RAP THE CASBAH: Johnny (Snap) Batista and Richard (Ten Gram) Bachellor patrol Baghdad with a unit of the U.S. Marine Antiterrorism Battalion. They are working with a gunnery sergeant in Baghdad to record a CD of their combat raps. Here’s an excerpt:
I'm a pit bull at night, I'm out to gitcha
Devil Dog mentality bitin' whoever's witcha
I taste blood, I'm tired of marchin' in the mud
I throw down my 9 and now I'm pumpin' slugs.
“Rap is becoming the pulse of the Iraq war, as the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison were for Vietnam,” says an article in the current Newsweek. Reporters Scott Johnson and Eve Conant note that the big difference is that new technology allows G.I. rappers to cut CDs on site, and then sell them on the Internet. Neal Saunders, a First Cav sergeant, tacked up a tarpaper shack in Iraq, soundproofed it with mattress pads, and recorded “Live from Iraq” featuring the 4^th25 (“fourth quarter”) rappers from his unit. Watch the video now.

AND ON THE POETRY FRONT: A few weeks back, I wrote about poet and Iraq vet Brian Turner, whose book, "Here, Bullet," will be released in November by risk-taking publishers Alice James Books. He wrote the book during a year-long tour with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Here is an excerpt from Turner's poem “A Soldier’s Arabic:”
This is a language made of blood.
It is made of sand, and time.
To be spoken, it must be earned.
Turner has an M.F.A. in poetry from University of Oregon. Read excerpts at Voices in Wartime. Wyolitmailers know of any other Iraq vet books -- poetry, prose, creative nonfiction?

- posted by Michael Shay @ 2:19 PM