to call me that, fine.
Ms. B’s the real Cat Lady. You be nice to her and the cats.
B. won’t let the cats starve because her stepfather starved her as a kid. Had to sneak food from the fridge. Now she calls me, hysterical, when she can’t feed the cats. There are now around 40 that come up to her house to eat at different times. She does a good job taking care of them. No babies, no rabies. Don’t mess with B.
She tells me:
Someone down the block’s threatening the cats and me.
I say, what, like the witch? I’ll get you Dorothy and your little cats, too?
NAW! Like B____h WHITE B____h. SHE CALLED THE COPS AND THEY COME OVER HERE THINKIN’ I WAS HARASSIN’ HER CALLING HER N ____r. THEN they see my boyfriend, and they figure she’s nuts when they see his black a___.
Always stereotypin’ …
GURU: Stop, think for a moment OK?
And then sway while I convey
that we must do away
with all the stress and the strife,
so god bless your life
Use kindness, and never blindness
And you will find that this perspective is best,
check it out
These are the words that I manifest, I manifest
B told me the other day while I was dropping off food:
Yesterday they stomped the s__t out of dat guys head… ‘cross the street. Yeah, his girlfriend said he molested her kid – she’s a crackhead. Yeah, they took him down. Wasn’t true. Stomped him real bad. He ain’t dead, but, might as well be.
GURU: SOLDIER OF TRUTH.
What troops are/is MC Keith Elam talking to? Does G.U.R.U. make the difference between Sartre and Camus?
Or I should say: IS ANYONE HEARING WHAT HE’S SAYING ANYWAY? CORPOREALITY? In A-C-T-U-A-L-I-T-Y? Hands on. Hands in. Or is it simply an artist’s wrap: An answer to every other fill in the blank ghetto rapper wearing black and fake bling, with their immaterial witnessing.
B: Charmaigne said she pulled a knife on a boy.
The one you’s always talkin’ to. She’s a crazy girl.
What’d he do to her? You’d’ve done the same thing.
That kid’s smart. Just like you. She doesn’t have anywhere to use it. Doesn’t that make you crazy, too?
MISS! You got anything for me?
Yeah. Cat food. You wanna help me?
Them cats steal the baby’s breath, Miss,
that’s why we’d throwed the last one out.
Who told you that?
My mom. She jes had a baby.
Not true. But, lots of people still think that.
Always stereotypin’ …
I’m gonna getchu white b___h, the kid on the dirt bike told the other cat lady. Yeah? And I’m taping you’re a__ right now.
He skidaddles. H says: No one’ll fix the damn lights out here.
The kids’re runnin’ wild breakin’ s__t. The managers afraid they come out to her house and fire bomb. She won’t do nuthin’. I called the police. They can’t do nothin’ unless they ketch’em doin’ it. Drives me crazy.
GURU: Come into your house to douse it with the
malatov cocktail, I won’t fail
Burn out your eyeballs, and leave a note in braille
So what the fuck you gonna do?
Yea I know I used to act relaxed but now I’m cuckoo
I drop off cat food to the crack-head kid and his
2 friends snippin’ copper wire in the back alley.
Give this to your mo
m, I say. How’s she doing?
m, I say. How’s she doing?
GOOD.
That was the only word I understood.
Keeps rollin’ wire.
Crack sucks the brain cells and tangles tongues.
But — untangling copper wire — no problem.
I get in my car.
Okay, done.
Cats eat.
My gut’s empty.
GURU: The rhyme I toss ya, it will be nourisihin
I must bring, ideals for better living see
Because I do believe in positivity
It’s all about evolution…
Blessed be the meek.
For they shall inherit…
The wind?
I hope to God there’s such a thing as evolution
And it doesn’t take a couple 10,000 years or GURUS
to bring us 1 step ahead.
2 bad there aren’t real GURUS in this ‘hood
and Keith Elam is dead.
He could’ve walked and talked to a ½ dozen kids,
and rapped while I trapped…
Myself…I don’t have anything to give
but words
and a little something to do…
…revolution and rehabilitation.
Kiddies can get out.
Kitties, a different story.
Be nice 2 cats —
cut each other
a break.
Future GANG STARRS & GURUS.
Give more than you take…
“I’ve never been afraid to let loose my speech.
My brothers (and my sisters) know I kick the code of the streets…”
I ain’t indirect…
WORD.
STOP TALKIN’.
STOP STEREOTYPIN’.
START MANIFESTIN’.
RIP G.U.R.U.