A MAN BORN to bourgeois living, led the life of an old-school gangsta:
like a HU$TLER on the Streetz.
He was the PLAYA Ballin'.
He was the P.I.M.P Strollin'...
His was a life-full...of aggressiveness.
Sometimes, he was detached; many times, his critics called it...EASY LIVIN'.
"Why's it that people just have so much to say about me? It bugs me because I'm not that important", says MILES DAVIS.
"Some critic that didn't have nothing else to do, started this crap about I DON'T announce numbers, I DON'T look at the audience, I DON'T bow or talk to people, I walk off the stage, and all that."
Controversy. IDIOSYNCRACY!
The idiosyncracies of being a GENIUS, or for that matter a human being, or for that matter an African-American...underscores:
THE PIMP AESTHETIC.
Especially in a country that streamlines black folk, and a world that undermines:
p=o=t=e=n=t=i=a=l.
BUT to sustain a sense of beauty amidst chaos ; to create something -- perhaps anything -- out of nothing, is of necessity a mark of:
d=e=s=i=r=e.
EVERYTHING that we ARE...EVERYTHING that we'll BE...
is born of desire.
But desire is a somewhat funny thing ...in us, humans.
Our heroes, we desire.
They are to be...likeable, we think.
But in reality, they are not. At best, we tolerate them.
That "thing" in them that repels us, many a time, is "fundamental" to their genius.
Sometimes, that oddity, that weirdness, accounts for the greater part of the so-called "nerd".
"Look man, all I am is A TRUMPET PLAYER. I only can do one thing -- play my horn; and that's what is AT THE BOTTOM of the whole MESS", says Miles Davis.
"I'm no entertainer, and I'm not trying to be one. I'm one thing, A MUSICIAN".
MILES pimped his music, and his game was "tight".
But his HUSTLE? Well of course, that was for REAL:
"To LIVE is to PLAY what you LOVE."
Perhaps, JAZZ drew from him a certain "conscientiousness". Just like being black in America provoked in him a certain "consciousness".
JAZZ proved to be an extension of Miles Davis' consciousness of LIFE. Perhaps it was a re-awakening of that SOUL which he was dealt:
The S=O=U=L of B=L=A=C=K FOLK.
Wherever folks are found, Black or White, the saying goes:
'LIFE's like a game of poker; you only play the hand you're dealt'!
"What's said about me is lies, in the first place. Everything I do, I got A REASON", claims Miles.
"Music is an addiction. If you understood everything, you'd be me".
"Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself".
He was Othello,
He was citizen Kane;
He was the shadow,
He was the bad motherf*cker...
He had tone,
He had measure,
He had the power to persuade;
To UNLOCK the D.R.E.A.M.S
Of the sleeping listener.
( Lawrence Russell )
Miles Davis came from the world of JAZZ.
Sometimes, he was Orson Welles or Charlie Parker.
Other times, he was Thelonious Monk or Dizzy Gillespie.
His was a variegated life. Convoluted living. D-i-v-e-r-s-e.
Sometimes you got the "unspoken word" of the trumpet.
Other times you heard the "spoken word" of the pimp.
Pimp or Player, the g.r.o.o.v.e's on; Miles Davis on-the-move.
ONCE AGAIN, we are back to HARLEM.
Black Nativity, if you wish.
Above the traffic bubble of that city, Langston Hughes emerges, re-born.
Harlem RENAISSANCE.
The poet's Muse is JAZZ...and the BLUES, playin'!
Seems that I read,
Or somebody said:
That out of sight
Is out of mind.
I took a trip on the train
And I thought about YOU;
Two or three cars parked
UNDER THE STARS;
A winding stream.
Moon shining down
On some little town;
And with each beam,
SAME OLD DREAM.
At every stop that we made,
Oh I thought about YOU.
( Miles Davis )
Black Rhythms, from a tavern:
bourbon-on-the-rocks, a play of lights! The shuffle of waiters; skin shining, like black venus!
Another lady saunters by.
Heels rattling the floor, hips swaying the wind.
Maybe 52nd Street, maybe Greenwich Village. We're not in a hurry.
The night's young, New York!
We're soaring above the city's rumble;
and the trumpeter speaks yet:
another Language!
The din is half-human, half-machine, in this neighbourhood.
What charms us is the phrasing, the intonation, of this lingo:
it's schmoozin', if you like cruisin'.
It's the tradition of a hustler-pimp:
m-a-s-t-e-r-f-u-l Story-tellin'!
It ain't easy, man.
It might look glamour-like to ya,
Cuz ya see me riiiidin'...ya dig?
Snakeskin down to tha flo', ya dig?
Hats and shoes to match.
Diamonds on fingers,
And watches on arms;
It might look easy.
But ya gon' hafta work some,
To get to this status...
See ya at the top.
( Hustle & Flow )
This is the hustler's pitch. Damn!
Ol' P.I.M.P!
His lingo draws you to the concrete jungle, where black speech has the scent of a woman:
Roses and Dreams.
