In “Keef Yards” Lynez
moves into new times with messages delivered in classic hip hop style
By Kurt Beyers
“Keef Yards,”
says its creator, Lynez, is not a place. It’s a state of mind, “like an answer
or retort” to questions understood around and among people about meaning,
history and change to the culture.
“You can smell
it a mile away,” he said.
“Keef Yards,”
the song, is about life, with Lynez delivering a series of messages with the
bass rap and beat layered onto a blues background. The span of the lyrics is
laid out in the opening lines:
You
say life’s precious, cherish every breath
Can’t
remember your first, don’t want to see your last
I
don’t want to see you hurt, but I don’t want to see you laugh
“It’s a good
record,” said Lynez, “very classic, a good perceptive theme. Nothing from the
norm. It's a dope record.”
He has, he
said, “a lot of space for understanding” about changing times and people and
music.
“It's about,
like, sensing things sometimes when things get foul on the street, especially
when things change and you don't know where to go, when you're trying to move
together and work together and appreciate each other for the kind of values of
the culture and your beliefs.”
Lynez has been
making music since he was 15, but got out of it when, at age 28, his son was
born. The son is now 10, and Lynez is getting back into music seriously,
looking to create more, get into performing and making his extensive catalog of
music available online.
He wants not
only to make a living at it, but to honor the traditions and practice of rap. Punchline
was about punch lines, comparisons, charisma. Lyrical skill and talent became
less valuable when, in the early 2000s, rap became more serious, with more
prophecy and politics, he said.
“I didn’t do
that. I didn’t have prophecy or philosophy. I just had some dope rhymes. I
would just rap round my friends. I’d be out there in the street and talk to the
people.”
Which doesn’t
mean it was without meaning or was not involved with life and people’s
experiences of life.
“But, you know,
the essence of hip hop was always about dope rhymes. So, for punchline rappers,
that was the state of meaning, understanding that not only you have to have talent,
you would automatically include anything serious that might be involved in hip
hop or rhyming in MC. It’s a serious thing for everybody.”
So, some 20
years later, “no one really gets into punchline rap.” Rap in general got “back
to its essence,” but with more emphasis on lyrical skill.
“Rhymes are
more complex, and much more sincere nowadays, and it’s much more appreciated. Punchline
rapping will always stay vivid, compared to most, but punchline rap is
definitely destined for destruction.”
As rap has
grown more serious and meaningful, so has Lynez the father. He is rapping now
for his family and for his messages. “I know that there’s a message in a bottle
for everyone. That’s one of those sayings that are out there.”
“I’m not just
for the entertainment. I have a lot of beliefs, also, so, I’m sharing a lot of
views and showing a lot of things for relativity.”
He is rapping
his messages of competence in life, understanding, and relevance, especially
for youth. He is now working on “Messages to Arkane,” getting the visuals ready
to go out.
“It’s a
morality thesis about black-on-black crime. This history tends to repeat
itself.”
A website is
coming soon, but stay connected to Lynez for his music, old and new.
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9T7pw73pcmyCNh31rFDROA
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