Inklings Prompt, 11/22 NaS & Conflict

This prompt yielded some absolutely dope-tastic poetry at the last inklings session. I give thanks to all who came out and hope everyone enjoyed it!

1. Write down 5 internal conflicts. (These are battles that you have with yourself)

2. Write down 5 external conflicts. (These are battles that happen in the world.)

3. Here are some excerpts from Poetic Rapper NaS's lyrics. Read through and analyze. Try and find places where he references external conflicts, or talks about internal conflicts.

I. What you call an infinite brawl, eternal souls clashin' War gets deep, some beef is everlastin' Complete with thick scars, brothers knifin' each other up in prison yards, Drama, where does it start?

II. Jesus died at age 33. There's thirty-three shots, From twin glocks. That's sixteen a piece, That's thirty-two. Which means, one of my guns was holdin 17; Twenty-seven hit your crew, six went into you. Everybody gotta die sometime; Hope your funeral never gets shot up, bullets tear through the innocent Nothin is fair, niggaz roll up, shootin' from wheelchairs My heart is racin', tastin revenge in the air

III. Political thugs in shark suits persuade us to pull triggers in army boots, yellin' "Join the armed forces!" We lost the Vietnam War, intoxicated poisons. Needles in arms of veterans instead of bigger fortunes There's still a lot of nigger-calling in the corporate offices. War in the ghetto, we crabs in a barrel, they torture us They won't be servin' the beast too long The murderers wearin' police uniforms, confederate flags I burn Beat Street breakers were dancin' to the music I chose And Peachtree Atlantic crackheads was tootin' they nose in frozen corners of Chicago, loaded up Llama's children with fo'-fo's, and double-revolvers. We devil incarnates, headed for jail Where Shell gas company in South Africa be havin' us killed Your paper money was the death of Christ. And all these shorties comin' up just resurrect your life It's like a cycle... IV.

But what's it all worth? Can't take it witn you under this Earth Rich men died and tried, but none of it worked. They just rob your grave, I'd rather be alive and paid Before my number's called, history's made. V. I clapped at Satan, but thought I was dreaming. I woke up masturbating in a bed full of demons. I cried with every ounce of strength in my small body. This is the life I chose. I'm the God, I'm tiny. It's hard to find me. The reason these passages were selected is because of the way in which NaS commonly conflates the internal with the external (e.g. [iii] eternal life vs. death, and revenge). 4. Now use one (or more) of the internal conflicts you wrote down and one (or more) of the external conflicts you wrote down and describe your internal conflict(s) in terms of your external conflict(s). Alternatively, write about one of the excerpts.