LESEGO RAMPOLOKENG

LKJ first encounters. dread beat....blood 'n fire. I WAS ANGRY. VINCENT WAS DEAD. BRUTALLY. INCONSOLABLY. BURNING WITHIN.

familiar yet alien. it hit the gut & called up my vomit. perverse reaction.               i should have gone prostrate. i didnt. no skank inna dis.

i did not 'like' it, in fact safe to say i hated it. it was off, dissonant, jagged, sharp, piercing, jarred... it hit. and i felt:

this is kin     this  is dread    this is kin-dread     we are spirit

and i melted.

into the tarmac. black :

                                             Shock, black double down-beat bouncin'

Rock-wize tumble doun sound music

Foot drop, find drum blood story

bass his'try is a-movin' is a-hurtin' black story…   

........................................it was  "de-fare-rant" !      recognition.                                                             
it called up césaire fanon damas...without using their voices,                                      it echo-chambered the atlantic dead & brought them screaming                            into my orlando western dagga-drunk  trembling reality... it was muddy. and i went pig on it.

EFFECT akin to a cerebraL NUCLEAR EXPLOSION. LIFE CHANGING. AFFIRMATION THAT I WAS NOT A FREAK.

( (dread at the controls...                                                                                                     
poems in one hand, in the other...my balls...                                                             
black boy going out, stand or fall...

perennial searcher finding Lionheart tings:

..............ah no gimmicks just lyrics
put Ratsie Setlhako with his segaba on a king tubby dub-track and you have a harder-core U Roy, fact! botswana dryland switched for 'continent traded for an island' qua Prince Far I, transactlantic trans-actions, sah..and, ah so it go, stah!

switch famo-focal Tau-Ea-Matsekha koriana for reggae instrumental and Dillinger, Trinity or U Brown can have a lyrics-fest ha Peete...reason why Lesotho  got 'diamonds on the soles of her feet', ke ikhethetse e motle, baheso.

Phuzushukela, if we must Maskandi things, is the original Prince Cry Cry, rootical wombshifting-voiceman pon de mic.

DR ALIMANTADO, I WAS 'THE BEST DRESSED CHICKEN IN TOWN'  
WHEN JOMO SONO BROUGHT KFC TO DUBE VILLAGE. WE GOT
ROASTED, THAT AGE.
.....................
36 UNITS OF MEANING ((COMING TO THIS FROM THE BEGINNING
EYETHU JOJO DIE WIT TIER  TESSA POES-BOEKIES SLAUGHTER SAVAGE
DIE UITLANDERS...                                                                                                             
SANS SOUCI. meatpies ..THE FIRE INNA Mi MAMA'S YARD...                        
OKAPI PANGA BULLETS BATONS...the smell of cordite

i grew up with my mother, very young when she got me. lala.                             the neighbourhood still thinks of and knows her as my sister, bra china rampolokeng was serving a 9 to 15 year BID IN PRISON WHEN I WAS BORN. AND THEN in and out until you could cut his age and half of it had been spent behind bars by the time he passed on, a few weeks ago. anyway...back to the johnson coming-to :

herbman connection ecological
 
Africa spiral out universal & then home in backward

'ityopians going home'. Baba / Zimbabwe Dread

talk porous borders (berlin conference drawn) & diaspora call in

                (let the bass go~ grandpa hit em with the riddim!" 

linguist-sticks 'n stones break book ’n vinyl musical spinal disk  

version! (born 'in the tradition' (cyclical black...recycle  as the music 

peter tosh:   mama dem hold papa seh dem charge him fe smoke ganja ...oh mama whatcha gon do

yellowman: bubble wit mi ting pon de double bed-spring /                             de gal wit de bald-head vagina

version! (born 'in the tradition' (cyclical black...recycle as the music 

Soweto coalsmoke-engorged dusk. the shadows come in.

first the coming AND THE GOING IN And out of the party' riddim hold i!

i was hooked on daddy u roy. "wake de towen and tell de people aBOUT DIS MUSICAL DISK COMING YOUR WAY, YEEEAH: "dis version rule the nation" ..big youth, i roy '"musical disk from the flick of my wrist'" the ones lkj in writing about, declared that what they were doing, toasting, was poetry put to dub riddims, this..'dub poetry'. commentators ran with that, labelling what he himself was on was 'dub poetry'. thus it stuck, wrongly. just like chapman put the tag on serote, gwala, sepamla "soweto poetry”. ah well, so it goes.