"I don't think any other RACE has the charisma for this PIMPING", admits Bradley.
Therefore, Dave Holland was right, when he observed that:
"Davis' DARK CHARISMA is not a power to be exercised. It's just a power that IS" !
In Black Mecca or Harlem once again, we reach out to our sacred haven:
The BLUES.
Melancholic...graceful...beautiful blues.
Add to it, the politics or the social obscenities, if you wish!
After all, life's beyond Science. It's an Art...the art of l-i-v-i-n-g.
"LIFE is a TALE told by an idiot, full of SOUND and FURY, signifying nothing", croons William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon.
Pimping language ain't nothing; even with all the obscenity and cussin'.
Street lingo enters the SCENE, jivin'!
It's a black man's way, a negro talk.
He's having himself some FUN. It's the playa trying to humorize bullsh*t !
Sometimes, to be negroid in America, is to have "a ball":
"pimp out" RACISM, usher in the "Prince of Darkness", Miles Davis.
Obscenities and all!
As a matter of fact,
I am the dopest n*gga
You ever wanted to f*ck with...
( Bilal )
ASK HIM whether he'd prefer the old cat persona-of-the street, MILES DAVIS would be like...
" I am bourgeois, So What? "
Bro, count me out; but I am in!
This is not the downtrodden Miles of the "heroine dayz"; rather it's the upbeat one, looking at "better dayz" !
We're ballin' with the hustler, running away from his dope fiend.
We're agog with the fertile imagery of the pimp-storyteller.
Miles Davis is taking a legendary leap, away from a "heroine daze", leading his audience toward e*c*s*t*a*s*y:
A "BLUE Haze".
You don't dance to Miles Davis,
You live your body at the door!
And hope that it's there,
When you return...
***It's all head ***
Extra-sensory and personal;
You lock MINDS, not bodies!
Stay loose is MORE
Than a figure of speech...
***It's ghostin'***
He's the SKY MAN!
( Lawrence Russell )
THIS BLUES is not your typical RnB or Soul. It's a fusion of Jazz, RnB, and Soul.
JAZZ BLUES...is R.I.C.H!
If you wish, call it "modal" consciousness --
Where the playa is home-ward bound, seeking his origin or identity from a distant never-never land.
"JAZZ came to AMERICA 300 years ago, in chains", recalls Paul White.
AFRICA is the land of his estrangement, his E.X.I.L.E. The land he's never known, except in fantasy.
His loneliness, his melancholia stems from a warrior's hunt:
for Freedom...from the Slavery of his past;
for Freedom...from the Racism of his present.
FREEDOM.
"Free" is to "stay loose", or be at liberty to PROGRESS from the past to the present...to the FUTURE.
It's the future that calls us, everyone of us.
It's the future -- our hope, our faith -- that calls us to Miles Davis' Classic:
[ Kind of BLUE ]
It's bye-bye to Bebop...and welcome to COOL JAZZ.
TODAY, let's face it.
There's a lot of pimping going on in church. Big pimping, that is.
Every SUNDAY, from the Pulpit...to the Preacher...to the Pews, everything is "pimped"!
The sermon from the pulpit is never dull.
If you follow the message, and its itsy-bitsy: the phrasing, the spacing, the delivery;
everything will tingle your last nerve!
The preacher's message is real; but the d.e.l.i.v.e.r.y is MORE than a deal.
It'll blow your MIND...anyday.
Today's pulpit dynamics reminds one of how the pimp cuts a deal with ho's;
the language of "delivery" is the language called "flow".
Like the preacher, part of the Miles pimp-winning ticket is nothing else, but:
FLOW!
"I'm in a class by myself. I play very strange -- the sanctified way people will play in CHURCH...", confirms Miles Davis.
"The WORDS fall on FUNNY BEATS. It's not a burden".
THE WORLD's changing fast.
Everywhere you go, so many dry places.
The SOUL needs water; living water.
"Flow" is what the pimp brings. Conversation is what the soul needs.
"Toasting" is a kind of "thrilling"; a pimp's game.
The playa hater is amiss, but the pimp is at home, making sure your L=I=V=I=N=G water FLOWS!
Perhaps it's the only perfect way he knows -- to make your soul RICH.
With Miles, toastin is about to make your dialogue B=L=I=N=G !
Oh yea, Bling-Bling!! And Bling, again!!!
Now ladies UNWIND,
Feel the motion of a Mack.
I'm like warm lotion on your back;
Damn, that feels G.O.O.O.D.
What better way to sweat,
Stay wet:
Than to tune into some of this
U-N-I-V-E-R-SOUL.
You know what it is;
It's PLATINUM, Baby.
( Bilal )
BLING! is the answer to the hu$tler's prayer.
Bling-Bling! is the pimp's Univer-sal, or the mantra pronounced:
Univer-soul!
Call it what you like, day or night? Call it the World or the "Word"?, if you like.
GOD is the Author of EVERYTHING.
Everything reeeal is "SOUL"; in relation to, the broooad UNIVERSE.
