Five or six years in a prison cell gives a young man some time to think. Not about the crime that sent him there (a crime, by the way, he didn’t commit), but about the path he has been on. About the environment of poverty and violence that pummels a child into the shape of hate. The strength it takes to shove back against these forces, to shape oneself as a man of principles. About the many prisons in which we all live — society, body, mind. The perspective to step back and ask some deeper questions: Why are we here? Is this all there is? Who am I, really?
ECHOES OF CHICAGO’S STREETS THROUGH HIP-HOP
Former felon and onetime member of the Southside Chicago gang Black P. Stone Nation Lamptey Cruickshank, aka “Cossimoses The First (A Living Pharaoh) That What You Shall Be,” is the author of a series of poetry collections that explore these and other topics with an unflinching eye, unique perspective and deep insight.
In I Am the Poetry of Self-Realization Vol 2: Real Hip-Hop (Outskirts Press), he takes us from the corners of Chicago’s mean streets to the expansive oneness of cosmic consciousness. He tells us cautionary tales about vivid and flawed characters, and he exhorts us to be better than what other people have told us we are.
Cruickshank writes in rhymed couplets with the rhythm and internal musicality of rap lyrics. As his subtitle suggests, he is here in the spirit of old-school hip-hop — the kind that teaches uplifting lessons, rather than revels in thug life like so much of today’s hip-hop and rap. As such, it’s a pleasure to hear him read his poems on his YouTube channel. Cruickshank’s poetry is meant to be heard, not just read.
CALLBACKS AND NODS TO TRADITIONAL POETRY
One of Cruickshank’s strongest suits is his technique of closing out poems with a callback that’s as satisfying as it can be revelatory. Whether this is a repeated line, an allusion to the poem’s opening, or the title of the poem itself, he takes us on a journey that lands us back where we started, except with a new perspective this time.
It’s a technique called “envelope verse” that’s found in several forms of traditional poetry, and seeing such a classical tool applied to Cruickshank’s streetwise subject matter and vernacular produces a contrast that demonstrates both a sense of modernity and timelessness. After all, at our core, humanity hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years — a stasis that Cruickshank urges us to evolve past.
SPIRITUALITY, TRANSCENDENCE AND EVOLUTION
In his poetry and in his viewpoints as expressed on his YouTube channel, Cruikshank’s spirituality brings to mind the influence of Dolores Cannon’s teachings and The Law of One (The Ra Material) in today’s New Age thought.
Particularly notable are the tenants that all consciousness exists as one, undivided; the soul reincarnates for the purposes of learning and can transcend to other planes when ready; one’s current form on this planet is a result of being tuned to a particular vibration; and that a new era is coming where we will need to vibrate at a higher frequency to evolve here on Earth.
Standouts among this particular collection include pieces that take on unusual perspectives, such as the pair of poems “The Flesh” and “The Essence,” where the protagonists of each present their cases that they are in charge of what a person does. Occasionally, his perspective is used for comic effect, as in “Sallie Mae,” which addresses a student loan like a lover that promises the world but takes more than she gives.
Also a delight are several storytelling poems that employ poetic irony in the fates of their characters, such as the snitch “Johnny” who witnesses many crimes except the one that does him in, the showboat “Player” who gets his comeuppance in the most public and humiliating way, the alcoholic whose “Drunk Driving” is outdone by another’s — with fatal results.
All in all, I Am the Poetry of Self-Realization Vol 2: Real Hip-Hop is a collection full of ideas and lessons that demonstrates one poet’s creative mind, hard-earned wisdom and soul’s purpose to enlighten us to our primitive, destructive ways so that we can turn down a better path for humanity’s future.
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About Lamptey Cruickshank:
Lamptey Cruickshank was born in the United States of America on Chicago’s south side. By the age of fifteen, he had become a veteran gang member and leader. With two stretches in prison behind him, he now devotes his attention to writing poetry and educating the world on the importance of change and learning the difference between their higher self and lower self. This is so that humanity may grow for the betterment of the species as a whole. He believes that Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice are the principles written in all men’s hearts. If only they would look within, find them and follow them wholeheartedly. I Am the Poetry of Self-Realization Vol 2: Real Hip-Hop is his second book of poetry.