Johnson hit seismic. atomic explosion. it shred my innards. 

figuratively, of course, i am still standing.

Botany 500. Nomathemba. House of Exile. Gwava Jelly.

IT ALL HIT TOO CLOSE TO aorta, DISCOMFORT, IT PAINED...system shock
 
i recognised...with blood-diamond between the eyes clarity "wed are home, homeless" 

I HAD TWO FATHER-FIGURES, MY COUSINS.

TOKOLLO - JAHMAN OUS MEISIE’S OLDEST...freedom, HE EMBODIED HIS NAME, GENTLEST WARRIOR SPIRIT, ANGELIC LOOKING
 
((VINCENT SEKETE, mk GUERRILLA, SASOL 3, DIED UNDER SADF FIRE, IT BURNED. 

LATE TEENS - up jumped TOU (later become Afrika...bare-topped and in skins, locks-headed Asaf Mmotong band of bandits ichant-intoning:

Yamemeza, Tlapa la Thunya' driving pulsing percussion - heavy lyrical fireflame poetryland-lines.

was my baptismal. tugged hard at the senses.

and then Maishe Maponya Busang Meropa, a return to the source, bringing back the drums.

Ingoapele Madingoane thundering Behold My Son, Khumbula my Child voice riding conga drums. Allah Poets.

it all came together. WORD was, is, will be ABOUT music. with/out instrumentation in the mix.

maskandi, famo...never complete without a poetry injection. the song does not live without the verse-chant.

same as ingoapele madingoane & the Allah POETS, GIL SCOTT HERON, nothing smooth. ruff!!!

and in the dirty wake public enemy and closer home Mzwakhe, i wanted none of that.. \

fear, it scared...caused discomfort, WE ARE THE ELEPHANT

zabalaza 1990...me, vusi, raks...and LKJ as patron/matron. ((my granmA mAmOTABI, very religious lay preacher, always booked for wakes when the bereaved could not afford a certified preacher, LOVED MZWAKHE MORE THAN SHE DID ME, SAID,

oH BAloyi, ngwana ona o utlwisa pelo ya ka bohloko. HE WAS "RIGHTEOUS, MADE HER HEART BLEED"...
ME, I WAS “NGWANA WA sATANE", LATER ON, MUCH LATER, A GUY ACCUSSED THE KALAHARI SURFERS AND I OF MAKING satanic MUSIC.

JEAN BINTA BREEZE---aid travels with a bomb

lorna Goodison (HOUSE OF WORLD CULTURES, berlin

MARLEY COMING ACROSS the airwaves 

: YOU IS A RUDEBWOY, DEM WAS AFRAId of bob---i am becoming my mother

AMIRI BARAKA===black Art... 'make poems that kill', 'get at him, poem!', black dada nihilismus...coming raging across the waters

the Last Poets---niggers are scared of revolution

gil scott heron --- the obvious first choice: the revolution will not be televised

JAYNE CORTEZ FIRESPITTERS, MAINTAIN CONTROL

BEFORE it all, out of the Kgalagadi, ripping dry and heavy, riding Segaba...RATSIE: A RE CHENCHENG....MOVE ON, PROGRESSION REVOLUTION

TOTAL OVERHAUL, NO WHITEWASH FOR THE ROTTEN

JUNE JORDAN had her Soweto address.

trudging knee-deep in darkest rhyme, seems LKJ harnessed all that, mal/form & pulsing content, whittled away and shaped it all to sharp point and... launched, here i am...with it.

