Slam poetry within the UK is known amongst few and is still in its growing stages of recognition. However a name that seems to always stand out when Slam Poetry and the UK are mentioned is Metis.
He is originally from California and at present he is based in the UK. Metis does not only limit himself to poetry, he branches out to making tracks. The first track that stood out was A drop, where his smooth sounding West Coast delivery combines well with an acoustic guitar. I would class this more as a commercial friendly track that could help peak the interest in Metis and the whole poetry world. He poses thought provoking metaphors with a subtle undertone that can be accepted within the mainstream world.
Painful Places the opening track on this sample was more the route that i expected Metis to take. He approaches the issue of how two individuals can go to South Africa and come back with two different views. A statement that stood out the most was "a painful place is much more than just a geographical location". The final track by the name of GS Rucksack is Metis first piece, the first thing i felt when i was listening to this track is that it puts you a jazz cafe surrounding where you can picture Metis on stage with mic and a live band in the background. In GS Rucksack he gives the listener an insight to the negative stereotypes of how a black man is still portrayed within our society and how he applies many of these issues to himself.
Metis encompasses everything that is Slam poetry.He combines the performance of poetry, drama and the spoken word.If these are samples of his works to go by we known that the future of exposing Slam poetry in the UK is Metis.
http://www.myspace.com/wordsofmetis
