There aren't many ward chairmen in Pittsburgh, or anywhere else for that matter, who can spit rhymes with the felicity and confidence of Khari Mosley.
Wearing a double-breasted gray suit and blue shirt already soaked with sweat, the 22nd Ward chairman known in hip-hop circles as K-Mos looked like Otis Redding, but he rocked the mike at the Garfield Art Works over the Labor Day weekend like KRS-One:
When K-Mos, 28, pumped his fist to acknowledge the crowd's respect, it was clear that the opening salvo of the "Slam Bush Rhyme Contest" had been fired by the event's organizer, setting a standard that many contestants wouldn't come close to matching that evening.
More than 150 young people crammed into the dimly lit gallery to witness roughly a dozen contestants competing for $500 and the right to represent the region at the National Slam Bush Championship that will convene on the eve of the first presidential debate of the fall.
Spoken word artist Luqman Salaam, formerly known as b-tree, emceed the contest, ushering contestants to and from the stage with amiable introductions and heartfelt tributes as the spirit moved him. DJ Selecta of 720 Records stood against the gallery's back wall manning two turntables and a mixer, programming beats for each rapper as needed.
Between sets, Khari Mosley donned a grinning George Bush mask for comic relief, indirectly highlighting a problem that will haunt the Kerry-Edwards campaign until Election Day: Even when portrayed as a prancing idiot, President Bush remains an immensely likeable man.
That didn't stop a dozen contestants from piling on with blistering critiques of Bush's foreign and domestic policies. Though much of it was stilted preachifying, especially the sets by rappers who seemed to have only the vaguest idea of who Bush was, a good deal of it was politically potent. Spoken word artists stood out because they enunciated their words and ideas for an audience that needed a reason to sit through the sweltering gallery humidity.
Oveous Maximus, a dreadlocked spoken word artist from New York, was a crowd favorite, as was his Big Apple compatriot, Ann G. -- both veterans of New York's competitive slam poets and performance poetry scenes.
As good as they were, Pittsburgh had two very able spoken word artists in "Sarah," a green-shirted young tattooed woman who made feminist issues her central concern, and Vanessa German, the contest's winner and my favorite.
German, 28, of Monroeville, dominated the competition with a ferocity that belied her soft-spoken manner whenever she approached the mike. After reaching deep into her gut, German leveled a rage-filled indictment against the Bush presidency that revolved around how she had been personally affected by the administration's economic and cultural initiatives.
She was particularly annoyed that Bush was so concerned about civil unions and expressed it in a way that only the vice president would feel comfortable repeating.
With the exception of a sole representative from Billionaires for Bush, a faux interest group lobbying for "four more years of war," none of the performers had a good word for the president. Though defending Bush was not the evening's theme, it would've added to the anarchic spirit of the contest if Richard Dillon, a very good local poet who supports Bush, had been invited to give a contrarian perspective.
The judges were a mix of the city's cultural and political elite: Kamau Ware of the BridgeSpotters Collective, Pittsburgh City Councilmen Sala Udin and William Peduto, Pittsburgh school board member Alex Matthews, state Rep. Dan Frankel, Jason Tigano from Congressman Mike Doyle's office, La 'Tasha Mayes of New Voices Pittsburgh and Grand Architect Paradise of the seminal hip-hop band X-Clan, now of Wilkinsburg.
Watching the crowds of energized young people wander down Penn Avenue after the show, it was difficult to imagine that once politicized, they'd settle for "just" a Kerry victory in November.
They're in it for the long haul.
First Published: September 7, 2004, 4:00 a.m.
