0:00:01.170,0:00:05.857
"My Air Jordans cost a hundred with tax.

0:00:05.857,0:00:10.405
My suede Starters jacket says Raiders on the back.

0:00:10.405,0:00:13.395
I'm stylin', smilin', lookin' real mean,

0:00:13.395,0:00:17.309
because it ain't about being heard, just being seen.

0:00:17.309,0:00:19.446
My leather Adidas baseball cap matches

0:00:19.446,0:00:23.065
my fake Gucci backpack. (Laughter)

0:00:23.065,0:00:25.614
Ain't nobody who looks as good as me,

0:00:25.614,0:00:27.990
but this costs money, it sure ain't free,

0:00:27.990,0:00:29.843
and I gots no job, no money at all,

0:00:29.843,0:00:32.215
but it's easy to steal all this from the mall.

0:00:32.215,0:00:35.052
Parents say I shouldn't, but I knows I should.

0:00:35.052,0:00:37.743
Got to do what I can to make sure I look good,

0:00:37.743,0:00:40.734
and the reason I have to look real good, well, to tell you the truth, man,

0:00:40.734,0:00:45.723
I don't know why. Guess it makes me feel special inside.

0:00:45.723,0:00:48.607
When I'm wearing fresh gear I don't have to hide,

0:00:48.607,0:00:50.538
and I really must get some new gear soon

0:00:50.538,0:00:52.509
or my ego will pop like a 10-cent balloon.

0:00:52.509,0:00:56.414
But security is tight at all the shops. Every day there are more and more cops.

0:00:56.414,0:00:58.937
My crew is laughing at me because I'm wearing old gear.

0:00:58.937,0:01:01.790
School's almost over. Summer is near.

0:01:01.790,0:01:04.283
And I'm sportin' torn Jordans.

0:01:04.283,0:01:09.583
I need something new. Only one thing left to do.

0:01:09.583,0:01:13.343
Cut school Friday, catch the subway downtown,

0:01:13.343,0:01:15.726
check out my victims hangin' around.

0:01:15.726,0:01:17.766
Maybe I'll get lucky and find easy prey.

0:01:17.766,0:01:19.952
Got to get some new gear. There's no other way.

0:01:19.952,0:01:22.310
I'm ready and willing. I'm packing my gun.

0:01:22.310,0:01:24.766
This is serious business. This ain't no fun.

0:01:24.766,0:01:27.334
And I can't have my posse laughin' at me.

0:01:27.334,0:01:31.089
I'mma cop something dope, just wait, you'll see.

0:01:31.089,0:01:33.674
Come out of the station, West 4th near the park,

0:01:33.674,0:01:35.911
brothers shooting hoops and someone remarks,

0:01:35.911,0:01:37.373
'Hey homes, where you get them Nik's?'

0:01:37.373,0:01:41.767
I says to myself, 'Yeah. I likes 'em, I likes.'

0:01:41.767,0:01:44.535
They were Q-tip white, bright and blinding my eyes.

0:01:44.535,0:01:47.215
The red emblem of Michael looked as if it could fly.

0:01:47.215,0:01:49.649
Not one spot of dirt. The Airs were brand new.

0:01:49.649,0:01:51.369
Had my pistol and knew just what to do.

0:01:51.369,0:01:54.556
Waited until it was just the right time, followed him very closely behind.

0:01:54.556,0:01:57.159
He made a left turn on Houston, I pulled out my gun,

0:01:57.159,0:01:59.905
and I said, 'Gimme them Jordans!'

0:01:59.905,0:02:02.175
And the punk tried to run.

0:02:02.175,0:02:04.937
Took off fast, didn't get far. I fired,'Pow!'

0:02:04.937,0:02:06.855
Fool fell between two parked cars.

0:02:06.855,0:02:09.974
He was coughing, crying, blood spilled on the street.

0:02:09.974,0:02:13.759
And I snatched them Air Jordans off of his feet.

0:02:13.759,0:02:15.872
While laying there dying, all he could say

0:02:15.872,0:02:20.935
was, "Please man, don't take my Air Jordans away."

0:02:20.935,0:02:23.664
You'd think he'd be worried about staying alive.

0:02:23.664,0:02:27.278
As I took off with his sneakers, there was tears in his eyes.

0:02:27.278,0:02:30.176
Very next day, I bopped into school

0:02:30.176,0:02:33.582
with my brand new Air Jordans, man, I was cool.

0:02:33.582,0:02:36.070
I killed to get 'em, but hey, I don't care,

0:02:36.070,0:02:40.239
because now I needs a new jacket to wear."

