Poetic license revoked

Please excuse me for throwing up, but some loose-haired, Bohemian chick expounding on the wonders of McDonald's new premium salads just frolicked through a green pasture and across my TV screen.\n"The (commercial) looks like the fresh, green, leafy thoughts a woman has when she's in a mood for a McDonald's Premium Salad," Vicky Free, a director of marketing for McDonald's said in an article for the Denver Post. "We decided to have the 'thought-over' written as def poetry -- a raw, from-the-heart, lyrical sound. It's this woman's way of describing her 'green mood.'"\nMcDonald's finally realized that the high-fashion tides of hip-hop have long since shifted from the bling-bling, basketball jerseys and Nelly and on to the newest hip-hop hype: social consciousness, earthiness, 'locks, button-downs, blazers and shows like Def Poetry. \nJust because a black chick with a New York accent tempers her breathing and begins every line of poetry with a dangling participle, she doesn't automatically produce "a raw, from-the-heart, lyrical sound."\nThe marketing gods of the Golden Arches would have you think otherwise.\nRussell Simmons, the hip-hop godfather himself, began producing the urban poetry showcase in 2002. Hosted by rapper Mos Def, Def Poetry's featured everyone from militant rhyme-spitter Dead Prez to the poetic performer and M.C. Sarah Jones whose performance included lines like: \n"Your revolution makes me wonder, where could we go/If we could drop the empty pursuit of props and ego/ We'd revolt back to our roots/use a little common sense/ On a quest to make love De La Soul/ no pretense."\nWhile the the Federal Communication Commission banned Jones' lyrical criticisms of hip-hop's misogynistic tendencies, the poem was met with claps and snaps on the Def Poetry stage.\nThe folks at McDonald's might be able to imitate the textured-hair, thrift-store-meets-Phat Farm mentalities, candle-lighting and incense-burning imagery that Def Poetry exudes, but pimping poetry for the sake of salad hurts the integrity of the craft.\nGranted, Def Poetry had its critics, too.\nAfter featured Def Poets such as muMs, for example, received endorsement deals from shoe companies and car manufacturers, performance poetry veterans began worrying that Def Poetry's commercial success might encourage an emphasis on performance, not poetic content.\n"As dictated by those who control the music business, the only time relevant messages get through is when it is felt that they can be exploited for financial gain, or in the effort to capitalize off a fluke or subcultural phenomenon, something that's fad-driven and, like hip-hop, emerges without anyone's control," said 30-year veteran of the poetry scene, Wanda Coleman, in a 2002 article from Colorlines magazine.\nIn 2003, Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam on Broadway -- a condensed, less-organic, traveling version of the HBO series -- won a Tony award.\nAs in any case in which mainstream media (i.e., older white folks) turn an eye to hip-hop's latest "thing," more hip-hop enthusiasts began worrying that the cast of multicultural, aesthetically-pleasing poets might, in fact, represent unfortunate but undeniable commercialization of the art form.\nMaybe, just maybe Def Poetry is a "for mass consumption" rip-off of the socially conscious, cafe culture known as spoken word. In which case, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons would be lumped in with the McD's marketing chumps.\nBut it's in my opinion that a difference exists.\nUnlike the salad commercial, Def Poetry balances its funky, poetic performances with strong poetic content, whether it's about street survival or surviving rape. Hip-hop heads dig Def Poetry because whether or not the poets had endorsement deals, their words would move you.\nMcDonald's may have capitalized on spoken word's influence on the "grown and sexy" generation by imitating the art form's hip-hop-meets-Bohemia style, but true Bohemians know that spoken word's less about the delivery and all about delivering meaningful messages - not Caesar salads with ranch dressing by Newman's Own.