ivy cooper has posted a review of my exhibition in the st. louis beacon.

find it here:

http://www.stlbeacon.org/visual_arts/review_longyear_s_show_is_best_of_year_-_so_far

It's hard to enjoy illusions once you've seen the truth.

the slouis post dispatch ran a profile on me today. find it here:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/visualarts/story/03A76C1056FD417A862575E2000CBA09?OpenDocument

Was a gurl once...

SHE had worlds at her finger tips...

SHE had hair spun like gold...

SHE found secrets in rising canal flows, small tidy drinks, and clothes-lines hung with strange fruits.

HER name echoed when shouted over tides bound by specific gravity - missisippi or otherwise - spoken on by moons and subverted cultures for days...

Missiondesi strategic... - SHE bump atomic crunk... GURL has current like rivers... eroding boundaries - FOREVER...

SHE walked cobblestone... and built a reality based on pinstripped gondoliers and PIGEONS that had the ability to float heartstrings on chorus... like mad... be MAD... drive ME mad...

SHE...

r

Yo, all I need is one mic, one beat, one stage.

One God to show me how to do things his son did.

This hood politics acknowledge it.

Seeds watch us, grow up and try to follow us.

Police watch us roll up and try knockin us.

Bus stop glass bursts, a fiend drops his Heineken.

This is my hood I'ma rep, to the death of it.

'til everybody come home.

Hoodrats, don't abortion your womb, we need more warriors soon.

Sip from the star, sun and the moon.

In this life of police chases, street sweepers and coppers.

Stick-up kids with no conscience, leavin victims with doctors.

Yo, all I need is one mic..

All I need is one mic.. 

That's all I need..

All I need is one blunt, one page, and one pen.

One prayer - tell God forgive for one sin..

Matter fact maybe more than one, look back..

Jesus died at age 33, there's thirty-three there's sixteen apiece, that's thirty-two.  Which means, one of mine was holdin 17..

bullets tear through the innocent.

Nothin is fair.

My heart is racin, tastin revenge in the air..

There's nothin in our way - they bust, we bust, they rust, we rust.

All I need is one mic.. 

That's all I need, that's all I need.

All I need is one mic.. 

There's nuttin else in the world.

All I need is one mic.. 

That's all a ngh need to do his thing y'know.

All I need is one mic..

ALL I NEED IS ONE LIFE, ONE TRY, ONE BREATH I'M ONE MAN.

WHAT I STAND FOR SPEAKS FOR ITSELF, THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND..

What you call a infinite brawl, eternal souls clashin.

War gets deep, some beef is everlastin.

Complete with thick scars, brothers knifin each other
up in prison yards, drama, where does it start?

You know the block was ill as a youngster.

Throwin dirt on my name..

Jealous cause fiends got they work and complain..

Movin with a change of pace, lighter load, see now the king is straight.

Movin with a change of pace, lighter load, see now the king is straight.

This is crazy, I'm on the right track.

I'm finally found.

You need some soul searchin, the time is now..

All I need is one mic.. that's all I need, that's all I need.
All I need is one mic.. there's nuttin else in the world.
All I need is one mic.. that's all a ngh need to do his thing y'know.
All I need is one mic..

All I need is one mic.. 

All I need is one mic.. that's all I ever needed in this world, f- cash.

All I need is one mic.. f- the cars, the jewelry.

All I need is one mic.. to spread my voice to the whole world..

put our stars behind bars.

our stars in stripes.

using blood splattered banners as nationalist kites.

but i control the wind.

resurrected like lazarus.

but you can call me lazzy.

lazy.

yeah i'm lazy.

because i'd rather sit and build than work and plow a field

worshiping a daily yield of cash green crops.

too bad they don't teach the truth to their kids.

bound to live an infinite, consecutive, executive life sentence.

so what are you bound to live NGH?

and we are public enemy number one...

ONE!

ONE!

ONE!

ONE!

ONE!

KIDS PUT THEY QUARTERS UP TO PLAY.

PUT THEY QUARTERS UP TO BUILD.

HIGH-POST IT UP IN SPADES.

I got a letter from the government
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me given' a damn I said never
Here is a land that never gave a damn
About a brother like me and myself
Because they never did
I wasn't wit' it but just that very minute...
It occured to me
The suckers had authority
Cold sweatin' as I dwell in my cell
How long has it been?
They got me sittin' in the state pen
I gotta get out - but that thought was thought before
I contemplated a plan on the cell floor
I'm not a fugitive on the run
But a brother like me begun - to be another one
Public enemy servin' time - they drew the line y'all
To criticize me some crime - never the less
They could not understand that I'm a Black man
And I could never be a veteran
On the strength, the situation's unreal
I got a raw deal, so I'm goin' for the steel

They got me rottin' in the time that I'm servin'
Tellin' you what happened the same time they're throwin'
4 of us packed in a cell like slaves - oh well
You have to realize - what its a form of slavery
Organized under a swarm of devils
Straight up - word'em up on the level
The reasons are several, most of them federal
Here is my plan anyway and I say
I got gusto, but only some I can trust - yo
I'm on a tier where no tears should ever fall
Cell block and locked - I never clock it y'all
'Cause time and time again time
They got me servin' to those and to them
I'm not a citizen
My plan is on go-ahead
On the strength, I'ma tell you the deal
I got nothin' to lose
'Cause I'm goin' for the steel

And everyman's got served
Along with the time they served
Decency was deserved
To understand my demands
I gave a warnin' - I wanted the governor, y'all
And plus the warden to know
That I was innocent -
Because I'm militant
Posing a threat, you bet it's fuckin' up the government
My plan said I had to get out and break north
Just like with Oliver's neck
I had to get off - my boys had the feds in check
They couldn't do nuthin'
This is what it takes for peace
Black for Black inside time to cut the leash
Freedom to get out - to the ghetto - no sell out
But I'll give 'em a chance, cause I'm civilized
As for the rest of the world, they can't realize
A cell is hell - I'm a rebel so I rebel
Between bars, got me thinkin' like an animal
And I'm serious - call me delirious
But I'm still a captive
I gotta rap this
Time to break as time grows intense
Now I'm lookin' for the fence

I ventured into the courtyard
Followed by 52 brothers
Bruised, battered, and scarred but hard
Goin' out with a bang
Ready to bang out
But power from the sky
Stand and hold my post

What, who, the bazooka was who
Secured my getaway, so I just gotaway
The joint broke, from the black smoke
Then they saw it was rougher thatn the average bluffer
'Cause the steel was black, the attitude exact
Now the chase is on tellin' you to c'mon
53 brothers on the run, and we are gone 

Thank you to those who have helped me to understand that all those crumbling towers were most likely biblical, for I am as ignorant as I am heaven-sent.

My rotting teeth are another story.  Teeth aren’t as sacred I guess as architecture.

hommie this is my life...

you decide yours...