“Be, the freshman spoken word album by 2-time National Champion Slam Poet Hakim Be, is a mix of story and statement. As a freelance journalist by education and trade, this album is an intriguing balance of creative non-fiction and manifesto. Always traversing that dangerous tightrope between the political and the personal, Hakim Be takes that tightrope and ties it up into the inseparable knot it is. He continues to tighten that knot throughout this album that is as much autobiography as it is cultural analysis and critique. As a Hip-Hop generation practitioner, Hakim Be has a way of taking current events and content from the third-grade reading level of the newspaper pages to the University level in concept. Yet still deliver it with a swagger and lyricism that makes it relevant and fresh to those street intellectuals who never pick up a newspaper and don’t trust the classroom. This album is like a textbook that’s required reading for your ears and combined with the jazzy, soulful production by Diles, is also food for the body. With musical arrangement and composition that covers multiple genres and could sometimes even be described as “experimental”, Diles and Hakim Be have put together a product that continues to expand, elevate and challenge the notion of what is and what isn’t Hip Hop. Call it what you want, at the end of the day this album has something for the compulsive café poet, the underground hip hop lyricist, the cultural critic, the funk fanatic, the pipe-wielding thinker and the beat junkee. Just like the motley crew of trend setters and individualist who will critically acclaim this album, Be won’t fit into the box of rap nor the poetry sectionsat your local record store or booksellers. It’ll just be what it be.”


All tracks written and performed by Hakim Be
www.hakimbe.com

All tracks produced, recorded, and mixed by Diles
www.visceralview.com

Artwork by Carlos Contreras www.immastar.com