Time To Wake Up

I normally detest rap but mainly because it has displaced music, (which is a superior art form), and also because I usually disapprove of the words, which tend to be abusive, defensive or arrogant and often infantile, violent or deluded. Furthermore the rhyming is often inconsistent or forced and clunky. Nevertheless, poetry is good, rap is poetry and if done well it can still be good.

In writing this rap and contributing to an art form that I detest I discovered some respect for the other practitioners of this art. It isn’t easy to do well, any more than any other form of poetry. One thing in particular that I noticed is that you can’t have all your lines of equal length. Rap is a style that rebels against the traditional rules and it has its own rules for achieving that. Rap is a highly rhythmic style and although it contains a lot of OFF beats, those off beats are still ON the beat, just not the beat that you expect. Rhymes are essential to the style, although again, those rhymes should come at various places, not just at the end of a line.

In my limited experience of rap it is usually in the first person and usually about the rapper’s struggle with life and the system and how they are going to fight back and triumph against the odds. I did not consciously intend my rap to go in that direction but that is precisely where it went and when it was done I found I had greater respect for all the rappers that had gone there before me.

Peace folks! Martian out.

Greetings everyone, it's the Martian on the mic,
And I'm gonna do it right, keep it tight, gonna to shine a little light.
Yes, I am gonna keep it real, keep the feel, keep the handle on the deal.
I'm gonna bring the stuff that rings, stuff that zings, stuff that's only in the arsenal of kings.
Do you think I cannot rap, 'cause I'm not young and black and poor?
Well sorry, That is crap. Let me even up the score.
I was born and I was bred, with poetry instead, of TV in my head.
Think of all that came before...

I've lived a life, that's for sure, that was free, but now it's time to wake up,
Because I'm tired of being crushed by my curse, getting worse, no one knowing who I am.
But one day, the sun will dawn for me, don't you see?
And I'll reach for the stars, no more frustration and abuse, no more scars, just the stars!
'cause I've got to wake up, fill my cup, time for me to take my prize.
This world is mine to munch on like a clam, it's who I am, I'm no sham, watch me take it like a man.

I tell you: I don't care what they say, let them bray, because I know, that I will achieve some day.
The forces that confound me will run dry, like a lie and we'll know the reason why.
But the power of my thought, it will go on, like a song, from my head.
One day I will be dead, but my words will live instead.
So believe in what I say, no need to pray... Infinite Dimensions is the way.

Don't forget, that all I ever did, as a kid,
Was the idealistic me, it was key, to the way I am today, you can say:
It's because I took those trips, made those slips, spent a lifetime on the dole, like a troll.
Why do you think I play guitar, drive my car, try and reach the highest star?
It's because I must be true, to my dream, which is not what it might seem.
Do you think I cannot fight, when I'm right, to keep my power in the light.
Don't be persuaded by the haters of the Mars, the wannabe stars,
They only criticise, they cannot do, cannot even make a skerrick that rings true.
They are cheap and they are small, they're not in the game at all.
While I am real! I am strong! I am right and they are wrong!
This is my heart; it is my state. You will see that I am great,
When my name is on the wall writ in letters 10 feet tall,
And my stuff is taught in schools, when the Martian makes the rules,
When orchestras of note, play the music that I wrote...

Yes it's gonna be fine when I am given what is mine,
But now I've got to wake up.

Warren Mars - August 2020