Ill Poetics: Roknowledge

. May 31, 2009

Spoken word. This guy is pretty dope. Check him out.


Poetry is life and life is poetry.... When it comes to ROK there may not be a sentence that betters sums everything up. ROK is versatile wordsmith who has been perfecting his craft for the better part of the last 8 years. As a founding member of the underground collective The Society of Invisibles, ROK has seen his fare share of stages across the US. Artists of all types know the extreme pressure of performing in groups, yet at times, he has executed the difficult task of individually stepping on to the stage in front of hyped spectators of packed hip-hop shows locally and nationally. As the crowd is silenced by the booming voice and metaphors of this poet, a certain amount of unspoken respect is bestowed by the attention he receives. It is only after he has verbally delivered one of his signature metaphor laced pieces, that he notices the instant calm he blessed the crowd with and leaves them resting in the palms of his massive hands. As for "ROK's style", unique, honest, vivid and dynamic have been thrown at him. Yet there really is not a set category you can place him in. Whether ROK is telling a story or painting a masterpiece with his arrangement of words there is not a listener that ROK cannot touch. Driven by nothing more than the complicated nature of human emotion ROK's aim is always clear and he speaks from his heart. Be it personal experience, or the stories told to him by others, you can be assured ROK is always going to give you the truth. At time's this poet has been criticized and told his writing is at times 'Too honest', Rok can only reply with "if I don't believe in what I'm writing how I can expect someone else to?" It does not get much simpler than that. Poetry is life, and life is poetry...
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