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Def Poetry - Season 2
HBO // Unrated // April 5, 2005
List Price: $19.96 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Are you ready for some poetry, mother[expletives]?" - Mos Def, host
Mos Def's opening line never fails to earn a chuckle, thanks to the apparent dichotomy between his street-tough language and delivery and his subject. But Def Poetry Season 2 has precious little to do with stuffy readings in university lecture halls. These are real people, expressing real emotion and doing it with a unique eloquence, the type of "real life" that one could never find on television – even "reality TV."
There were seven episodes in the second season of the show:
Episode 1 – Strong, strong, strong. Beau Sia comes strong with a self-described rant about the status of Asian-Americans in America ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ain't the end"), Twin Poets match him on the topic of ghetto dreams, and it closes with "Brother Foxx" (hint: He has an Oscar) and a great send-up of the coffeehouse poetry scene.
Episode 2 – Mos Def starts with a verse or two from what would later become "Ghetto Rock" on his 2004 album The New Danger. Danny Hoch ("Bush is copying Under Siege!") and Maggie Estep ("I'm an emotional idiot, so get away from me. I mean, come here.") also make appearances, both stars of the scene and both bringing top-shelf stuff. Erykah Badu stops by as well.
Episode 3 – Taylor Mali gives us an English lesson ("What has happened to our conviction?") in the main noteworthy piece.
Episode 4 – Suheir Hammad, Big Poppa E ("I am a wussy") and La Bruja make the most interesting comments in this episode, though Bruja's ode to 9/11 sounds a bit forced and cliché.
Episode 5 – Future MTV2 VJ Amanda Diva makes an appearance here, with a fun poem about writer's block ("I wanted to write some hot [expletive]"). Malcolm-Jamal Warner manages to pull off what is, essentially, a love poem.
Episode 6 – Keith Murray and Jessica Care Moore both boost the emcee/poet crossover rate, to mixed results.
Episode 7 – Tributes to old television and Jimi Hendrix can't cover up that the show is staggering to the end of the season.
As season two progresses, the quality of the episodes starts to drop off. The poetry circuit in America is considerably thinner in terms of talent than stand-up, so doing a full (or, in this case, an abbreviated) season of poetry means more comparatively mediocre poets in front of the camera.
But at its best, Def Poetry has ways of touching someone well beyond most of what's available on television. Poets such as Sia and Estep can sum up so much of a person's experience in one paragraph, one sentence, even one well-chosen word.
Even more impressive is the diversity of the season. Poets from every race and economic background imaginable appear. There are professors and street kids, old and young, black and white and Asian and Hispanic and more. There will be someone, somewhere on this disc to connect to every viewer.
Finally, HBO DVD made a great move on the design side, putting in chapter stops for every poet. While it would have been nice to have a chapters menu in order to directly skip to standout performances, at least it is simple to jump around within a specific episode.
The DVD
Mos Def's opening line never fails to earn a chuckle, thanks to the apparent dichotomy between his street-tough language and delivery and his subject. But Def Poetry Season 2 has precious little to do with stuffy readings in university lecture halls. These are real people, expressing real emotion and doing it with a unique eloquence, the type of "real life" that one could never find on television – even "reality TV."
There were seven episodes in the second season of the show:
Episode 1 – Strong, strong, strong. Beau Sia comes strong with a self-described rant about the status of Asian-Americans in America ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ain't the end"), Twin Poets match him on the topic of ghetto dreams, and it closes with "Brother Foxx" (hint: He has an Oscar) and a great send-up of the coffeehouse poetry scene.
Episode 2 – Mos Def starts with a verse or two from what would later become "Ghetto Rock" on his 2004 album The New Danger. Danny Hoch ("Bush is copying Under Siege!") and Maggie Estep ("I'm an emotional idiot, so get away from me. I mean, come here.") also make appearances, both stars of the scene and both bringing top-shelf stuff. Erykah Badu stops by as well.
Episode 3 – Taylor Mali gives us an English lesson ("What has happened to our conviction?") in the main noteworthy piece.
Episode 4 – Suheir Hammad, Big Poppa E ("I am a wussy") and La Bruja make the most interesting comments in this episode, though Bruja's ode to 9/11 sounds a bit forced and cliché.
Episode 5 – Future MTV2 VJ Amanda Diva makes an appearance here, with a fun poem about writer's block ("I wanted to write some hot [expletive]"). Malcolm-Jamal Warner manages to pull off what is, essentially, a love poem.
Episode 6 – Keith Murray and Jessica Care Moore both boost the emcee/poet crossover rate, to mixed results.
Episode 7 – Tributes to old television and Jimi Hendrix can't cover up that the show is staggering to the end of the season.
As season two progresses, the quality of the episodes starts to drop off. The poetry circuit in America is considerably thinner in terms of talent than stand-up, so doing a full (or, in this case, an abbreviated) season of poetry means more comparatively mediocre poets in front of the camera.
But at its best, Def Poetry has ways of touching someone well beyond most of what's available on television. Poets such as Sia and Estep can sum up so much of a person's experience in one paragraph, one sentence, even one well-chosen word.
Even more impressive is the diversity of the season. Poets from every race and economic background imaginable appear. There are professors and street kids, old and young, black and white and Asian and Hispanic and more. There will be someone, somewhere on this disc to connect to every viewer.
Finally, HBO DVD made a great move on the design side, putting in chapter stops for every poet. While it would have been nice to have a chapters menu in order to directly skip to standout performances, at least it is simple to jump around within a specific episode.
The DVD
Video/Audio:
The full-frame transfer and 2.0 stereo audio track both come off better than the original airings of the episodes on cable. The audio in particular stands out, with the poets separated from the audience noise nicely – there is rarely a moment in which the poets can't be understood due to applause.
Extras:
Nothing.
Final Thoughts:
There's certainly some skippable material on Def Poetry Season 2. But the top moments on the disc more than outweigh the lows, and with such a high replay level (you'll want to hear your favorite poems over and over again), it is an easy disc to recommend.
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