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| Mike The Poet |
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Mike The Poet
I Am Alive In Los Angeles!
LA spoken word scene favorite, Mike The Poet drops LA-centric verses over a range of downtempo and electronic beats.
$10.00
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| Track Listing |
| 01. |
I Am Alive In Los Angeles! [4:07] |
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| 02. |
The Emperor Wears No Clothes [3:17] |
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| 03. |
Existential Exist [1:42] |
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| 04. |
Hooray For Hollywood [3:54] |
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| 05. |
The Best Minds Of My Generation [4:10] |
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| 06. |
L.A. Authors [4:41] |
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| 07. |
Pop [2:11] |
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| 08. |
Density [4:07] |
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| 09. |
Transcendental Therapy [2:50] |
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| 10. |
Put It Down [2:01] |
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| 11. |
L.A. Love And War [5:35] |
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| 12. |
Dancing Times [0:08] |
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| Additional Information |
Mike the Poet: Rockin' the Populace By Nicole D. Sconiers
"I am alive in Los Angeles here in the wild wild west. as the warm wind hits my face I walk across stained concrete. I cry tears of joy on Flower Street?" --"I Am Alive in Los Angeles"
Mike Sonksen knows landscapes--geographic and literary. This became evident to me on a recent road trip through Crenshaw, Inglewood and South Central with the homey, otherwise known as Mike the Poet. As he pointed out urban jewels on the cultural terrain -- places I didn't even know existed -- I realized why Mike is such a revered artist among the boho and ghetto glam. He lives his art, knows this city like the back of his hand, and he takes the listener along on the journey.
This lyrical street soldier is about to shake up the spoken word scene with his vibrant debut "I Am Alive in Los Angeles." Painting topographies of imagination about the City of Angels, Mike's style is a fusion of hip-hop and jazz smoothed out on the electronica tip. "The aim of my work is to make people think about their local landscape, the world at large and their place in it," says Mike. "The album is a musical exploration of Los Angeles." On hot joints like "Hollywood" and the title track, he critiques the same city he loves with an urgency that is palpable. On "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," he unveils frontin' fashionistas: "Bourgeois bohemians drinking espresso/turn their nose up at the ghetto/But wanna be ghetto fabulous at Fred Segal?" This conscious brother also knows how to get down with the party people. His shout out to club culture, "Dancing Times," will have your head nodding. On that cut, he passes the mic to his creative cohort, Phillip Martin, aka Philharmonic. The two have shared a longtime poetic friendship, and Philharmonic laces six tracks on the CD with his immaculate rhyming skills.
Mike is a writer on a mission. His work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The Book Los Angeles, 562 Magazine, Jointz Magazine and numerous online publications. Along with Shlomo Sher, he co-founded the submainstream socio-political e-zine, getunderground.com. The self-proclaimed poet journalist is known throughout LA, not only as a wunderkind on stages from Venice to Ventura, but for hosting poetic events and art shows since the mid-90's. His cultural influences are as eclectic as his sound, ranging from Walt Whitman, James Baldwin and Mike Davis to Common and A Tribe Called Quest.
Rooted deep in hip-hop and literature, the Long Beach native is bridging the gap between academia and underground music culture with two new books on the horizon. One is a collection of poems and essays on LA, and the other is a book of essays on the many brilliant musicians, poets, DJs and artists in the Los Angeles underground. Mike draws inspiration from these visionaries and the telling of their stories. "I am surrounded by genius," he says. "I celebrate the creative renaissance of 21st century artists."
I've also discovered that Mike is inseparable from his journal. With one eye on the road and the other deep in his notebook, he spits verses as we weave through traffic on Slauson. But Mike is far from being a driveby poet. He got love for LA, whether giving verbal tours of his favorite haunts or changing lanes on the 405. This native son breathes life into this postmodern metropolis, rockin' the populace.
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