J. Ivy, “the suave poet” from Chicago

CTZN Chance/Burnculture/CTZN Chance/Burnculture

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CTZN Chance/Burnculture/CTZN Chance/Burnculture

J. Ivy, “the suave poet” from Chicago

CTZN Chance/Burnculture/CTZN Chance/Burnculture

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For a long time, the Grammys’ spoken-word awards have gone to audio books, narrated by individuals like Barack and Michelle Obama, Carrie Fisher, Stephen Colbert and others – “Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording” is the official title for the statue. But this 12 months, poets may have their very own: Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.

The Chicago-born poet J. Ivy helped create the brand new class and is one among 5 contenders for the award, although he did not nominate himself. As a nationwide trustee for the Recording Academy, Ivy says he pushed for the Grammys to honor the shape.

“A poet will be bringing home a Grammy,” he tells NPR, “and it’ll be the first poet since Maya Angelou.”

Ivy is nominated for his sixth album, The Poet Who Sat by the Door, a nod to Sam Greenlee’s 1969 novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a basic within the Black Power motion that was additionally made into a film in 1973.

Ivy’s album is a group of his poems, which he performs over beats and interpolates with singing by Sir The Baptist, Slick Rick, PJ Morton and Tarrey Torae (Ivy’s spouse), amongst others.

“I’ve seen the superpower that is poetry. I’ve seen it shift people’s lives, I’ve seen it save lives,” says Ivy. “I have a quote that says, ‘Poetry is the seed of every song ever written.’ Whether it’s somebody rapping or singing or it being spoken, it’s a poem there.”

J. Ivy, onstage throughout on the Grammy Museum on Dec. 11, 2022 in LA.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

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Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

J. Ivy, onstage throughout on the Grammy Museum on Dec. 11, 2022 in LA.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Ivy says his poems are sometimes about his life as a Black man in America: “My job or responsibility as a poet is to capture that as quickly as possible, as the ancestors are speaking to me, as God is talking to me, I’m working as the angels are talking to me.” He says that work begins by listening, to his coronary heart and his neighborhood – “Listen” is the title of 1 piece from the album.

Another options Abiodun Oyewole, a co-founder of Sixties poetry collective The Last Poets, which had a big affect on the event of rap. “J.Ivy’s work is to be heard. It’s not to be whispered. It’s to be said loud in your face,” Oyewole tells NPR.

He was born James Ivy Richardson II on Chicago’s South Side in 1976, rising as much as spit rhymes as a teen and, in faculty, confront his personal historical past by writing. He says his dad’s drug and alcohol abuse meant they did not see one another for a decade. Not lengthy after they reconnected, his father died. He put that ache into a poem. It begins:

Dear Dad,

These phrases are being spoken and written as a result of my coronary heart and soul really feel damaged. I snort to maintain from crying however I nonetheless have not healed in any case of my years of my goofiness and joking. You obtained me open and hoping this unwell feeling will move, will not final. I put on a masks so my piece will not ask for the reality, in truth talking the reality hurts however I’m past hurting, I’m in ache, and once I was a shorty I believed you left as a result of I would not behave. Later on in life I discovered that it was the ache in addition to different issues and with all of the scars it was arduous however I realized to forgive and forgave…

Ivy carried out “Dear Father” onstage for HBO Def Poetry in 2005. By then, he’d already labored his method round open mics, eventally internet hosting the most popular poetry nights in Chicago. When he carried out on the Apollo Theater for Russell Simmon’s Def Poetry jam, he obtained a standing ovation.

“That was my first big break,” Ivy says. “I always describe it as like a sprinter making it to the Olympics.”

On Def Poetry he additionally carried out one other poem, “Never Let Me Down.” Kanye West and Jay-Z had been so impressed by the efficiency they flew Ivy to LA shortly after, to record the poem for an album they had been placing collectively referred to as The College Dropout.

“Kanye was like, ‘Man, that was that was great,’ ” Ivy recollects. “People [were] coming into the studio getting chills, tears in they eyes. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe this moment’s actually happening.’ ” (West would additionally later characteristic Ivy playing the part of Jesus in a music video for a 2019 album, Jesus is King.)

It was at The College Dropout recording periods that Ivy met singer John Stephens, whose music he admired.

“I was like ‘What’s up, man? Your music is amazing. It sounds like that music my folks used to listen to back in the day,’ ” Ivy recollects. “”Man, you sound like one of the legends. Matter of fact, that’s what I’m call you from now: a legend. John the legend. John Legend.’ “

John Legend, as he is been recognized ever since, would go on to sing for one of many tracks from Ivy’s now-Grammy-nominated album.