INTRO
Today I’m spending time with Rashad ThaPoet in Music City. Rashad is an award-winning spoken word artist who is putting Nashville on the charts of hip-hop music. As an activist and truth teller Rashad inspires young people to find their voice, learn a tool of poetry to express it and build confidence that no matter what we have to say, each of us needs to be heard. Because as Rashad likes to point out we are all put here for a purpose.
BUMPER
I am Tajci.
At 19 I was a superstar and I was lost inside. I left it all behind, switched continents and started all over. Years later I found myself lost again. This time in the American dream.
This is a story about awakening. About living the life you were created for. About going inward and discovering the joyous and purposeful person you and I are both meant to be.
This is “Waking Up In America.”
RASHAD
UntiTITLED?
Written and Performed by RashadThaPoet
With my dreams I can float in space
I never walked on water though
don’t praise man,
that’s what the father’s for
seven chakras might as well let the power flow
opened up your mind and then you can let
the knowledge grow
from the Learning Tree
Yeah I’m talking books
yeah I’m talking life
only got one so
why live it sleep
wake up, live your dreams,
make your life complete.
TAJCI
Wow! Thank you! Rashad, welcome!
RASHAD
Thank you for having me.
TAJCI
Say that last line again
RASHAD
Wake up, live your dreams make your life complete.
TAJCI
Wake up! And that my friends is spoken word.
RASHAD
Yes.
TAJCI
How uplifting!
RASHAD
Thank you!
TAJCI
And I met you at a beautiful event here in Nashville, it was called ‘Based on Nashville” and it was an event that combined written word, music and visual arts. And when you walked onstage you read somebody else’s writing and you did a piece.
RASHAD
Yes
TAJCI
and then I watched your TEDx talk and I really wanna encourage viewers to watch your TEDx Nashville Talk.
RASHAD
Yes, I appreciate that, thank you so much.
TAJCI
How is spoken word, what you do different from hip-hop and rap?
RASHAD
Well, spoken word is an offshoot of poetry. I like to say it’s kind of the.. if poetry is the grandfather than spoken word is the Dad and then rap are the kids. But spoken word, different from poetry is, spoken word is performance poetry so it’s poetry that’s meant to be performed.
Sometimes you go to open mikes and poetry may be read from books but spoken word is an art form and you use your body, use your hands, have different inflections in your voice so it’s a powerful art form. And hip-hop and rap the difference between hip-hop and rap, other then of course different from hip-hop and spoken word is music. There is music but to me, hip hop is more conscious, more lyrical word play, where rap is more… it’s just something that have fun with. Where I like to say that hip hop is the meet and rap is the vegetables.
TAJCI
Interesting!
RASHAD
You can have both. right? Sometimes you want that meet and sometimes you just a vegetable and sometimes you want both. So you can have both. So that’s why they both exist.
TAJCI
And when you say conscious, and I’ve seen on your website, you are a truth teller and you have a phrase that says you “spit the truth.” Tell me what that means?
RASHAD
For me speaking the truth just means being honest about everything that is going on in my surroundings, all the things that I see. I always like to say that I like to speak for the voiceless. So for those people who aren’t able to tell their story, or who aren’t able to speak up because society hasn’t given the opportunity to speak up I feel I like a platform to do that, and I’ve never been afraid to just tell the truth and so when I speak the truth that’s what I mean.
TAJCI
Afraid. That’s the key word for me. I want to “spit the truth” but that’s… that’s scary for a lot of people that’s scary.
RASHAD
Yes it is.
TAJCI
Why would it be scary for people?
RASHAD
I think a lot of times like we’re trained to think a certain way and we’re trained to react a certain way and so, you know, sometimes kids can grow up thinking there’s a boogeyman in the closet, right? And they’re afraid of this boogeyman. But it’s like, if you just get up, turn on the light, look under the bed, there’s nothing there. But what do they do? They don’t get out of the bed. They keep the cover over their head because they’re scared, right? And so I think as adults we can do the same thing we stay in this this box of: I’m afraid. I’m not gonna do it, not going to try, and somebody else will do it and then we never, we never take the opportunity or the initiative to just step out and just step out. And if you step out, I’m not saying that it automatically happen in that moment, but just taking it one step at a time gets you to where you wanna be.
TAJCI
I love the metaphor of being in bed with a cover on and that’s my whole thing here, you know wake up from telling somebody else’s truth or repeating somebody else’s words a that you were told or taught, instead of ok let’s just take that blanket off, and wake up and get up and “spit the truth.” Set it up for me, your background.
