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happen on your own. That’s something I even thought about through publishing. I do love to get published, but only if I find a publisher that
is with me and doesn’t make me have to transform or conform to what they want me to be. I always think of rap music… ”to pimp a butterfly.” That’s what Kendrick Lamar said. I don’t want to be pimped by any industry, and I think as women we shouldn’t be pimped by anything in that sense, either. We shouldn’t let anyone tell us how to write or why or if we’re writing something too bold. Or if it’s too loud.
JGH: Or even it makes people uncomfortable.
Jassi met the poets at Sol Collective in Sacramento and said she was very inspired by their "Poets of Color" event. She connects the layers of meaning in rap music with this spoken word poetry.
JKB: Yeah, that’s the kind of writing that makes people think. It makes you uncomfortable. You’re thinking if it makes people question it. That’s something that, in poetry when, if you read poetry, you have to read it three times. That means you’re thinking; that means that you’re actually listening. Because fiction, I love fiction, but fiction always has to explain itself, and you have to make sure the story matches everything. Poetry is more of that cerebral, a spiritual quality. You just have to know, even with rap music. I’m learning in my hip hop class, the reason why some rappers, you don’t understand what they’re saying; they do that on purpose. Right now we’re learning about Bay Area Rap and Bay Area Rap is so, you know, it’s out there.
JGH: That’s my people.
JKB: You know, only people from the Bay Area will understand you. That’s the reason why these Hyphy, all these rappers, do this is because they’re trying to see who’s actually listening. If it’s their people that are listening they’ll get it; they’re vibing with it. And that’s the whole idea. You just have to make sure you’re that trickster character.
As women we have to be that trickster character, because to work around the system is finding our own way to do it. That’s how I think of it. Men are getting reviewed; so what if the men are getting reviewed? If we write better, we’re happy with it, and there’s an audience that is happy