Fly Trugoy, Fly…
Black History - Black Artistry - Black Ancestry
On my ride to teach Poetry yesterday, I cried in my cab.
It’s Black History Month, and we have just lost a Pioneer of Our People, a Keeper of Our Culture.
My adoration of Rap Music and connection to Hip-Hop is born and bred within my DNA.
I would like to believe that is simply HOW it is for MyPeople, especially for those in my generation, where a myriad of inception and impetus for the future of Black Music was forged.
However, what is epigenetically bestowed is never always recognized, nurtured, and fostered.
At times, one must embark on unexpected goat paths to intentionally pick directions that Our Ancestors have blazed.
My earliest and most solid introductions and connections to Rap and Hip-Hop was The Mother Tongue Family; specifically, Black Sheep, A Tribe Called Quest and especially, De La Soul.
I discovered them in the same year I discovered Poetry.
I do hope that speaks to some Hip-Hop Heads…
Plug 2, aka Dave, aka Trugoy The Dove, Rapper from the renowned De La Soul… has flown from this realm.
Left: Wakefield Brewster, Right: PLUG 2 aka Trugoy, The Dove 2009 Lifestyle Festival Olympic Plaza, Calgary
One-third of The Magic Number was one of my Living Predecessors.
Now, he is my Recent Ancestor - and I am hurting.
De La Soul taught me an arsenal of antics applicable to MyArt.
I’m not a funny Poet, but they taught me humour.
I’m not a light Poet, but they showed me how to see the light.
I’m not a trio, but I can be as many People as I please - and I am a master collaborator.
I grew up devoid of knowing much about my own culture, (complicated shit), let alone knowing how to just be, be me, unapologetically, Beautifully - Black.
Yes.
I first learned these lessons and many more in the lyricism of The De La - and then - many more.
My greatest memory of these Fathers?
I opened for them in Olympic Plaza, for the 2009 Livestyle Festival.
I’m forever Honoured.
His passing was an emotional blow, akin to a childhood anchor of artistry and appreciation tearing off a poetic ship deck like a steel cable.
The news was like the closest passing of a projectile, an icy whistle of death sighing in my ear, grazing my mortality.
Life.
Lyricism.
Legacy.
You know, I think this is also so hard because I’m still gripping the recent Ancestral Journey of The Soul Rebel, The Soul Adventurer, Lee Scratch Perry.
May they burn one of many together.
On my ride to teach Poetry yesterday, I cried in my cab.
Last night, I cried in my favourite chair.
I’m crying now - and that’s okay - I have a spare, and I’m just getting this all out.
I will stop at a liquor store today, and by Trugoy a drink.
I’ll play some favourite De La tracks on the back deck, and pour one out for Trugoy The Dove.
I’ll probably cry just a tiny bit more.
To MyMan, Plug 2…
May those Wings of Words keep you Fly.
Fly Trugoy, Fly…
~W🧙🏾♂️🎙️
P.S.
De La Trivia
Trugoy is Yogurt backwards, an anagram of sorts, if you will;
Posdnuos is ‘Sop Sound’ in some kinda backwards; ‘Sop’ meaning ‘gift or present’ and Sound. This is the DJ name that Plug 1 went by, in high school;
~W🧙🏾♂️🎙️