RASHAD
OK. So, I’m born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Both parents at home. My parents divorced when I was 17. Have a younger sister, went to high school here as well. Going to college in Alabama which was something I chose to do, I could have easily stayed here and went to school here, but I just wanted to do something different, so I think even in that moment I made a different decision then what everybody else is doing. Both of my parents went to the same college… so it was kinda like I could’ve went to college that they went to like everybody kind of does, but I just wanted to do something different, like I just didn’t really want to stay in Nashville so went down Alabama to Huntsville to be exact, and graduated from Alabama A&M University
TAJCI
Majoring in…
RASHAD
I initially majored in electrical engineering. That was my original major and
TAJCI
Was that part of your dream?
RASHAD
No. So I went to school and I didn’t have a major freshman year. And I had a relative who worked on campus and she’s was kind of like, ok you need to pick something and I just didn’t know what I wanted to do so she was like, oh just try this. Try engineering. So I got into it… I didn’t really hate it but didn’t really like it, but I was a freshmen a sophomore so it didn’t really matter at the time. But it wasn’t until later into my junior year that my awakening happened, so…
TAJCI
Here is Rashad, studying engineering at the college that’s already different from your family dynamic, but still doing things that promise good, great career and then when we come back we’ll find out what’s happened.
BREAK
TAJCI
You’re studying at the University in Alabama and you’re studying something that is not really a part of your dream. What happened why did you switch?
RASHAD
Well, I want to an open mic on campus. It was in the student center and I don’t even really remember why I went, but i just decided to go and there were these amazing poets performing these pieces and I was blown away.
TAJCI
So you went as… just to listen.
RASHAD
Just to listen… just to listen. I wasn’t writing at the time, so I just kind of want to hear what poetry was about. I of course I knew what poetry was but I was really blown away by it, so I left there like, wow I wish that I could do that.
TAJCI
Were you aware that you were missing something or not?
RASHAD
I don’t think until after I went to the portrait event I realized it. So I think before that it was just kinda like I was just living and I didn’t realize or feel like something was missing I just felt like I’m young, I’ll figure it out whatever… I left there wishing I could do it but I still didn’t do it. I didn’t perform yet I didn’t even write. I just was like, man I wish I could do that.
TAJCI
What was the feeling that you felt?
RASHAD
It was just warm. It was just like, wow like these guys have and ladies have incredible talent that I wish that I had and I just wish something in me would allow me to do what they do.
TAJCI
Why?
RASHAD
I don’t know. Like I just, I always… people always kind of say like, when you know you know and you don’t never realize what that means until it happens to you It’s kind of like falling in love. What does love feel like? You can’t really describe that, you can only tell somebody, but you can’t describe it until you feel it for yourself. And so was the same type of feeling with poetry. It was like I didn’t really know it until I felt it. And so when I felt it, I wanted it but I didn’t know how to go about getting it. And so I just kind of kept coming back and listening and hearing poets perform. And then one day I just decided to write a poem and… I mean now, looking back on it was terrible, but at the time I thought it was pretty good.
So I wrote it and it was about the solar systems, and I was comparing the solar systems to like being in love. So it’s like weird and random. But I went and I remember coming to the open mike and I remember the president of the poetry club she tapped me on the shoulder and she was like, hey I’m glad you came out! I’m glad you decided to do something. I saw your name on the list and… I always tell the story, ’cause I had on a hoodie. It was in a middle of winter with a backpack on and I was like nervous. And I’m sweating… profusely… and it’s probably ’cause I have a jacket on, but it’s also because I’m really nervous, like I’m really, really nervous and I’ve never done this before. I’ve never gotten up in front of people and performed. So to get up in front of these people… and I get up there, I perform the piece not only remember… I just remember getting up there and I was done. So I probably did it really fast and I just walked right out. Yes people were still clapping I just kept walking and I just walked out into the night.
TAJCI
You couldn’t handle…?
RASHAD
I just couldn’t take it. Like I was just so like, Oh my Gosh, I just did it and I was just so nervous I didn’t know how to digest everything that just happened so I just bolted out. And I got outside and it was just like, you know, like I said, it’s cold outside, so I remember like my breath and I remember being like, you know, like “Whoo!” You know, letting out that, like I did it! And I just remember walking back to the dorm and that’s all I remember from it.
TAJCI
Did you let out a sound?
RASHAD
Yeah I mean I don’t want to say ’cause it was so loud, but it was like, whoo! like I did it! like So I felt great! Like, I mean after that like when I let that sound out I feel incredible and I just remember walking back to the dorm feeling great. I did it and pretty much like the rest is history.
