Poetic Hip-Hop Productions

Music:

Member Since: 12/5/2006
Band Members: Student Mixes Dance and Urban Poetry Gator of the Week by Christine Joy Ferrer, staff writer February 17, 2007 5:29 PMMarketa Temple, 20, an SF State English and dance student, didn’t know what hip hop was until she saw her older brother freestyling, rapping and busting beats with his friends, when she was 9 years old in Atlanta.According to Temple, that was the day she fell in love with hip hop.Temple calls herself a poet, a female MC, a lyricist. She is also a black woman, a dancer, an artist, a rapper, a songwriter and a dance teacher who hopes to inspire, she said."I'm making my life echo with the sound of my soul's song," said Temple.Temple’s music is a soulful blend of poetry, spoken word and hip hop that she describes as poetic hip hop. Her music and lyrics have been strongly influenced by her life struggles and the injustice that she sees existing in the world today.“The past can affect you either negatively or positively. If it's negative, sometimes you just gotta choose to pull from it and keep going,” said Temple.Because her brother wanted to join a gang, her mother decided to move their family of five to San Diego when Temple was in sixth grade.While in high school in Chula Vista, Calif., Temple started rapping and performing at school events, assemblies and open mics.“I was spitting knowledge on politics, history and always on a conscious level,” she said. "I was the only female brave enough to challenge the boys, the dominant male presence in rap."She grew up around poverty, drugs, alcohol and gangs, which she says contributes to her music. She watched as her mother struggled to fight her addictions.“My most personal track on my album is called, ‘Drama and Pain.’ It’s about my mom who is bipolar, did drugs and was an alcoholic,” said Temple. “She would spazz out, go from happy to sad, depressed, then she’d start drinking.”Temple moved out of her house when she was a senior in high school. She had gotten in to a physical fight with her stepfather over him condoning her mother’s drinking habits.She was homeless for a while, but two of her high school counselors provided places for her to stay, until she moved to San Francisco for school on over $38,000 in scholarships.She received scholarships from her San Diego school district, the Ford Motor Company, Sean Salisbury Scholarship Foundation and the Jessie Klicka Foundation, which were for overcoming hardship and adversity.As a SF State freshman in 2005, Temple began working on her first album. Without one set record producer or distributor, she finished it in December 2006, and gave away a handful of copies to family, friends and classmates. However, it has yet to be mass distributed.Her music is her history, said Temple. Once she adds a beat to it, it becomes a story. She said her favorite place to bring that story to life is in the bathroom.She puts on a beat, brings her guitar and starts free flowing.“The bathroom is my solitude, my sense of security. You can dig deep and pull your soul out,” said Temple.But, wherever she may be, something always inspires her to write, she said.For instance, on Valentine’s Day, Temple went out to dinner with Albirda Rose, Ph.D., and her husband.“I don’t know what inspired her, but we were in a restaurant on Valentine’s Day and all of a sudden [Temple] said she needed an ink pen and then started writing. She must’ve used 10 napkins,” said Rose, a dance professor at SF State. “Her work is very powerful. She's lived it.”“[Temple] has been through a lot. She sees more in-depth than others; her surroundings, people’s emotions, their struggles and wants to help,” said Sara Vanier, 20, a business student, who has been Temple’s roommate and close friend for the last couple years. “So, she uses her words.”Temple also teaches poetic hip hop as a dance form to fourth and fifth graders at Cleveland Elementary School in the Mission district. However, they do more than just dance."They have journals that I ask them to write in. I ask them to answer questions like, 'What is hip hop? What is jazz?'" said Temple. "I have them describe their feelings. I give them a history lesson about different types of music. Through poetic hip hop…kids [have] an identity of their own."At St. Paul Tabernacle Baptist Church, Temple teaches children praise dance –– dances that are performed during church services –– African dance, Katherine Dunham technique (a combination of Caribbean dance and modern ballet) and Latin American social dances.Temple is currently working on a new album entitled, “Poetic Hip-Hop, Volume 2” with Chuck Mays and Jedd “J-Song” Henderson of Namawu Records, and with Prince Damons of Black Magic Productions, who also works with Warner Brothers Studios.For her new album, she wants to incorporate different types of music, from old-school groove to jazz to blues, with a hip-hop foundation base that uses knowledge to motivate minds.“I’ve been reading books. You learn a lot about culture and the music of different peoples, at different times,” said Temple. “I want to relate to people like Jews or Mexicans; I want to say I understand your struggle, your music, and your interests.”She refuses to conform to the mold of mainstream hip hop.“You can turn on a song and dance, boogie out and get ‘hyphy,’ but it doesn’t inspire you to do something in the community,” said Temple. “The state of hip hop now needs a culture shock to open artists' minds.”Temple says she chooses a different legacy for herself.Like she says in the song "A Blind Man’s War": “I want to make you think / Today we spend another day fighting / A blind man’s war / So many people are dying / All over your world / On your block / On your street / Right at your feet /…I’m ready to take a stand…fight the system.”Visit her at http://www.myspace.com/poetichiphopproductions.» E-mail Christine Joy Ferrer @ [email protected]
Record Label: YBE
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