October 8th: National Poetry Day and Update on the Barry Aldridge T-Shirt

Hey Guys

Welcome to the 8th entry of Blog Every Day October (BEDO) today I am going to be talking about National Poetry Day and why I love Poetry and why I reckon Rap/Hip-Hop has a connection with Poetry using Rappers like 2Pac and Eminem for example.

But first of all another update on the Barry Aldridge T-Shirt good news is that NSG had finally got an e-mail from the T-shirt company which is excellent but the bad news is we cant sell the t-shirts for a tenner like NSG's Bear Attack ones.

So the price planning for the Barry Aldridge "Real Name No Gimmicks" T-Shirt follows

- UK £15
- International £17

I got a paypal thing setup in my blogger but dont click on buying yet PLEASE Im just testing it ready when I get the T-shirt ready to sell. So dont buy yet until there is either A) A video promoting the T-shirt or B) A blog post promoting the T-shirts.

Today is National Poetry Day

The National Poetry Day Website

I was always interested in poetry since my GCSE days when taking English GCSEs, I remember reading Seamus Heaney who is one of my favourite poetry writers. I love how each line ends with a word to rhymes with the previous line the only way you can not make them rhyme is the third line to the fourth I think. If anyone knows why or If I got it wrong please comment before.

There is a lot to discuss on Poetry from Wikipedia as it deals with different types from different cultures

Poetry Wikipedia Link

Now my favourite type of poetry isnt from books or short poem books but it deals more Hip Hop/Rap, now I know a lot of Rap does have violent content and treats women unfairly which I dont like but I prefer Raps with a lot more heart to it and deals with other things going on in the world

Now 2Pac Shakur is an MC that closely follows with raps of poetry

According to BVMUndergroundHipHop page describing 2Pac Shakur

"Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. In addition to his status as a top-selling recording artist, Shakur was a promising actor and a social activist. Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in society and conflicts with other rappers. Shakur's work is known for advocating political, economic, social and racial equality, as well as his raw descriptions of violence, drug and alcohol abuse and conflicts with the law."

2Pac in my opinion was a very strong rapper that believed that people should be helped that strongly included his own race. I loved a lot of his raps and consider him one of the best rappers of all time.

I remember a couple of his songs as being strong with poetry themes in them.

Dear Mama


Got to Keep Ya Head Up


He had a really voice to the streets and felt he had strong backing but he even realised that aint true. When he thought that Bad Boys Biggie Smalls and P. Diddy were behind his shooting in 1994. So 2Pac had decided to go after some East Coast MCs in a song which in my opinion is the most vicious diss record of all time.

Hit 'Em Up (Feat. Outlawz) - (Diss to several East Coast Rappers)


In the end his life was taken away six days after a shooting after a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas

I do wish 2Pac was alive but life goes on, I think he would be really happy to see Barack Obama being President of the United States.

The second MC that I believe that has great poetry within his raps is an Independent artist Felipe Andres Coronel better known as his stage name Immortal Technique.

Immortal Technique is a rapper and a political activist, he has turned down many deals including from Sony and Def Jam Records, so then he has control of his own production. He has stated that the record companies are more likely to make profits than the artists if signed to a major deal.

To me Immortal Technique has a really powerful voice to speak his mind and never shys from any subjects, I remember a song he did of "Revolutionary Volume 2" called "You Never Know" about Immortal Technique laments a missed opportunity at love as well as huge tragedy which he experienced personally, its a really sad song and very different to other relationship songs I have heard.

Immortal Technique Feat Jean Grae - You Never Know (Just listen to the song)


Immortal Technique is another favourite MC of mine and always kept it real.

For Video Of The Day I am going to choose 3 videos from 3 different MCs

First of all comes from my favourite Independent MC Immortal Technique who did this song called "One". I listen to the lyrics really closely on this song



The second video is one of my favourite 2Pac songs that was commerical and its called Changes



The third and final video is from Eminem and one of my favourite songs of his since Stan and its called Beautiful



Thats it for now

Be back tomorrow

Barry