Kid Anansi – “Diary Of A Lost Man” / “Let Me Tell You A Little Bit About Myself (Live)”

Kid Anansi – “Diary Of A Lost Man” / “Let Me Tell You A Little Bit About Myself (Live)” – Singles Review

I’m always up for some Spoken Word – let’s check this out!  I’ve got some samples here from Kid Anansi’s latest album…spoiler alert, I might have maybe checked out the entire thing more than a couple of times…but yeah…you know how it goes here, I talk about what I’m supposed to talk about and keep the rest tightly under wraps for you to find out on your own.  Suffice it to say, I’ve enjoyed listening to this dude…solid mix of social commentary, comedy, and stuff you probably wouldn’t expect as well.

“Diary Of A Lost Man” is an excellent, performance-based piece – and one of those tracks you probably won’t see coming after starting this album out with a track called “Jamal’s Not Bad At Sex…But” – you know what I mean?  Heck, there’s so much ambience on both sides of this song that you might even shake your speakers because there’s almost no sound for ten seconds before and after it plays.  In any event, Kid Anansi really flexes his poetic muscle and verbal imagery as one as you listen to “Diary Of A Lost Man” – this is an intense tale of “going nowhere fast” and he’s done an exceptional job of detailing the tragedy he’s wandering within.  For example:  “Here…in this scape of unforgiving nature, whose bioluminescent micro-fauna illuminate the billboard of my inadequacies against the powers of mother earth.  Here…will be where I spend the rest of my life.”  Honestly, while I’m well aware that such a considerable statement is likely well above most people’s heads, the masses are usually the main target or consumer of Spoken Word to begin with, so none of that really bothers me at all and I’d doubt that it bothers KA either, because he freakin’ wrote it the way that it is, intentionally.  What I love about how this came out is that he PERFORMS IT with just as much purpose and intention – and that matters BIG TIME when it comes to the art of Spoken Word.  Especially in the case of a track like “Diary Of A Lost Man” where there’s essentially nothing else at all going on aside from the voice that you hear – that’s when it becomes outright crucial to deliver what will entertain us or keep us engaged through the performance of the words, and as you can see from the main quote above, he’s written something that is undoubtedly going to pique your interest.  The plotline is still tragic, don’t get me wrong, but to listen to a Spoken Word artist that clearly understands what this genre is really about is honestly quite a treat.  Besides that, “Diary Of A Lost Man” isn’t even 2:30 in total length and even less when you consider the silence included on both sides of the track, so if you found yourself on the fence about listening to a Spoken Word cut that’s not exactly the happiest thing you’re going to hear this year…fret not, it’s short!

I’d say that something like “Let Me Tell You A Little Bit About Myself (Live)” will help you get to know KA much more than “Diary Of A Lost Man” will be able to accomplish, were you just to listen to these two cuts and not get the entire eight tracks on his new record.  Incidentally, you’ve got PLENTY of time to be able to listen to the whole thing, so DO that…especially if you like what you hear in either of these samples I’m talkin’ about.  Anyhow.  What you’ll love about “Let Me Tell You A Little Bit About Myself” is that you’ll hear the level of variation and versatility that is going to lead Kid Anansi to greatness in this genre.  On this track (you can check out an early performance of it above), you’ll hear the man roam through complex thoughts, brilliant social commentary, highly personal details, and yes, even humor, all inside of the same three-minute experience.  Note the well-deserved applause at the end y’all, because it is indeed well-earned.  To mix in all the incredible details and different emotions from fun anecdotes & descriptions, to devastating information that reveals a lot about the man on the mic, KA takes you on a genuine ride from start to finish in this one.  What I absolutely LOVE about “Let Me Tell You A Little Bit About Myself” is the man’s word-selection, which is another crucial aspect of great Spoken Word…this dude knows exactly how to make something like this genre genuinely appeal to one and all, as opposed to its slice of a well-known niche audience.  The performative aspect is still completely on display as well in this live setting…dude is NAILING IT, and when you listen to how tough that would truly be, whether it’s the inherent complexities of the words themselves or the meanings behind them…to get it all out with this much precision makes you want to stand up and cheer with the rest of the folks at the end of the recording.  Kid Anansi is a true artist in every sense of the word, and it’s clear that he gets how to make Spoken Word have an appeal to it that most simply can’t.  He’s focused, imaginative, real, poetic, and also quite funny when he chooses to be, and he’ll go on to demonstrate this time and again on tracks like “Let Me Tell You A Little Bit About Myself” for sure, but I can guarantee that you’ll also feel like that about the entire record he’s made too.

Find out more about Kid Anansi from his official site at:  https://kidanansi.bandzoogle.com

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