0:02:40.239,0:02:49.048
Thank you. (Applause)

0:02:49.048,0:02:53.979
For the last 15 years that I have been performing,

0:02:53.979,0:02:58.709
all I ever wanted to do was transcend poetry to the world.

0:02:58.709,0:03:01.165
See, it wasn't enough for me to write a book.

0:03:01.165,0:03:03.765
It wasn't enough for me to join a slam competition,

0:03:03.765,0:03:06.237
and while those things hold weight,

0:03:06.237,0:03:09.925
it wasn't the driving force that pushes the pen to the pad.

0:03:09.925,0:03:13.813
The hunger and thirst was, and still remains:

0:03:13.813,0:03:16.741
How do I get people who hate poetry

0:03:16.741,0:03:19.629
to love me?

0:03:19.629,0:03:21.928
Because I'm an extension of my work,

0:03:21.928,0:03:23.832
and if they love me, then they will love my work,

0:03:23.832,0:03:27.099
and if they love my work, then they will love poetry,

0:03:27.099,0:03:30.245
and if they love poetry, then I will have done my job,

0:03:30.245,0:03:33.352
which is to transcend it to the world.

0:03:33.352,0:03:38.207
And in 1996, I found the answer in principles

0:03:38.207,0:03:42.858
in a master spoken-word artist named Reg E. Gaines,

0:03:42.858,0:03:47.717
who wrote the famous poem, "Please Don't Take My Air Jordans."

0:03:47.717,0:03:51.762
And I followed this guy everywhere until I had him in the room,

0:03:51.762,0:03:54.104
and I read him one of my pieces,

0:03:54.104,0:03:56.350
and you know what he told me?

0:03:56.350,0:03:58.307
"Yo' wack.

0:03:58.307,0:04:01.341
You know what the problem is with you, homie?

0:04:01.341,0:04:03.781
You don't read other people's poetry,

0:04:03.781,0:04:06.911
and you don't got any subordination for verbal measures

0:04:06.911,0:04:12.636
to tonal consideration." (Laughter)

0:04:12.636,0:04:15.833
Now he kept on rambling

0:04:15.833,0:04:20.638
about poetry and styles and Nuyorican Friday nights.

0:04:20.638,0:04:23.490
Now I could have quit. I should have quit.

0:04:23.490,0:04:26.970
I mean, I thought poetry was just self-expression.

0:04:26.970,0:04:30.355
I didn't know you actually have to have creative control.

0:04:30.355,0:04:34.338
So instead of quitting, I followed him everywhere.

0:04:34.338,0:04:37.755
When he was writing a Broadway show, I would be outside of the door.

0:04:37.755,0:04:41.135
I would wake him up at, like, 6:30 in the morning

0:04:41.135,0:04:43.611
to ask him who's the best poet.

0:04:43.611,0:04:47.851
I remember eating the eyes of a fish right out of the sea

0:04:47.851,0:04:50.379
because he told me it was brain food.

0:04:50.379,0:04:53.235
Then one day I told him,

0:04:53.235,0:05:00.571
"Reg E., what is subordination for verbal measures to tonal consideration?" (Laughter)

0:05:00.571,0:05:04.691
And he handed me a black-and-white printed out thesis

0:05:04.691,0:05:07.619
on a poet named Etheridge Knight

0:05:07.619,0:05:10.036
and the oral nature of poetry,

0:05:10.036,0:05:11.575
and from that point,

0:05:11.575,0:05:14.063
Reggie stopped becoming the best to me,

0:05:14.063,0:05:17.091
because what Etheridge Knight taught me

0:05:17.091,0:05:20.997
was that I could make my words sound like music,

0:05:20.997,0:05:23.907
even my small ones, the monosyllables,

0:05:23.907,0:05:26.007
the ifs, ands, buts, whats,

0:05:26.007,0:05:30.529
the gangsta in my slang could fall right on the ear,

0:05:30.529,0:05:33.699
and from then on, I started chasing Etheridge Knight.

0:05:33.699,0:05:35.931
I wanted to know which poet he read,

0:05:35.931,0:05:40.027
and I landed on a poem called ["Dark Prophecy: Sing of Shine"],

0:05:40.027,0:05:44.667
a toast signifying that got me on the biggest stage

0:05:44.667,0:05:47.251
a poet could ever be:

0:05:47.251,0:05:49.843
Broadway, baby.

0:05:49.843,0:05:53.187
And from that point, I learned how to pull the mic away

0:05:53.187,0:05:57.023
and attack the poetry with my body.

