dear “patriot rebels”
your king is a whore
copy comply and conform
milhouse van houten
part deux: return of the halfwit
I've been listening to hip-hop lately, which I attribute to the influence of two of my closest friends. They know who they are. Rap music takes on true life when you read the lyrics. Not a revelation, I know, but some emcees are legit poets. Aesop Rock immediately springs to mind as one of these. If you are interested in listening to excellent indie hip-hop, I have included a playlist below...
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Y1Q5H6Kpab2eVwgzamfT8?si=c1b64e1998f44f48
On a related note, I get excited about poetry, and good writing in general. I respect and enjoy the writing process and so am often online, searching for inspiration and new-to-me writers and works. This activity is always accompanied by music. Recently, I was surfing the algorithms, listening to this mixtape, and ended up down a rabbit hole regarding Pierre Poilievre (PP) and his CPP disciples. In my opinion, PP and his party are criminally populist, and I believe Canadians who do not view this reality as a bad thing, must be tragically naive.
But back to Aesop Rock and hip-hop music. One of the genre-defining elements of rap is the diss track. I am not familiar enough with Aesop to know if he partakes in diss tracks, but other artists do. The connection between Pierre and Aesop might be tenuous, but here it is; the above poem is my minimalist, hip-hop inspired diss track regarding Pierre Poilievre and the CPP.
I feel the need to mention that not only have I taken inspiration from Aesop, I have quoted and referenced lines from his song None Shall Pass in the poem and the interested reader will be able to see this clearly if they google the lyrics. Also, I find it exceedingly appropriate to compare Pierre to the Black Knight of Monty Python fame.
Regards,
Joshua Wiebe