BOOK REVIEW: “The Microphone Journeyman” by Jahi, Reviewed by Mansfield Frazier

The Microphone Journeyman: Influences, Messages and Notes from the Stage

By Jahi

Coming of age in East Cleveland in the ’80s as a student of hip hop, my nephew Jahi has matured into a master/teacher of the genre of music that now rivals jazz as the most influential American cultural export in history. His newly released book, The Microphone Journeyman, encapsulates his worldview, experiences, challenges, successes, and now his influence as one of the leading voices of the culture and art movement that has spread around the world, becoming the unifying language that bridges entire generations while concurring time, space, and differences.

Some history books posit that hip hop has its origins in the Bronx, with Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) as an the prime example of the genre but some of us believe that its origins go back at least a decade earlier, to the Last Poets, a spoken word group from Harlem that created the underground classic “When the Revolution Comes” which became the anthem of the Black Power movement.

But there is no question that Jahi, who has been traveling the globe opening for Chuck D and Public Enemy for years and recently became artist in practice at Holy Names University where he teaches a course on hip hop culture, was the first spoken-word artist to grace the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he will be returning on February 7 where he will perform and also expound on the culture which he has dedicated his life to mastering.

Allow me to relate one of my favorite stories: About 15 years ago, Jahi, who was a permanent resident of Oakland by then, booked a gig at a small liberal arts college in Ohio. It could have been Hiram, Kenyon, or maybe even Wooster. They were hosting a spring outdoor event for students and had set up a stage for performers.

I had picked up my nephew from the airport, and along with a few other family members, made the drive to the college. Grills had been set up on this huge patio and beer was flowing like water. The stage was nearby. The act that preceded Jahi, some white group, went completely unnoticed by the partying students. Not one person was listening to them.

I turned to my nephew and said, “Man, this is going to be a tough crowd!”

“Nah,” he said, “watch what I do. If I don’t have them all eating out of my hand within five minutes I’ll walk all the way back to Cleveland.”

Within three minutes a couple a hundred college students (virtually all white) were crowded in front of the stage, bopping and bouncing to the beat. When Jahi said, “Throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care,” they did exactly what they were told.

I was shaking my head in disbelief and somehow got the feeling that if he had told them to get down on all fours and bark like dogs (or even sniff each other’s butts), they would have dutifully done so.

I knew then what he did on stage was magic. Come to the show and get a copy of his book and you too will then understand.

From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsIn

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