Yesterday I was nine
Anxious
Afraid
Excited
Loved

Yesterday
I was nine
Again
Listening to Just Ice’s “LaToya”
and “Girls I got ‘em locked”
By the duo of Super Lover Cee and Cassanova Rud
And I was instantly transported
Back to Hip Hop circa 198life
When I used to hide in the basement with my
Black transistor radio with bent aluminum antenna
Jutting from side pocket
Electrical tape sticking to my fingers
Where the battery back used to be
107.5 WBLS
Mister Magic’s Rap Attack
Drowning out
‘Wash the dishes’ chimes
And ‘empty the trash’ threats by
The Gestapo residing in the capitol building…
Upstairs…

See, when I was nine
My spider-senses tingled with every scratch of vinyl
Floating through airwaves
I fell into the weather-beaten grooves
Stuck to Red Alert’s fingerprints
Dangling from
Sweat-laden participles
Metaphors and
Rhythm-laced prepositional phrases
When ho was a chant
Not a title

I came years after Vietnam
But fully aware of war
And it’s impact on my community
I mean who could forget the war for supremacy
Between the super powers
Queens and The Bronx
Generals Shan and KRS
Led armies with superior firepower into
Demilitarized zones
And Hip Hop came out victorious

And who could forget the War of the Wor(l)ds
Between Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee

Party rockers and Lyricists converged
And the outcome was King Rakim
And the mighty run DMC and their Queens Empire

All of a sudden I was nine
And Hip Hop was too
I was new and she was naïve
But we were happy holding hands
On the way home from school
We were both shy to the world
But intimate in our space
At home
In the basement
Double a’s dying and being reborn in flashes of instance
Lines and verses memorized like Anglo counterparts
And their Hip Hop of Shakespeare and Goethe

I know I’m not nine anymore
And the last quiz I took
In Hip Hop 101
Was many Black Moon’s ago…

But my nephew is nine
And Hip Hop isn’t anymore…

I wonder if he too looks to the basement
And studies

© Fahim Malik Nassar August 7, 2006

its nice to read from you again!
Keep Flowin' fam.....

I really dug this piece. Nice work!

these sections flew off the screen at me.
>
>See, when I was nine
>My spider-senses tingled with every scratch of vinyl
>Floating through airwaves
>I fell into the weather-beaten grooves
>Stuck to Red Alert’s fingerprints
>Dangling from
>Sweat-laden participles
>Metaphors and
>Rhythm-laced prepositional phrases
>When ho was a chant
>Not a title

AND THIS...
>

>All of a sudden I was nine
>And Hip Hop was too
>I was new and she was naïve
>But we were happy holding hands
>On the way home from school
>We were both shy to the world
>But intimate in our space
>At home
>In the basement
>Double a’s dying and being reborn in flashes of instance
>Lines and verses memorized like Anglo counterparts
>And their Hip Hop of Shakespeare and Goethe
>
>I know I’m not nine anymore
>And the last quiz I took
>In Hip Hop 101
>Was many Black Moon’s ago…
>
>But my nephew is nine
>And Hip Hop isn’t anymore…
>
>I wonder if he too looks to the basement
>And studies
>
>© Fahim Malik Nassar August 7, 2006



thank you for this in its entirety.

Time where does it really go? or do we just repeat cycles