Theon Lee brings emcees together
Originally published in the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper.
It was Theon Lee’s first poem, a homework assignment in grade school, that jump started a love for rhyme. While his first poem was an ode to his grandparents, he later became a ghostwriter for amorous middle school boys who wanted to purchase poems for ladies of interest.
“I had a little business going,” Lee said, and boys in the school would pay up to $20 for each of his poems. Even though it wasn’t a serious operation, the act kept him writing until his life changed drastically after dropping out of high school, a tour in the military, a marriage, children and a divorce occurred in the span of five years.
After a discharge from the military, Lee used his poems to assimilate back into civilian society. Faced with his status as a veteran, he concluded that his early poems were “wack,” so he aimed to change his approach and adopt a disciplined drive.
At one event in Flint, Mich., a slam poetry event, Lee won second place and earned $300 for his performance on the mic. He recalls a friend telling him, “Wow, you did really well,” and the sense of encouragement carried Lee to continue the process of becoming a full-time artist.
“One of the experiences that really hit home for me was a poem I wrote about fatherlessness,” he said. At a different event, a member of the audience approached him after the show and wept, saying the message within the poem resonated with her deeply. Small moments of success propelled Lee to see that artists have a duty to help provide insight into the audience’s pain.
Lee was a full-time poet between 2011–2013, splitting his time between solo work and groups. He searched for a purpose with his craft and found that his real goal was a mix between self-expression and enlightenment. He said he wants to understand what it means to embody hip hop as a lifestyle and this begins with the process of observing, writing, then living what he speaks.
Lee said he can spend a month or two watching the world around him, gathering ideas, then he’ll do a lot of thinking for months to complete work. One of the thoughts he’s gained with this method is the belief that, “Hip hop is the Black and brown fine arts.”
“Think of it this way,” he said, “Graffiti can be comparable to German impressionism, or the DJ can be like an orchestra,” he added. Through these comparisons, Lee notes the importance of hip hop culture as more than a pastime, but something embodied in the spirit of the people invested in the conglomerate. This idea is also known as the “Five Pillars” of hip hop, which includes DJing, breakdancing, graffiti, emceeing and knowledge.
Lee said his life is heavily influenced by hip hop because of the totality of his experiences. “I was raised in poverty. I picked up art as something…” he began, then he trailed and discussed the importance of art and culture as noted by a favorite author, James Baldwin.
Baldwin, author, essayist and novelist, spoke of an “artist’s struggle for integrity” in 1963, and this speech made an lasting impression on Lee. “There’s a difference between someone who does art and someone who is an artist,” he said.
With that knowledge in hand, Lee believes that the pain expressed in his poetry can be used to help someone see beauty and suffer less, just like the woman who approached him about his poem. The longer he continues studying hip hop, the more he becomes concerned with encouraging others to push the culture forward.
The DOJO is one of Lee’s programs, a platform devoted to emcees wanting to feed off the energy of a crowd, rattle rhymes and promote peace.
“Indy is a very shy city,” he said. “We don’t know if we should dance or sing or clap along. But at the DOJO it’s a show for the people.”
The DOJO, sponsored by Old Soul Entertainment, meets every third Friday night at 1060 Virginia Ave. to showcase local emcees.
Like most of Lee’s poems, particularly the ones showcased online, the mission for The DOJO is simple and profound.
“Hip hop comes from a need to express and be human,” Lee said. “It’s a learning experience and a festive experience. There aren’t many places where you can learn and have fun.”
The DOJO, sponsored by Old Soul Entertainment, meets every third Friday night at 1060 Virginia Ave. to showcase local emcees. “The DOJO tradition and provides a platform to strengthen the local hip hop culture,” according to the group’s website.
Shows are scheduled to start at 8 p.m. with a $7 admission fee. Upcoming DOJO dates are Friday, Sept. 16, Friday, Nov. 18 and Friday, Dec. 16.
An emcee (often stylized as MC) is deemed “a master of ceremonies,” which is a loose term to describe the official host of a stage event or performance. The term has been documented in Catholic Church history, but the hip hop community has adapted the idea to describe artists who command attention with their prose.
Prominent artists with “MC” in their stage name include MC Lyte, MC Shan, MC Hammer, MC Ren and MC Eiht. Other rappers without “MC” in their name regular make references to the difference between artists of a higher caliber and “wack MC’s.” Scholars and fans note that this sense of competition has been a staple in the genre since its inception.
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