A Box Braided Jesus (Lyrics)
A Box Braided Jesus
and now Miguel
Prolog
An English paraphrasing of the intro from the audio track. The intro clip is from a Dominican comedy movie titled Perico Ripiao.
Two men are debating a moral dilemma. Should they let their Friend, who has his hands tied behind his back, kick the crap out of this poor military man who is hogtied on the ground?
This same military man slept with their Friend's beloved. The Friend caught his lover in the act with the hogtied military man. Crimes of passion now have our Friend on the run because he and his boys — the two men debating — escaped jail.
The First Man debating was a former military man who did dirty work for the conservative regime in political power. He carried out assassinations etc. All in the name of holding up a traditionally strong man type regime. The First Man has now turned to Christ and renounced his evil ways. He does not want to allow the Friend to fall into the trap of seeking revenge. But, The Second Man who is a jokester type — a Socialist and a Communist — he is advocating for the Friend. The Second Man and the First Man are social enemies. But all three have been on the run after escaping jail and that predicate has made these three boon companions.
The dilemma this military man and communist find themselves having is around, What would Jesus do? Should they allow their tied up Friend to kick the crap out of the hogtied guy? Would Jesus take action and ever throw hands with the devil? These are the underpinnings of the conversation that follows.
"Didn't Jesus teach us to forgive, we can't allow our Friend to go down this dark path" says the First Man.
Referring to Mark 11:15-19, when Jesus Cleanses the Temple1, The Second Man said, "Remember! When Jesus came to the Temple he handed out ass whippings. He kicked over tables, chairs, and baskets of food man! He turned every thing over with a fury of kicks"
"Wow. But Jesus did all that?"
"Listen man Jesus didn't play around. Lend me your Bible. Look what it says here." The Second Man places his left fingertips on his tongue, turns the page, and begins to read:
Lyrics
I'm a box braided Jesus came to speak truth to power
Made them cower whenever I came in them Kawasakis
I'm a Rough Rider. They tried to talk tough proper
To a Bum Rush rocker a number one Chief Rocker2
With more heat than Chewbacca in the summer sun
Don't try to summon son with words you muttered dun3
Or I'mma get 'er done just like the super4
You called to get your back or plumbing fixed
I'm kinda like the chiropractor who cracked your back with
The way he put his foot in them raps kid; I mean
Sho'nuff you would have thought I was Bruce Leeroy5
But I come graced with braids. Radiant smiles make the dark
Side run wild6 I'm like Jesus kicking the darkness
Out his temple. I cleans any soul with the bottom of
My sole7 In other words that a chancletazo8
For your asshole9
FOOTNOTES
- 1. Also known as Christ's Prophetic Action in the Temple. This event is commemorated during Holy Week and is titled Holy Monday. It is the day after Palm Sunday, when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. The symbolism and intention in referring to this scripture is explicitly referring to a sort of cleaning or purification that occurs in the physical world (spring cleaning) as well as in the psychological realm (the third space is nothingness). However, using this comedy piece as an opening, points to the last words of this prologue as an embodiment of the trickster who attempts to turn the religious into irony in order to navigate the impermanent state of text/words within the living world. In other words, life is situational baby. Go with the flow. ↩
- 2. Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987) by Public Enemy, and "Chief Rocka" (1993) by Lords Of The Underground. Sonically and traditionally sitting the speaker. ↩
- 3. Dun means man but other layers of meaning point to other people talking sh*t, and referring to those sh*t talkers as dung. "It isn't what the man comes but it is what comes out" — see Matthew 15:11. ↩
- 4. 'er is the word her, mimicking vernacular from Larry The Cable Guy's Git-R-Done. What is this fixation with the hard er sound? The dropping of the softness in the sound of selected words or phrases. The word Super and the following line are a reference to the song "One Beer." ↩
- 5. Reference to The Last Dragon (1985). My first time watching this was with my wife in undergrad. One of our very first date nights in the dorm room. ↩
- 6. Monday of Holy Week is Jesus cleansing the temple. And so, the inner temple is cleansed by the true self that is within all of us. That radiant energy that often creates insecurities for the shadowy parts within us. But, how do we balance these two? How do we create self compassion and allow the shadowy hungry ghost feed from the radiance within? ↩
- 7. "... bottom of my sole" can be read in many ways. But one way of looking at this is fighting fire with fire. Fighting darkness with darkness. And could allude to the narrator's false sense of bravado around cleansing "his" temple. Also points to a line from a song that is forthcoming: "These are under belly bars like 9 tail demons, thats why I got keep breathing." ↩
- 8. In Caribbean Spanish dialects refers to a slap with a flip-flop (chancleta), often used as a form of discipline or playful correction. The chancleta and the threat of a chancletazo to shoo annoying people is a legit fear. It also speaks to the divine feminine warrior energy — you see that video of an Indonesian woman single handedly beating about 10+ riot police with a slipper? There is a playfulness that comes across with this line too. Attempting to poke fun at sorta Biblical and self help themes of higher selves shooing away unwholesome things. We need to embrace the totality of the self, doing otherwise is foolish, and can make good comedy but can also turn tragic. You ever read Don Quixote? ↩
- 9. What a profane ending. But, in order to cleanse dear Sancho, you have to get dirty eh? ↩
On The Doc (Lyrics)
On The Doc
and now Miguel
Prolog
“On The Doc” was written, recorded, mixed, and preformed by me, and now Miguel.
