Tales of the Funky Drummer

I’m not a master drummer I drum to the Master
The master crafter push us through the disaster
The beat gets up the asses of slackers
Rappers pastors and gang banger blasters
Beat the drum because the times is drastic
My lyrics sparkle spastic lean and elastic
Beat the drum fears melt like plastic
Beat the drum and dance is our battle tactics

My verse is rehearsed, breaks curse when dispersed
Terse and diverse, they heal when they burst
Bust the peace cuss, no fight and no fuss
Strive and connive to get best out of us
Not from this world / scroll I unfurl
Shake synapses/ make your mind whirl
Uplift the Women/ crown the Girls
Deploy burning spears for the Man to hurl

I’m good from the hood/
Dad did all he could
Momma loved like she should
On their shoulders I stood
And/ I stand a grown ass man
With demands/ plans to ascend high land
Met my Queen in bible study class
Touched souls/ love grew fast
Two divorcees ignited a blast
Fires healed like sassafras
Down the road/ two sons born
Little heads emerged/ womb torn
Held man- seeds/ in my hands
Began dad trip/ Too deep to understand

Grinding to the bone to raise my own
Increase my zone with Cajon tones*
Through dimensions I roam in space of home
Hand to drum skin makes demons groan
Step out on Rock/ take on the world
Got beat on lock/ lyrics drop pearls
I be from Chicago like Duke of Earl
Bussed it through college while cold winds whirled
Trod through snow/ frozen toes curled
Flopped midnight mop ‘til diploma unfurled
Whilst poetry poured/ nurtured by Plumpp*
Black Art lyric daggers/ thump the chumps
Papa Langston/ Baraka/ lifted me from dumps
Last Poets rapped to beats/ heart pumped

I snarl like lion with immaculate roar
Accelerate to soar/ petal to the floor
Liberating poetics/ batter down doors
Blood scrawled on souls/ poetry I adore
Living life/ pouring out the art
Nigguhs late to finish/ they scared to start
But I get busy/ I got the spark
Like Hammering Hank/ hit shit out the park

I’m prayerful/ go deep introspective
Star gaze through haze/ gain perspective
Jah speak in silence/ give me directive
Jah convict me/ I’m in custody protective
From insidious plots/ thoughts and gun shots
Jah shield my dome from wrong-wing rot
Orange nigguh in whitehouse/ cancerous blot
Jah enemies coming/ they gots to get got
Love is weapon/ peace is strategic
Rhymes cut spines/ make nigguhs paraplegic
Uplift the Hueman/ from pit of pathetic
Clear out system/ like funky diuretic
I’m mad I’m crazy/ be grinding never lazy
Brain is aflame/ vision ain’t hazy
Spit pretty lyrics/ bloom like daisies
Roots go back/ to before the Euphrates
If you affront me/ I unleash the hades
I got sense appeal/ much respect to the ladies
Been rolling with my Queen since back in the eighties
Or maybe the nineties I lost count in the flow
As I get older/ faster time seems to go
As world winds down/ can’t afford to go slow
Keeps my eyes on prize/ my people in tow

Gotta bounce / first gonna speak of Yacub
Master drummer brother/ gave beats to my soul
Could uproot trees with Djembé drum rolls
Flexed warrior war tones/ cut down foes
We’d meet up at the park/ sit on the bench
He’d summon ancient beats/ blue black and intense
Jah music billowing like weed incense
The flow was pure with zero pretense
A Queen walks by/ so fine so fly
Dance in her stroll/ hypnotize the eyes
Fine enough to be/ poor hearts demise
Skin sugar brown like sweet potato pies
Fluid beat shifts/ tempo of her walk
Get up in her thighs/ compel her to halt
Regal body bounces/ the beat is taut
The drum in control/ it ain’t our fault
Then bare feet’s leap/ she head to the sky
I know she an angel/ I want her to fly
I hear the Tuff Gong/ no woman no cry
Hope I see her again after I die

Yacub schools me/ the bass tone slap
The roots foundation/ of boom and the bap
The Black Swan Motown/ Stax hot wax
Blues people breaking through/ Black tax
Yacub was my man/ then he disappeared
I hear his Djembé/ through journey of years
I beat the drum/ force of joy and tears
Beat the drum/ emancipate shackles of fear
Now I’m done/ gonna leap to the sun
Lets meet up in cosmos/ have some fun
Drum beat and dance til gravity’s undone
Bass tone slap/ revolution on the one
Drum beat and dance til gravity’s undone
Bass tone slap/ revolution on the one