S.L.A.M. F.A.D. #55 Slam Poets Rhyme & Reason – “We hope to bring a message of peace, acceptance, tolerance, and awareness.”
Rhyme & Reason
S.L.A.M. – How did you get into Slam poetry/performances?
Rhyme & Reason - “A mutual friend, DJ Sista Sol, introduced to a prominent figure in the Fort Lauderdale poetry community, Ray, who gave us an opportunity to perform as sacrificial poets before a slam his youth team was competing in.”
S.L.A.M. - How and when did you meet each other and decide to collaborate?
Rhyme & Reason – “Our paths crossed in a time of mutual struggle. Everyone has their ups and downs… It just so happened that something beautiful came out of a particularly low point in our lives. We helped each other get through difficult times by writing and performing together just for us. Our first piece was a spur of the moment ‘if I don’t do this I think I will spontaneously combust’ kind of thing. It was kind of like a car accident… it happened so quickly and it was a powerful defining moment in our experience as drivers of these two cars we call bodies.”
Add Rhyme & Reason on the SLAM Network!
S.L.A.M. – According to your Facebook fan page, you’d like to make a change. What messages do you hope to get across the most through your words / what type of change would you like to help bring about?
Rhyme & Reason – “We hope to bring a message of peace, acceptance, tolerance, and awareness that comes from a deep and honest place because those are a few of the main things that we are working on changing in our own lives. We write based on our struggles and we try to live in the solution. Instead of talking about third party subject matter, we really only write about what we know and are ourselves trying to persevere through. We have both come to terms with the fact that it’s crazy difficult to change ourselves let alone anyone else. We just want to have a symbiotic relationship with the world where we are able to share our art and grow from each other experiences.”
S.L.A.M. – What inspires your work?
Rhyme & Reason – “Most of our lyrics are inspired by strife; internal arguments with ego, or external arguments with loved ones.”
S.L.A.M. – What music artists do you listen to / would you recommend?
Rhyme & Reason – “Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Lauryn Hill, Andre 3000, Erykah Badu, Citizen Cope, Alice Smith, the Beatles, Infected Mushroom, Ayo, Adele, Talib Kweli, Sam Cook, Etta James, Janis Joplin, and Billie Holiday to name a few.”
S.L.A.M. – What poets inspire you / would you recommend?
Rhyme & Reason - “The first spoken word poet I ever heard was Saul Williams and ever since I have been enchanted. Since then I have been inspired by some amazing poets like Sunni Patterson, Oscar Brown, Suhir Hammad The Write Side Poets of Ft. Lauderdale are a really inspiring group of young people whose talent blows us away every time.”
S.L.A.M. – Do you have a web site?
Rhyme & Reason on the SLAM Network
Rhyme & Reason on Facebook
Featured Videos
Also check out Rhyme & Reason on Inoculated Radio!
Interview by Nikki Elizabeth
SLAM, Support Local Art Magazine
The SLAM Network
Want to be the next featured artist on SLAM? Join us on The SLAM Network and you could be next! Viva LA S.L.A.M.!