This is a track I wrote May 2021 (Watchmen dropped May 13, 1986). It was sparked from an idea I hope to continue to explore around what it means to read and write as decedents of slaves, and put this question in relation to Hip-Hop and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. This idea began with me working through the death of the Comedian, and MF DOOM. The beat on this one is by Damu The Fudgemunk, “Coco Mango” off DOOM’s Born Like This. There will, more than likely be more edits to this one, but wanted to put this out to give “Muskie Fish Fry” more context.
Lyrics
I get raw for you just like a warrior2
Kick haphazard rhymes but I ain’t stalling ya
I took the two seater converted the coops for you
Dropped the top on your melon in a second
More quicker than a hater who wanted a lite to decent3
Seven, But instead they were met with heaven
I guess that’s the life of Pablo step in diablo
Shoes, see Prada4 ought to order the prodigal
Son some founds that would leave em chilling in nautical
Gear for years they don’t be seeing the piers like
Ship stuck in the ocean, but I owe this to my
Peers5, I been riding on the Doc[k] for a year6
Been writing for like fourteen years
Haven’t released nothing cause all that fear7
Left me stuck, on the dock of the bay, with a can of Old Bay
Consuming these crabs in a barrel to plan my escape
Listening to Dr. DOOM as I consume my food8
This the desert island chronicles of a Watchmen got him
Looking for the masked man who had past hands with
Time. Yellow faces with blood running9
Time is running out. I poor a little brew for the
Masked man, I’m blue like Manhattan
FOOTNOTES
- 1. From Watchmen, a Black youth reading the comic, “Tales From The Black Freighter.” What was in the freight? A Black history they try to wash away, but, a could Cain wash his own hands of those stains? ↩
- 2. Big Daddy Kane, “Raw” (1988) ↩
- 3. Anthony “Melon” Fantano’s famous review of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). ↩
- 4. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” by Kany West. See, Kanye West Admits He “Posed As A Backpack Rapper.” See, Hayley Hynes, “Kanye West Admits He ‘Posed As A Backpack Rapper,’” HotNewHipHop, November 13, 2021 ↩
- 5. Many layers here but I’ll point to one. What was really on that ship in Tales of the Black Freighter (the comic within the comic of Watchman)? Slavery, it’s legacy is ever present. Honoring those who did not make it to the other shore either voluntarily or involuntarily. Survivors' guilt? Be on the look out for another reference to the Black Freighter towards the end. ↩
- 6. Reference to Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay—inspired by the San Fransico Bay (released January 8, 1968—a very important year). I moved to NY to CA, but, far from “Frisco Bay.” ↩
- 7. What does it mean to write as a descendant of slaves? What does it mean to write and make meaning through writing when that same tool was used to dehumanize you? And, how brave are you who decides to write despite the history and legacy of slavery in the “new world.” ↩
- 8. I will point to two layers, but there are more to come as I continue to work on this theme. MF DOOM transitioned Oct. 31, 2020. He was a raper who had a comedic style, wore a mask, and was know as the super villain. One of the questions I asked in my Muskie Fish Fry post was, “Who Watches the Watchmen?” Alan Moore never answered this question for me so I thought, isn’t it the villain who watches? I mean Pennywise, the most diabolical—in my opinion—is a clown and he is most definitely a watcher. And when we don’t answer this question, we don’t get a chance to reflect on how Black bodies, art, and intellect, if not appropriated, is vilified or laughed at—but what villain isn’t scary and funny (feel free to help a brotha out with any scholarly sources that reference this sort of theme—I’m sure Mama Morrison’s Playing in The Dark has a line or two about what I’m pointing to). Another layer, Watchmen starts with the death of the leather mask “hero,” the Comedian. I very much admire MF DOOM’s pen and production, but, I too am grappling with the problematic sides of Dumile’s MF DOOM’s transphobic and homophobic lyrics. MF DOOM in many ways like The Comedian hero [villain] in Watchmen. ↩
- 9. Watchmen (1986) comic book cover (first image below), the doomsday clock within the story, and Operation: Doomsday (1999) (second image below). Not only the transition of DOOM but also a limitation of the naive belief in the purity of underground “real” Hip-Hop via Kanye West’s unraveling and a list of Hip-Hop icons who have fallen and thus taken the culture down with them.
↩
Muskie Fish Fry (Lyrics)
Muskie Fish Fry (Lyric)
and now Miguel
Muskie Fish Fry (Lyric)
Prolog
An imaginative piece that is related to a verse I did a few years back around the time of hearing about DOOM’s transitioning. At the same time, I had a family member transitioned as well, and Jan. 6th happened. I’ll make a more official post of that older verse, but, if your curious about it, let me know and I can send a rough version. I recorded my vocals and mixed this joint all on my foldable TV dinner table. Check out this notes to see the processes.