0:05:57.023,0:05:59.731
But that wasn't the biggest lesson I ever learned.

0:05:59.731,0:06:04.105
The biggest lesson I learned was many years later

0:06:04.105,0:06:08.923
when I went to Beverly Hills and I ran into a talent agent

0:06:08.923,0:06:11.374
who looked at me up and down

0:06:11.374,0:06:14.371
and said I don't look like I have any experience

0:06:14.371,0:06:16.729
to be working in this business.

0:06:16.729,0:06:20.798
And I said to him, "Listen, punk fool,

0:06:20.798,0:06:23.908
you're a failed actor who became an agent,

0:06:23.908,0:06:25.472
and you know why you failed as an actor?

0:06:25.472,0:06:28.682
Because people like me took your job.

0:06:28.682,0:06:31.450
I've traveled all the way from Cleveland and Essex

0:06:31.450,0:06:34.841
in East New York, took the local 6 line up to the hookers of Hunt's Point

0:06:34.841,0:06:38.877
who were in my way on my way to master the art of space,

0:06:38.877,0:06:41.192
and the one-to-infinite amount of man, woman and child

0:06:41.192,0:06:43.370
you can fit in there only so I can push them

0:06:43.370,0:06:46.161
to the back of the wall with my experience.

0:06:46.161,0:06:48.240
People have bought tickets to my experience

0:06:48.240,0:06:50.945
and used them as refrigerator magnets to let them know

0:06:50.945,0:06:53.125
that the revolution is near, so stock up.

0:06:53.125,0:06:55.505
I'm so experienced that when you went

0:06:55.505,0:06:58.148
to a privileged school to learn a Shakespearean sonnet,

0:06:58.148,0:07:00.713
I was getting those beats kicked and shoved into me.

0:07:00.713,0:07:03.513
I can master shock of "The Crying Game" with the awe

0:07:03.513,0:07:07.449
of a child being called an AIDS victim by a bully who didn't know

0:07:07.449,0:07:10.442
that it was his father who gave it to my mother,

0:07:10.442,0:07:12.294
and that's a double entendre.

0:07:12.294,0:07:15.537
I'm so experienced that when you went to the Fell School

0:07:15.537,0:07:17.908
and all the rich little fairy boys decided to sponsor a child

0:07:17.908,0:07:20.232
in it, that was me, but kicked me out when I was caught

0:07:20.232,0:07:23.908
teaching the fairy boys how to rob the PATS off a pair of Lee Jeans

0:07:23.908,0:07:27.252
and bring them to VIM. Let me see Chekhov pull that off.

0:07:27.252,0:07:30.306
Sanford Meisner was my Uncle Artie yelling silently to himself,

0:07:30.306,0:07:32.604
"Something's always wrong when nothing's always right."

0:07:32.604,0:07:35.268
Method acting is nothing but a mixture

0:07:35.268,0:07:38.204
of multiple personalities, believing your own lies are reality,

0:07:38.204,0:07:41.292
like in high school cool Kenny telling me he wanted to be a cop.

0:07:41.292,0:07:43.388
Dude, you go to Riker's Island Academy.

0:07:43.388,0:07:44.855
I could make David Mamet

0:07:44.855,0:07:47.296
psychoanalyze my attack on dialogue,

0:07:47.296,0:07:50.895
Stanislavski be as if he were Bruce Lee

0:07:50.895,0:07:54.202
kicking your roster of talentless students up and down Crenshaw.

0:07:54.202,0:07:57.191
So what, your actors studied guerrilla theater at the London Rep?

0:07:57.191,0:07:59.935
Let me tell you an ancient Chinese Saturday afternoon

0:07:59.935,0:08:02.399
kung fu secret.

0:08:02.399,0:08:04.236
Boards don't hit back.

0:08:04.236,0:08:06.474
You think black entertainers have it hard finding work

0:08:06.474,0:08:08.837
in this business? I'm a suspicious mulatto,

0:08:08.837,0:08:11.903
which means I'm too black to be white and too white to be doing it right.

0:08:11.903,0:08:14.799
Forget the American ghetto. I've cracked stages in Soweto,

0:08:14.799,0:08:18.943
buried abortion babies in potter's field and still managed to keep a smile on my face,

0:08:18.943,0:08:21.358
so whatever you curse at me to your caddyshack

0:08:21.358,0:08:24.023
go-for-this, go-for-that assistant when I walk out that door,

0:08:24.023,0:08:27.727
whatever slander you send my way,

0:08:27.727,0:08:29.847
your mother.

0:08:29.847,0:08:34.047
Thank you. (Applause)