NerCity (Pronounced “Inner Cityâ€), Poet, Host, Community Activist and student of the art of spoken word poetry has been gracing the mic for over 10 years.
His brash and gritty “In Your Face†style is not only a reflection of his life growing up in the streets of the Bay Area, but his “NerCity Poetry†reflects on the many lessons he’s learned from elders that are/were in his life.
His Slam Resume reads as follows; 2002 Oakland Representative for the NYC Hottest Poet Competition, 2003 Oakland Slam Team member that placed 4th in the Nation in Chicago, 2003 Team Oakland member that Placed 1st in The New Word Series in San Francisco, 2004 Nuyorican Grand Slam Finalist, 2005 Berkeley Slam Semi Finalist 2007, Winner of the Show Stoppa Slam in Sacramento, Ca. & recently crowned 2007 Oakland Grand Slam Champion.
NerCity has toured and featured at some of the hottest venues across the country such as The Fly Poet Showcase (Los Angeles), The Nuyorican Poetry Café, Café Nuba (Denver) Untamed Tongues (Las Vegas), Spoken Funk (Hollywood) and many others.
Nercity has also performed at the 2000 NBA All Star Game in Oakland, The Apollo Theater in New York City and was invited to be on B.E.T.’s Lyric Cafe' in the Bahamas & The Essence Festival in New Orleans.
Shared the stage with KRS-1, Tony, Toni, Tone, Goapele, Ledisi, The Last Poets, Talib Kweli, Jaguar Wright, and many others.
When time allows nerCity works with several named and unnamed community based and after school programs such as “The Love Life Foundationâ€, Will Work/Write for Food & Silence The Violence, while also going to numerous Jr. High & High Schools all across the country.
This year Nercity has been working with the "Writing for Life" program which help spoken word artist hold writing workshops in the state prisons.
After 1 book “Born in the Womb of Words†and 1 Full length album “Product of the Product†which both sold well, nerCity started getting tired of the "Same ole same" that goes with spoken words. Instead of going through he motions nerCity decided to figure out his next move, so while living in NYC he noticed the mixtape circuit. MC's were making a name for themselves by hooking up with Mixtape DJ's and rapping over other MC's hot beats.
nerCity took that idea back to the Bay Area, but instead of rapping he 'spit' his words over hot hip hop samples giving birth to the “Urban Writer Mixtape†series. After two strong CD's poets all over the Bay started coming out with mixtapes, some tried to copy his formula; but nerCity takes it as a challenge to raise the creativity bar higher. "When one style is done to death, real artist know how to create a new one while the fake ones just wait for ideas to fall in their laps".
December 6th, 2007 nerCity released his latest album "Caution". nerCity feels once again the creativity bar will be raised even higher. "The Production, musical selection and content for the album Caution is like no other album I guarantee it. This is album shouldn't even be labled a spoken word album but more like good music."
Be on the look out for "Caution 2.0", Bleek Gillium" (The Mixtape) and "nerCity's Latest & Greatest Hits" all scheduled to be released in 2008.
With a full tour schedule in 2008, a trip to Cuba and numerous projects ("Guerilla Poetry the DVD") nerCity will be leaving a mark in the art of spoken word poetry. “My mission has never been to be a famous spoken word artist. I’ve always shied away from fame while giving props to my peers, even if they didn't deserve it. All I ever wanted to accomplish was to make my family proud, and at least touch one person with each performance."
