QUIET by Adán Bean

Shhhhhhh…..

At this point, most music is a distraction. Something to have on in the background because so much of humanity is not content with being left alone with their own thoughts. How often do we run from our mind using whatever’s available to us - Netflix, podcasts/music, alcohol, drugs or toxic people?

Releasing music in 2019 feels much like hurling a bunch of plastic straws into an ocean.

Like you may have created it for some other worthwhile purpose, but it will not be used for that. It may not even be used...or ultimately, proven useful. Is it not just pollution?

Shifting from futility, is this not an exercise in vanity? Is an artist simply someone who wants to hear him or herself talk? Loves the sound of their own voice? Enamored with attention? Feels as though every 98 cent discussion has been waiting for their two?

Perhaps.

My friend George 2.0 is fond of saying “Even if you weren’t watching, I’d be doing this anyway.”

To me, this is my relationship with music. I’ve come to be known as a poet in a lot of circles, but I feel as though I’m an imposter. I write all the time for all types of reasons. For all types of people, companies, organizations and situations. The sensibility that I carry into every engagement is that of an emcee. It is what I know.

To move the crowd.

From the very first rap I memorized (shouts to “Turtle Power”) at ages 9 or 10, I’ve loved this art form that was built on lack. That constructs a multi-billion dollar industry from slashed music programs in the South Bronx. That makes meals from discarded table scraps. And even feeds the people who hate the cooks when they have the audacity to not be cooking.

I have been working on songs for years. This is a handful of them. I think only one verse from the project was written in 2018. All else dates back as far as Summer 2014.

I’ve been working on new things. Things that I’m excited about it...with people I’m excited about.

You will hear from me in the future doing things that beg your attention. That ask for your eyes and ears. That request time...or money….or both.

But that is not this.

I am not pushing this project. I’m not angling on ways to get it in front of you. If you have found it, it’s because you sought it. Or perhaps more likely, it found you.

This is not meant to be a spectacle.

It’s best thought of as a secret.

A whisper.

An ode to the librarians.

This is QUIET.

Shhhhh……….

Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument. ~Bishop Desmond Tutu

“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” ~Joan Didion

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