2PENS&LINT
a new direction in poetry
2 Pens & Lint LLC
P.O. Box 3292
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Motivated by the senseless killing of Sean Bell and the acquittal of the police officers who killed this young African American man, the Straight, No Chaser Mixtape is a response to America’s legal system. Straight, No Chaser gives voice to African Americans who are fed up with how America works, how America overlooks its poor, and how America attempts to heal foreign nations while ignoring its on illness.
The mood for the mixtape is set as soon as the first track begins where the listener catches K.P. hiding in the basement with his friend Tommy after committing a crime they know will send them to prison for life. We find that they only committed the crime as a response to the financial and emotional burdens they face as a result of being Black in America in a time where our country faces a failing economy. In addition these two young men must also address the issue of racism that is once again forced to the forefront of America’s mind due to an African American presidential candidate.
This issue of race is directly addressed with poems like Apathy which takes another look at the Jena 6 case and how many Americans have already forgotten about the story just as many have forgotten about the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina. Apathy highlights the fact that racism lives today just as it lived fifty years ago with stories such as the Little Rock 9.
In the poem Bloody Speech Notes, K.P. focuses on the topic of money in Black neighborhoods, how we work hard to make it, and how we sometimes sell out our own people to gain money. Bloody Speech Notes also speaks on the election of Barack Obama and how this new African American icon relates to an older icon in African American history, Malcolm X.
Whether tackling the hypocritical actions of some who practice Christianity or tackling the lack of originality in modern day poetry, Christopher K.P. Brown faces the issues head on with this project. The Straight, No Chaser mixtape is poetry in it’s purest, rawest form.
Poems featured on the Straight, No Chaser Mixtape
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Straight, No Chaser Intro
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Crucial Conflict
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Looking Up
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Rest In Peace
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(WE)alth Part 2
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Description
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Bloody Speech Notes
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Apathy
Release Date: July 6, 2008
Free with the purchase of POETRY: a hip hop album.