“There, it's done. Now that the representative from South Africa has been mind programmed All of the world leaders on earth are under my [mind] control.”1
Lyrics
DOOM Supply
The demise of supposed cold guys
Coded lies notify the loaded die
The snake eyes the poem I wrote for 5 weeks of2
Haulin rhymes yo It’s all in line with
The narrative I’m callin mine3
A rendition on a Watchman fiction check the
Vision hope that when they4 dismiss the masked comedian
That maybe he a median, somewhere
Eatin’ em the Muskie lung, a dish pie
Barrel chest rich guy5 pretending to be Villain6
But really he just fish fry7
Remarkably the narrator ain’t spark a leaf8
Why, to Prove his theories are true check Siri
And see who, really the fool
Slam on them cyber truck brakes grab up a stool
Come ‘round here let me drop some jewels
Them pot holdin mittens that DOOM be grippin
Made him toss the tool that bronze ring9 he had
Was at the end of the spool That Clotho’s10
Held she kept it very well for me dude
FOOTNOTES
- 1. “Dr. Doom Master of the World,” Spider-Man episode. ↩
- 2. See the poem Self-Style-Eyes (Poem) by and now Miguel ↩
- 3. I heard a whisper from beyond say, “The narrator, the rapper here, is getting a bit gassed off his flow. He needs to remember he is a portal and drop some of this ‘I’m mad nice’ act. Know your place,” they, The Fates say. I guess I was feeling myself. ↩
- 4. The Fates, specifically Atropos. ↩
- 5. I’ve read a book titled Rich Dad Poor Dad and I always felt weird like, what’s with the paternalistic dynamic. I didn’t like how the title infantilized the reader. like, he straight up sonnin you—the disrespect. Why do these dudes who have money want to be father figures and bosses so bad? Like they are shit leaders let alone nurturing fathers. To me, it feels like ghostly echoes of the plantation system. ↩
- 6. Robert Downey Jr. is the new Dr. Doom. Musk LARPS as Tony Starks, the Iron Man but, he also cosplays as a Nazi fascist. Musk has some DOOM imposter syndrome going on. I mean look at how these cyber trucks bite The Villains (MF DOOM) style. Straight bitin’. Oh the layers of irony. So funny! ↩
- 7. MF DOOM, Mm..Food Nov. 16, 2004. ↩
- 8. Lachesis provides the material, she allots. The narrator is sober in the sense that he hasn’t touched alcohol or marijuana since 2019. ↩
- 9. “These old things/ About to throw 'em away/ With the gold rings that make em don't fit like OJ/ Usually I take them off with Oil of Olay/” by MF DOOM song “Potholderz.” I read this as sort of giving up the ghost of Hip-Hop, the magic of it, as MF DOOM transitioned on Halloween, 2020. I took liberties and switched the Gold ring to a Bronze Ring as to play on The Bronx (one of the birthplaces of Hip-Hop) and to point to the fairy tail, The Bronze Ring which deals with a magic ring see The Blue Book (The Langs' Fairy Books). The story of The Bronze Ring and this line is meant to reference the verse on, A Page Made a Magnus, where I end it by saying “Dope is mean also green so I have to magi this whole regime.” ↩
- 10. The Fates. Specifically, Clothos, who is the spinner, represents the present moment. I am transmitting here and signaling the beginnings of a thread I’ve been given. Don’t shoot the messenger because, if you do, the Faits will have their way with you. You’ve been warned. ↩
A Bad Habit (Poem)
Here is a poem about habits and nuns to start your week right and ripe with good fun. I had a lot of fun writing this but there are also some sorrowful truths when recollecting on being a youth. This piece was inspired by JC’s Save The Word Sunday’s and draws from tidy whitey underwears. Enjoy. If you dig it, you know what to do!
“Schoolboy crush, and it ain’t [gotta be] on a hush[ed]” - Q-Tip
A Bad Habit (Poem)
An Image flickers
Candlelight licks undress
An apodiopsis slips1
My shyness hides in Ires
Froward wand of mine warn
By bleached tidy whitey
Now wooden by unwanted foundlings
Underwear near torn
‘Cause Rosaries have been Quatched
In your valley
Embedded beads of sweat
Or so my lips imagine, yes
Two butter colored calabash.
Squash
Frogged beads held by
Indented chain marks
Line your skin. Whydon’t stop
A gasp
Your lips whisper, ay dios mio
The urge to ululate finds me
As I recollect
Those beloved
Hung
Under your
Nunnery dress
FOOTNOTES
- 1. I prefer the Spanish pronunciation of apodyopsis. I have a toddler and we use the word potty way too much around the house. And the Spanish is just, you know, more sensual. And there is the other layer in the that when you cut out the “p,” apodi’sis, the word has a has a dios (gods) sound that can maybe harken to diosa (goddess). I can keep going on about fantasies of goddesses is a trope but I'll leave it here. You get the idea. ↩