Sometimes, *words* are just what we looove to hear.
Everytime Mr Pimp is *toastin* , his *words* sooooound to us like MUSIC, that we would rather call:
FLOW!
Words or music, Miles Davis is our dream-maker with BLING. He's our jazz genius with the hu$tler's FLOW.
LIFE is MORE than meets the eye; there's MORE to LIVING than pimpin' ho, or making booty-call.
If Your DREAM is MORE than the backstreet baller,
You must Think UNIVERSE anytime Miles Davis mentions the word:
Game!
If a guy's got it,
Let him give it.
I'm selling MUSIC,
Not prejudice.
( Benny Goodman )
In his case, the TRUMPET'S TUNE is the PREACHER'S SERMON:
"Come to the LIGHT" !
MILES DAVIS may sound a lot like Bessie Smith, the crowned "empress of the blues".
"She affects me like lead belly did, the way some of Paul Laurence Dunbar's p*o*e*t*r*y did", enthuses Miles.
" I read him once and I almost cried; the Negro SOUTHERN SPEECH" !
Today, Miles would be going nowhere if he stayed with "Back-water Blues" or "Down-hearted blues".
Now, he's got to step up his game by playing, "I've been poor and I've been rich, and RICH IS BETTER".
Only by so-doing would Miles Davis be the blues, "Walkin".
The Prince of Darkness is pimp-strollin' with his HAMON MUTE. And JAZZ is back at the Fillmore, East or West.
It's the Mack Daddy blues of "Pfrancing";
or the seductive blues of "Blue Haze".
Lawrence Russell quite understands this moment, when he says:
"Miles Davis goes electric; as electric is dyna(mite) BIG, electric is dyna(mite) HIP".
Today, like Bessie Smith, Davis' song is bold on the billboard:
"I Ain't going to P*L*A*Y No Second Fiddle" !
The SUN's in your hair,
***Playa***
Move at your own pace,
Listen to your own mind;
Do your own THING!
( Bilal )
[ Bitches Brew ] is the pimp's victory. Electric, seminal, and cool.
Miles comes with powerful percussion pumps, and the hips of brown sugar undulates like rock n roll.
The funkified feeling you get is heaven, your offsping's name is magic!
The Sun's Rising from the African Jungle, to highlight another storyline:
Miles Davis is, America's Sweetheart.
This conversation is polite. The question is not whether we should fly.
The question is whyyy shouldn't we F.L.Y?
B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y!
The struggle
Makes you beautiful;
The struggle
Makes you FLY.
( Bilal )
Bitches Brew is Miles Davis' Pimp-F=L=O=W: it's about Call-R=E=S=P=O=N=S=E, and Cream-C=A=S=H !
THE AFRICAN RACE. The Negroid!
Africa has been known for "suffering" and "painful" emotions:
Slavery ~ Racism ~ Marginalization.
Won't even talk about it,
Won't even talk about it.
It's all tooo deep,
MY SOUL!
Will I see H*E*A*V*E*N again?
I don't even know,
I don't even know...
( Bilal )
BUT the "COOL POSE". MILES DAVIS!
That defiant poise that defined Miles Davis. That came...from a deeper place.
So what?
It's much d.e.e.p.e.r than critics like Leonard Feather would know. Deeper than Miles' female white teacher at the Juilliard would have us believe.
These BLUES represent MORE than suffering, or painful emotions, or sadness!
"I'm from East St. Louis and my father is rich; he's a dentist and I PLAY THE BLUES", retorts Davis.
"My father didn't never picked no cotton and I didn't wake up this morning sad, and start playing the BLUES.
"There's MORE to it than that".
[ So What ]…sounds cool and bourgeois, like Miles himself.
But it also sounds machismo, like the hustler-playa-pimp...moving away from the hallowed halls of Broadway, into the sodom-and-gomorah of the Street.
"So What" is defiant, and the heart of New York rocks again with an expression of the power: SOLO.
Solo's that unique ability; the ability to reach deeper into your own SOUL...and ask the MUSE ( GOD ):
Why Not?
So What...why darkness...why not LIGHT?
Why not JESUS painted BLACK...and BEAUTIFUL?
We are blacks, African-Americans or the Black Diaspora, we agree.
BUT we don't need a different passport to be HUMAN.
To emphasize "blackness" is NOT to undermine white people.
The aim is to recognize that, black or white, our "uniqueness" is God-given.
Our FUTURE...our PROGRESS, lies in maximizing the p=o=t=e=n=t=i=a=l of our d=i=f=f=e=n=c=e.
United we stand, divided we fall.
We are UNIVER-SAL, UNIVERSE-SOUL.
Hi, bring the stretch-limos, let's ride with Miles Davis. JAZZ is a two-way street, the more the merrier!
We too, are STAR PEOPLE.
Yea, yea, yea, you know.
They call me a P.I.M.P,
And you know what that means.
I'm a person that's
Making a profit.
I pimp INTERNATIONALLY...
I pimp with the T.R.U.T.H
That's the only method.
( Common )
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