In Spring 2013 I was a ‘poet coach’ for the Bite! Youth Poets vs MCs slam. Been I while since I tried to ‘get down with the kids’ and quite frankly, my knees weren’t up to it. So I stayed upright and coached a very fine young poet to the final, where he successfully battled a bellyful of aspiring hiphop MCs.
It’s over a decade since the original Poets vs MCs idea was dreamt up between myself and the MCs Heinz and Brainiac (of Brighton’s long-running Slip Jam B hiphop night). The annual battle/slam (now taken over by Hammer and Tongue) outgrew venue after venue and now brings in a few hundred rowdy fans at the Concorde 2. It’s great how they always expect the poets to lose … and always end up cheering on the ‘underdogs’ until they win. The Bite! Youth Slam was no exception. Poets may not have freestyling, but they have a variety of other tricks up their sleeves. Not least being objects of pity.