THE BLACk WORLD SPOKE TO ME...CRYSTAL

DUB CONSCIOUSNESS

Mphela Makgoba

thunder's own voice coming fire over the black mountain

                        at)/into) red green golden sunrise

Age of Reality comes dreams attached    time's strings

depths & heights    fly & swim    dive & surface   mathematics

one for the Master one for the Sub-Track

dynamo-flow water-way NO stasis


solid lines solidly run   fluid

expand & contract    twin-stream    in DUB-turn


plantation to body-farm   flesh-merchandise

race economy   the bleach industry makes profit

   (turn it white    give it pale appeal   the money call


airwave-force ravage

satanic music death-lyrics  (where) death-claws strum violins

(Art of Violence   neck-up paralysis

carnage at the barricades


to Utility Town on it

beat blade-out-the-night sharp cut through

shot paper     bullet-coins   make plastic-itch   vinyl scratch


blood on & off Black Flesh fetish   Santu wrote about it

brainstem snapped    broken   brainfill scoop

                                      shored up against melanin ruins

                        (anglo modernist dead quote flipped)

bled onto  earth        re-birth   amid the corpuscles

                                           where) the music pulses

NOTES TOWARDS AN ENGAGEMENT (BREWING

               DREAD BEAT PHILOSOPHY       ((dub to the future
 
                              of the B-side aesthetic     WORD to infinity

MABRAK is righting the wrongs and brain whitening   HOW?

Not just by washing out the straitening and wearing dashiki ting---bongo jerry

Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops---benjamin zephaniah

dis poem is a drum ashanti mau mau nyabinghi warriors---mutabaruka

riddim ravings---jean binta breeze

reflections in red     dread ---oku onuora

_shock black bubble down sound music----lkj

                                       REBEL     SOUNDINGS

MOSTOFTHESTRAITENINGISINTHETONGUE   so HOW?

come we go down deh...

riddim bound.to roots. sub-terra. and beyond.

the good clothes and shelter demand. proletarian

metal-clipping the cuts   black lightning  stitching the wounds

beyond where the scab-storms form                                                                aspiration  to the fire this time

a wretched native land's return


      dread flash lightning  clap thunder roll & riddim a drop   one

       target scream  weakheart flop 

slogan :  MESSAGE KNIT TIGHT   shave the baggage excess                                                  taut thought    the poem aim for bone w/rap it short)                                             liberation tool  freedom weapon craft utilitarian                                             WORD render malleable  meaning palpable bawl to action

(every revolution/rebellion/uprising births its own informants

each underground throws up its snitches to surface...

occupationally hazardous...still, time come

for inherited hate pervert might's surrogates

corrupted hearts behind rusted breast-plates) 

hydroquinone politics black flesh death-fetish

scatta-matta-shatta-shack     black attack

kites on the street    bring the liquid metal heat

diamond lipstick for serpentine snouts

skinhead to orange house    national frontals

degenerative   brain-rot travels south

out of babe mouth    viscera rumble

stomach-shake bass effect

.........................

#black youth  scene       endangered species 

greatest extinction candidate    marked at birth

death lives in skin    weighed in tone

melanin murder industrial   mortality conveyer-belt spin

the in-bred's abiding obsession

....................

#blood in the drumbeat...dance-floor written   

dread testament      #haemophiliac nighttimes

#perverse cowboys on a raid    #atrocity merchants
       

children of slaughter on waves    sound and water

ocean-bed     the mixing -board    slave-chamber echoes

resistance is defence ---mzwakhe

music in the word

clock ticks to detonation time    race waR   BOOMSHOT

DREAD ACROSS THE WRETCHED WORLD    LOW END EXISTENCE

notes to the sun   graveyard messages\

the holes in space are black

the dead speak, spoken to...ring the alarm

(smoke with smoke, ganja against arson)

the drums come hard   nothing clowning   no joker-card pulled  

time to RE/create  

(fire-fly hope's beacon wings ablaze then...charred)

the real pierce the superfice    

night terror blue...& the rage red. blood-fire bombs.

break through to the Public Enemy  terrordome

rabid CANINE raceland

across the strifelife-spectrum

................................

pass it on the blackhandside

ride vibration positive  tides 

straight out the bassmotherland

........................