TAJCI
Is that moment of that I did! Does that resonate as being awakened?
RASHAD
Yeah, most definitely! I mean that’s a memory that’s fifteen years old and it still plays vividly in my mind like it was yesterday. Because it’s that moment when I realized like I’m gonna do this. And I can do this. And it’s not even at that moment that I’m thinking I’m gonna do it as a career or doing something as a that I’m going to help to feed my family with, more so just as, I’m going to come here every Friday night and I’m going to perform gonna write pieces and I’m gonna figure out this poetry thing. I’m going to learn from these incredible artists and that’s what I did
TAJCI
You just made tremendously courageous step and you experience this awakening this physical feeling of “I’m alive.” So, when we come back we’re going to talk about how what that shift brought into your life and how it’s now affecting and impacting so many people.
BREAK
TAJCI
You’re awaken, you found something that you express… a tool, a way to express what’s in your soul. And now you are back to your class, studying engineering.
RASHAD
Not the same. So I end up linking up with a fellow classmate who does a TV show on campus and I get invited to sit in the audience and I’m like wow this is great I love this. And so I go from sitting in the audience to asking him how can I be a part of what you guys are doing. And they are like, oh, you can come and help us, you can try to work the camera or do something, you know, background… And the longer I stayed around, the more they were like ok, you’re really cool and one day I was just playing around in front of the camera and they were like, you’re really good, like you’re natural at this. Like do you want to host the show? And I was like sure! So I went on to host entertainment talk show on campus, student-run called “The Beat” and we did one show a week it was entertainment show and so that kind of added to what I was already doing with spoken word and poetry.
TAJCI
So you were now writing a lot.
RASHAD
writing, writing and performing at the open mikes and it also I was hosting this talk show. It was like, entertainment talk show, so we’d have artists on I’d perform and I would interview them and
TAJCI
Did you switch majors?
RASHAD
I did not because my thinking in it and I should have… but my thinking was I’m already almost done I don’t want to stay in school longer, right? So instead of just switching, which it probably would have been much longer, I just stayed, finished, whatever.
TAJCI
Is there such thing as having a degree as a spoken word artist?
RASHAD
You can get… there are now. Certain colleges now are offering degrees in poetry. Of course you can get a degree in writing of course but there are certain universities now they are starting to offer undergrad degrees in poetry and they’re paying students to come to perform and be a part of their university and have this curriculum that’s poetry based. So it’s starting to grow ’cause people are starting to see it and realizing how impactful and how important it is.
TAJCI
Why is it impactful and important?
RASHAD
I think for young people especially and I’m speaking from experience working with young people, I think that it helps them to have an outlet. A lot of times they’re forced to keep things inside and digest a lot of their feelings. I always use the analogy of if you shake up a Coke and then you open the top, it’ll explode. And I think a lot of times as people that’s do. We internalize our stuff for so long, we don’t deal with it, and then something happens and we explored on people. And it’s usually people who haven’t really offended us in a certain type of way, but if it we are able to express those feelings… and poetry is an incredible outlet to express how you feel. And you bring up a great point that you also are being heard.
TAJCI
Yes, yes, most definitely.
RASHAD
So you are that shaken Coca-Cola can, right?
TAJCI
Right.
RASHAD
And then you add to it all the blankets, the blanket of what we entertain ourselves with that feeds into that shaking our Coke can right?
TAJCI
Right!
RASHAD
And you mentioned you work with young people. Tell me about that. Well I work with an organization. It’s called Southern Word. It’s a sister organization of Youth Speaks, which is a national organization that was started in the Bay Area. And our founder of Benjamin Smith moved to Nashville and he was looking for poets who were making moves in Nashville, who were the top poets and my name came up and I had interview. We sat and had a meeting, he told me what he was trying to do, and at first I was like we’re gonna teach poetry in school? That’s not going to work, but ’cause I didn’t know. And eight years later here we are and it’s been an incredible journey.
TAJCI
What do you see happening most?
RASHAD
You see a transformation I think in competence more than anything. The ability to face whatever it is that you’ve written about. And to know that, ok I’m not the only person dealing with this. I think a lot of times with talented young people especially they kind of box themselves into thinking that nobody else is going through what they’re going through, so when they write and share these personal stories and then have the courage to share them with the rest of her classmates, they they form a community. They form a bond with each other and it’s not that they become best friends but it does say they acknowledge that somebody else is dealing with what they’re dealing with, and it just helps them to grow because now I can see you in the hallway and I can just give you a head nod and that head nod can totally change my day, right? We can have this non verbal communication that lets each other know, I hey man, it’s cool. Everything’s gonna be alright.
