Sly Watts in City Park (Photos by: Kelley Crawford)
Poet Sly Watts is an Alternative Hip-Hop Artist from New Orleans, LA who implements acid jazz, trip hop, jazz, funk, drum n bass, and glitch hop into a nostalgic 90s hip-hop sound to represent the philosophers, artists, and free-thinkers governing themselves. In many of his visual concepts, Sly incorporates surrealism, abstraction, animation, graffiti, and street art. For information and booking, you can contact Sly as well as follow his work on Soundcloud, Instagram, and Facebook.
Here is his spoken work poem, “Passion.”
“Passion”
The pain and distress,
I fight, through the words in verses.
Honestly, my brain has been blessed.
Complaining, you remain constrained in the mess.
I’m a train that progresses,
training the senses
to understand that in LIFE,
It’s really not
about managing to CLASP the cubicle.
Finding that different dimension in your mind
defeats the fact that you sit BACK, as usual,
doing the same OL!
You should change clothes.
Plain Jane is a strange role.
Still have the heart of a lone wolf. Now when with the lady friend, insanely, we bang souls.
Delving deep into a TRIP as I kiss her.
This chick is the world and I’ve entered her center,
And disconnected from the external forces defining me when I am intimate with her.
I grew through time. You see I’m bigger my nigga?
Not getting the picture I script as a victor?
And all you zeros are behind this motherfuckin one! Can’t you see the significant figure!?
…
Yea, that’s right. Pick my 2 feet up and strive for greatness.
In the process, trying not to become a stereotype or a fuckin statistic.
Seen as misfit.
Waiting on the time to care. Remaining dilatory.
Who’da’ known that all the worries of tomorrow could be left there once you stop to find the glory?
Many expect me to suffer and conform, but when I like life, it’s a different kind of story.
Consciousness shift in my thoughts when I grind.
Found out of your shit and lost in my mind.
Yea,
And all of this is now a journey to create a stain and escape death.
Drained, as this takes breath.
Now I’m just nobody, holding a name with his brain & his face left.
……
Wonder if I sit still sane.
Windmill brain,
With 2 sides: Ignorance & Knowledge.
Notice most don’t give you sense to fight your issues.
Applying it, see the system as a way to blow my knows into this shit just like it’s tissue.
Lyrics: Sly Watts
Audio: Sarah Holtz
Photos: Kelley Crawford
Big Chem-EZ: How can small Louisiana communities access clean drinking water after a hurricane?
When I went to visit the Pointe-au-Chien tribe after Hurricane Ida with my Service Learning class, I heard that one of the biggest challenges in the aftermath of the hurricane was finding enough drinking water, so in this article, I explore water purification methods: 1) when they are necessary, 2) how they work, and 3) if they really make your water safe to drink.
Big Chem-EZ: Why is southeastern Louisiana heavily impacted by storms?
This article explores the positive and negative impacts of the engineering industry on Louisiana, including how it is impacted by storms. The author also suggests a call to action to support Louisiana coastal restoration. Big Chem-EZ discusses how finding the best course of action can be challenging, and introduces various proposed solutions to wetland loss and environmental impacts on Louisiana industries.
