I Hope Kendrick Got His Message Across

“The revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy.” Poetry by Ernie McCray

I don’t see how anybody
who took time
to really watch
Kendrick Lamar do his thing
between halves
at the Super Bowl Game,
could call his performance
boring and trashy
as it was very entertaining
to me,
and I’m hearing
in debates,
that entertaining was not the show’s intent,
that it was historical,
about real change,
about African Americans
finally
getting our due,
about us going for it
all out like we’re supposed to do
and I am way down with that
with a whole lot
of fancy handshakes
on top of that –
but beyond that,
all I could do
was be entertained.
How can one not
when all of a sudden
Samuel L. Jackson
is filling your TV screen
dressed
in a star-spangled suit,
as Uncle Sam
with an Uncle Tom
smile on his face,
talking about
a great American Game?
I couldn’t avoid thinking
that something is going to be said
on this Super Bowl Day
and then Kendrick Lamar
pops up on the scene
to rhythms and beats
that made me want to rise from my seat
and boogie on my feet
with my walking cane
and he said right before my very eyes:
“The revolution is about to be televised.
You picked the right time
but the wrong guy.”
 
And now I’m remembering,
my man, Gil Scott-Heron,
who gave us
“The Revolution will not be Televised”
so, I couldn’t wait
to hear
what Kendrick’s more recent take on insurgency
was going to be,
because all my life
this kind of thing
has made my heart sing
and I got into
the images that played out
in colors red white and blue,
the moves, the grooves,
with serious-ass body attitudes,
giving forth with the news,
minus the how-do-you-dos,
letting myself go with the flow
of the music,
moving my old aching body
to the rhythm and the beats
as the musical sounds
soothe me
and bring cheer to my soul,
just being as entertained as
I could possibly be
having sensed that a message
was being said
that was about making a world
better for me
but as it has always been with me and rap music,
I can only decipher a word or two at the most
and I could barely hear a word Kendrick said
but I feel from what little I do hear
about him that a few issues got addressed
pertaining to culture and race
and injustice,
keeping the struggle
for bigger slices of the social and political pie
alive.
 
Nothing boring and trashy
about any of that
if you ask me.
But I just wish
that I could hear the lyrics
more clearly
in real time
and not have to get the “411” (is that still a term)
later on, from someone.
 
I hope enough people got the message.

Ernie McCray will be performing in a one-man show at the La Jolla Library on Sunday, February 23rd at 2PM and on Tuesday, February 25th at 6PM at the La Jolla Library (7555 Draper Avenue; La Jolla, CA 92037). A donation of $15 is suggested, but above all they want folks to be there for this memorable offering.

Ernie McCray is an activist for love and peace who acts and sings and writes both poetry and prose, a man who rises each day to do whatever he can, no matter how small or grand, to make the world better in some way.

Unapologetically.