Khalil Amani

Hip- Hop-perations: Surgical Essays and Poems for the Ghetto Mind Khalil Amani

What up?! Just like to welcome you to this class here at W. F. U. I am Dr. Horatio Honeycutt. As you all know, a class in multicultural studies is required of all entering freshmen, so I¡¯m happy that you¡¯ve chosen this course to fulfill that requirement. I know that you will find this class stimulating, exciting, and truly challenging. So, welcome again! I¡¯m passing out a syllabus for your perusal. This semester you will get aquainted with Black people in the urban ghetto of this city. We will be going on a field-trip into the heart of the ¡®hood to get a firsthand look at how the language is spoken. But I must warn you, before we get to that point you must do a complete overhaul of your perception of Black people. We will have to become as ¡°black¡± as we can be as not to standout and as they say in the hood, ¡°get our asses bumrushed.¡± In other words, we don¡¯t want to draw too much attention to ourselves and cause the indigenous population to pummel our bodies into mutilated pieces of DNA. But not to worry, I¡¯ve already established communication with some of the more violent elements in the community. See?! You¡¯ve already learned your first black word, ¡°bumrush.¡± It means to suddenly bombard without warning; to attack. Put it in your vocabulary, you¡¯ll need it.¡ªKahlil Amani, Jive 101/Ebonics 1619Khalil Amani offers his take on Black America through both poetry and prose in Hip-Hop-Operations. Amani is a graduate of San Diego Mesa College and the author of Ghetto Religiosity 2000.