MC Mixy's Blog
21-07-2010: Poet Laureate Business
Right… I meant to write something about winning the Peterborough Poet Laureate title back in December, it was a great experience anyone that spent time with me around the time it happened could see it meant a lot to me. To go from being seen as some sort of thug or criminal to getting respect from people high up in the community was a bit of a shock, plus I don’t think the poetry heads were ready for a 23 year old rapper to take the title! Ha, I love how some elderly people scowl at me then smile and congratulate when they hear me read a moving piece of poetry, not to mention I’m not too bad mannered and don’t go around acting like a twat! Talk about stereotypical opinions.
Previous Laureates had told me how busy I would be, how much time I would have to give to it, how everyone would be contacting me… I would have been more than happy to take every opportunity but… Na! To be fair the first month or two I was getting a bit of contact and asked to do a few bits but it’s been very quiet now for a long time. I’m slightly ashamed of myself as I had so many plans on what I could do with the title, I actually thought it may have held a bit of weight which to a extent it does, but come on.. Honestly no one is all that bothered.
I always planned to put a night on, like a acoustic spoken word night, have poets colabing with all sorts of musicians but after taking a step back I didn’t see any real benefit to the city from doing that. Peterborough has two regular poetry nights that attract a decent crowd and I’ve been majorly involved with ‘Locality’ since day one, a group of local artists including myself started from scratch with nothing and built up a capital and reputation big enough to bring names to the city and put on big nights, until recently it was the only night in the city to do what we did for the hip hop community in a long time, and to be fair, now we are not as active there is nothing currently running in the city that did what we do as well as we do it! I know some wont like that statement but… No arrogance, it is the simple truth.
Anyway. The conclusion I came to was that Peterborough has things to entertain the poetry fans, drum an bass fans, rock fans, dubstep fans, etc etc and we HAD things to entertain the hip hop fans but they did not support. I’m torn on my theories, I like to think that when locality started getting less support it was due to the change of venue, or the fact that hip hop heads just want to stay in and smoke weed. However part of me feels that many of the other local artists did not want us to succeed, I feel Peterborough has too many artists and not enough fans; everybody wants to be a MC or a DJ! Plus with the divides in different areas and crews it’s like people wont support something if they don’t run it, I’ve always found hip hop to be very competitive still I show respect when due.
Every MC has to have a part of them that feels they are the best, but the good ones know they are not. Again arrogance seems to be a favorite mentality. Is it by coincidence that people whose work I respected and classed as friends were not so friendly when I appeared to be doing half decent for my self? The older I’ve got threw this local music scene the more enemies I’ve made, and for the record, I am not a guy that’s makes enemies easily! If you know me you know, if you don’t, trust me.
Basically, I feel if I had put a local acoustic spoken word night I would not have received the support from any new people, I think the same local crowd would come along and have a great time which I don’t have a problem with of course, but the experience I’ve had putting on nights in my home town have killed my love of promotion and those people are already being looked after. Honestly, Il do what I can to help when it comes to putting on events, but I wanna concentrate on being an artist.
When it comes to being a artist I am completely self taught, I’ve taken tips along the way that have helped me advance slightly quicker but have received no coaching for what I do, I like to think I’m a smart guy though I did not have a amazing experience of education, I feel I have something to offer the younger generation that they may not get from their teachers so I would definitely like to take that route with the hope I really have something to offer worth taking! I like to think if I had a teacher, ta, or even youth worker like me I would done better with my school work. Guess Il never know! I’ve done a bit of youth work and been into a few schools, I’ve done writing workshops with people as young as 6 and as old as 50 and it always seems to go well, I’ve get people of all ages telling me how they love my work yet I’m still not happy with it! I never will be.
I found myself with mixed feeling the other day, that’s what triggered this rant. I went to the local poetry open mic night and watched a amazing poet, possibly one of the best I’ve ever seen, this being a perfect example of why you should never believe your own hype inspired me to try using some different styles and angles in my writing. Not long after another guy read, a local artist and friend of mine who I’ve got to know since I’ve been involved with the poetry. Before he read his piece he said how he had been to the Youth Laureate of Peterborough Presentation. It threw me off. The people running that are the same people that are supposed to be contacting me about things, months back they sent me the application forms and asked me if I knew anyone that could enter, I passed it on to a few people I thought had it in them but unfortunately none of them finished their piece. I don’t expect a lot but it would have been nice to keep me in the loop. Don’t want this to come off as a dig, they are good people but come on, I should have been involved in that surely?? It was maybe a mistake that I was not asked to come but it makes me feel my help isn’t wanted. If that is the case what am I to do? Also, I still don’t know who the new youth laureate is so if anyone knows id love to!
Every week I get a copy of the Mayor of Peterborough’s diary sent to me by email, and I’m told the reason for this is so I can write a piece if anything inspires me. Unfortunately charity lunches and meetings in the parlor don’t fill me with amazing creativity. Again, not a dig, I think I just had a very different idea of what the title meant. Every now and again someone will introduce me as the poet laureate of Peterborough and people seem impressed, oh yeah it’s nice but I cant understand why, they haven’t heard my material and they may not like it, if everything I wrote was shit would people still rate me just cos I was the poet laureate of Peterborough?? Na, I’m basically a bit of entertainment for the people that run the city. However like I said, I honestly am proud and happy I got it but I think that’s maybe because I didn’t think it was possible for a young hip hop MC to take the title and get a positive response on the local poetry scene, god I’ve learnt a lot! I still have a good four months or so left so guess Il see what I can do with my remaining time.
I’m out for now, catch me an mark at Edinburgh Fringe festival in August and anyone that disagrees with what I said on the local hip hop scene, show your support an buy my new mixtape at www.locality1.com !