wind-rush from plantation to factory-floor,

                   workers' struggle....inglan is a bitch

the dole, pole-dancing for the rich


no delight in words but to fashion to liberatory-point


tropical drumstorm thump black attack tings ’n times without reason or rhyme cant find 
a word to fit the beat

cia sponsored bombs guns ...tyropiucal heat


                   social stratification    race to class

tiers of humanity....scaled existence dimensions

'you believe in socialism? no sah me a believe in social living'..- mikey smith


dem back wi gainst de wall

                with dem suss laws pass laws

otherside

we sah and we klawd and we mbe

   little personal kingdoms in the backyard

black body police     african perennial suspect

the swaart-gevaaring of black existence     the bogey construct

panther tower to the aryan tower

                             rimshot  politics             

sanitary workers.

bokassa, mobutu...in this union.


 'the eagle and the bear’ in biological warfare


POWER'S SERIAL KILLERS CAPITAL DOUBLE-SPEAK                                                                 THE COLOUR GREEN   behind the bullet-smokescreen
 


Speaks in voices of the living and the dead...Garvey people without a knowledge of their past (no romance) 

The Rodney workers and the peasants ...blackland and beyond ..                  socialism is a wise old shepherd.. 

       call in the 'black sheep’. .  (for the insurrection squad

more time for the rhyme


louise bennett, miss lou liberated national language rage (dialect the idiom poetry) from the tight-arse high fart profane

hurricane blues dance - chanced to take moves to fake                                             strike up a bladesman stance  -                                                                                      much pain in the prance & the youthman skank

Du Bois black folksouls   

dream-green street 66 western

no haze but ganja-scented sense sharpen blade-find-flesh tear skin

music in the WORD exponent

psychology of racism    fanon   philosophy of liberation

'on the freedom train....all aboard’     forces of victory

inverse apportionment

long as the hegemony holds...it'll be poetic to more than disagree as per Gwala injuction but bring the babylon walls tumbling down

Chapelton to Brixton. London

"as me go in cockroah rat & scorpion also come in"  mikey smith                                insect  rat   action    down  nna de ghetto of Brixton


riot celebratory

warrior doctrine incantatory


CLR james black jacobins    ((jack-o-beanstalk   bins talk?

    no grimm tale this    but a 'moving hurting black story   

smash & empty fascist brainspill                                                                            might have got michael smith off Stonyhill

............................

NOCTURNAL HAEMORRHAGE                                                                                            Night bleeds Black   rage                                                                                                   "reflecTion in red    dreaD"                                                                                                                     identification? follow the blood-lines

........................

from ratsie setlhako to u roy 

(serve it on a dub-plate

.......................................

FROM IRON ON FLESH IMPACT

degenerative   brain-rot travels south

without outlet the violence turns inward

dams up   then

out of babe mouth    viscera rumble

stomach-shake bass effect

from im- to explosion!

language use, imaGES HANDED DOWN :  

supremacist porky & expansionist  piggy alliance
                        murderous  bloom &  blossom

bringing it down this south: about Caterpillar innocence

ask sophiatown, cato manor, cross roads...district six

LKJ says: digital generation reggae sounds more streetbound

freedom vision gone stagnant
kgositsile sings in chorus with johnson :no soloist can spark a revolution

song calls for mass    insurrection blues   all tune in


scope   all earthwise       in focus   blackness

dread beat ’n blood    organic   percussion-heavy most rootical
tings ’n times as near digital as can get without becoming synthetic/plastic

weightless     from  heaviest manners to sub-side of the dub  leanness in sound yet vibes roll still

.....................................

big youth - original dread roots dj brought rasta consciousness                        to the dance

lee perry - made of the mixing board more than just an instrument        but a space machine

i roy - most lyrical foundation wordmaster dj

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

OF PARENTAGE

more than biological    ideological, artistic, aesthetic

stories narratives verse-lines    griot-word runs, toaster-spit, /mic-tongue-flips

flick-of-my-wrist    gwaan, selektah  rhymesters   lineage                             lyrical colossus cometh


dis poem shall be continued       in your mind ---mutabaruka