TAJCI
And just to connect on that pain level, you know, in that anxiety, because, like you said go through it. And on social media, we all like to look more…
RASHAD
Than we are. Sometimes you have to get dirty and that’s how you grow. Pain is how we grow.
TAJCI
Yes and it’s scary to be, to think that we’re alone in it and a part of your curriculum when you work with the young kids is performing?
RASHAD
Yes, the performing aspect. Because again it’s not about turning them into a poet. We always tell them that. But we do tell them that in life you’re going to have to get up and you gonna have to speak for yourself. You’re going to have to have your voice heard or someone else will speak for you. And as you get older it’s going to be harder to get over that anxiety of getting up and speaking publicly. A lot of times the youth feel like, oh I’m 17 so when I turn 25 I won’t be nervous or I won’t be afraid anymore and we try to teach them now like, this is the time now to figure out who you are in the sense of knowing that I can get up and I can articulate myself and I can speak for myself and I have a voice that needs to be heard. And if they start to do that now, then there is no… the sky is a limit of where they can go.
TAJCI
How did your fatherhood influence what you do?
RASHAD
It’s been an incredible impact on my life. I mean I have an incredible, incredible wife who’s supportive, and she’s beautiful. She’s my queen and she has helped support me in this journey and just being a father has totally changed like everything. I have two wonderful sons and just to see them every day waking up and… you know, the oldest one is, he is such a helper. He loves his little brother and just to see my family like, to me that’s the most important thing is family. And to have my family there…
TAJCI
You are young father and you support your family through being a freelancer, spoken word artist, and as an educator.
RASHAD
I mean the majority of it is coming from me teaching. 90% percent of how I support my family is teaching in the schools and we go in, and we teach poetry, we teach literacy using poetry through spoken word so that’s the majority of what I’m doing every single day. So it’s a blessing to be able to do that for the past eight years.
TAJCI
It is! You’re using your talent, your gift, and you serve, you empower these young people.
RASHAD
So, it’s like I’m teaching them how to do what I’m doing at night and that’s really like, cool to be able to do it all day long I mean I don’t take it for granted, because I know as an artist how hard it is to be able to do that.
TAJCI
Not being afraid.
RASHAD
Not being afraid to step out there and make it happen.
TAJCI
You’ve sold a bunch of records, you have 15 albums?
RASHAD
Yes.
TAJCI
And then your new album is coming up?
RASHAD
Yes, yes. Soulville will be out soon.
TAJCI
And you gonna gift us with a song.
RASHAD
Yes, yes, I’m gonna give you a little something
before we get out of here.
TAJCI
Tell me about it.
RASHAD
It’s called “Twos Up”. I wrote it basically dealing a little bit around the turmoil of people looking for peace in a time when there really isn’t a lot of peace and so it’s just a song kind of based upon that. Based upon finding peace.
TAJCI
And “Twos Up” means…
RASHAD
It’s just putting your peace sign up. So instead of saying put your peace signs up, I say, put your twos up.
TAJCI
Rashad ThaPoet, thank you!
RASHAD
Thank you
RASHAD
TWOs UP
Written and Performed by RashadThaPoet
Put your twos up, keep them in the sky,
that’s hand sign for peace, we all gotta try
make a better way ’cause just the other day
I found out Eric Garner man he passed away
head down I send a prayer up
his family looking around like who gonna take care of us
hard to maintain with your head underwater
chicken necks systems, can’t get a grasp
gaspin’ for air when all they did was laugh
Bilderberg Group Trilateral Commission
Wizards of Oz no curtain needed
they hide in plain sight most just don’t see it
too busy in a struggle tryin’ to make a livin’
now pass it on is the key give
back what you were given
zombies walk around but they’re not really livin’
folks all over been dealing with these capers
been over some years time some get to see paper
just tryin’ a great escape
what’s the point in the hate
we need to bounce back starts with the rap
is revolution time a resolute to climb
I’m trying to get higher
people listen close
no man knows the hour so only fools boast
they drag on squares then they let their mind coast
drag on squares then they let their mind coast, ah
songs of liberation they say give us free
it’s all about patience they just want peace
Peace
TAJCI
To replay this episode and enjoy Rashad’s story one more time and share it with friends log onto wakingupinamerica.net and remember keep your Twos Up!
