From the Mixed-Up Files of Droopy the Broke Baller

Here lies (?) Drew Anderson, the science teacher "turnt" art teacher. And Droopy the Broke Baller, the slick-talking spoofsmith. And Druid, the hopelessly hopeful romantic. Pick your poison . .

[brokeballer]

[ #FromGumboToMumbo Ticket link in bio! Photo credit: Mike Kozemchak] . . . "I bleed New Orleans / My blood type is Ayyyy pocky way! / Laissez les bon temps roulez!" ~ @droopythebrokeballer . . . "A dreadlock-rocking SouthEast DC b-boy and video game geek who crochets his way through 'have and have-(k)not'. A bald, bearded New Orleanian former science teacher turned rhyme speaker who uses comedy to contemplate his place in Trump's America. Together, they conjure a dynamic cauldron of hip hop, poetry, and theatre to colorfully redefine masculinity, question social and political issues, celebrate love, and search for home." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #FromGumboToMumbo is the long-awaited two-man spoken word / hip hop / "dramedy" by Drew Anderson (aka @droopythebrokeballer ) and Dwayne Lawson-Brown (aka Dwayne B the @crochetkingpin )! Keegan Theater, 1742 Church St NW DC. March 23 - April 7. Saturdays 3pm, Sundays 7pm. Tickets only $17! @keegan_theatre (at Keegan Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6gHxohtna/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1e7r5qij7aa7m

[brokeballer]

Hello, Brooklyn. I missed you. (at Brooklyn Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoroGQ-AlRs/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=187nl7y78dm21

[brokeballer]

It may be somewhat cliche to say, but I can definitely be my own biggest critic. I've thought quite a bit about where I am and where I am not and what I could have done better and what I haven't done yet that others have and that I would like to. But yesterday, as I strolled through the hallowed halls and active avenues of Columbia University, I took a moment to realize that my talent, passion and hard work had brought me there. Every now and then, it's okay to take a break from beating yourself up and to acknowledge how far you've come. As long as you remember it's not a reason to get comfortable; if anything, it's a reason to push even further. (at Columbia University in the City of New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BorNTVYA0h3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1diwnuhkc3hke

[brokeballer]

So then when we literally found "ART" (written on a wall), part of me suspected our instructor had tagged it there. Perhaps our whole search had been a gag of a scavenger hunt. But it wasn't, and she hadn't. What she did do when we got back was ask us to define art. And in the spirited discussion which followed, my colleagues spoke of love and expression and canon and intention and wonder. And all of us were "right". And none of us quite "got" it. My belief? To define art is to destroy it. Any art which sits still long enough for you to fully define it is already dead. Before anything was "established", it was this amazing, baffling, inspiring "thing" which no one could describe. And that's where the art lives: in the tension of never being able to be defined. (at Columbia University in the City of New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BorJ1cNgn4M/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=uzcib7hz5yiv

[brokeballer]

My TCTAC (Teachers College Teaching Arts Certification) colleagues and I were challenged by our instructor to spend lunch break finding examples of incidental (or even "accidental") art outside. And I suppose NYC truly is "the city that never sleeps" because while most other campuses were probably dead on this Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend, Columbia was in full swing. Hundreds of people traversed the yard, some with green hair, American flag jumpsuits, or "Don't worry, be Yoncé" tank tops. I saw tai chi, extreme frisbee, Red Rover, and some type of game involving four people, a ball, and a trampoline. Down the street, animals were being blessed in a church. We saw the glue patterns left behind by fallen signs, vines enveloping a building like the Venom symbiote, and something red and spilled that looked like blood but smelled like cherry. But my favorite example of "incidental art" was a boy who picked up a big orange safety cone and used it as a loudspeaker, then as a rifle, then as a hat. I thought, "Now there's an inventor. A purposeful repurposer. A Spoof Scholar." (at Teachers College, Columbia University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BorEbrWgoy-/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1muw6o6q34f1k

[brokeballer]

Confessions of a Serial Second-Guesser and Habitual Over-Thinker: I'm a poet, so if I'm in a classroom or workshop setting and given an exercise to write about something, I'll probably write a poem. Then when the instructor asks us to "share out one word or one idea", it throws me off because I wrote a whole poem and no one word or idea will hold the same power when taken out of context. But if everyone else is sharing one word then I don't want to read my whole poem and seem like I'm "showing off". So I end up not saying anything and it looks like I had nothing to offer to the conversation when I actually felt I had too much. Lol anyway we were assigned to interact with and describe single sheets of paper as if we were extraterrestrials encountering paper for the first time and describing the substance to the mothership. Here's what I wrote: "Mothership, we've encountered a flat, white, rectangular substance / which shows no signs of life / yet it moves and points / floats like hope / cut and dry / it flutters and flies / smooth and sandy / truly handy / pliable, reliable / foldable, filable / shake it; it flaps like a flag in the wind / scratch it; it sounds like a record which spins / but if you asked, 'How does it smell?' / It only smells just like itself..." (at Teachers College, Columbia University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BompbSmgcwF/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=f5mawnpiz933

[brokeballer]

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On day 1 of our teaching artist certificate program at Columbia University Teaching College, our instructors challenged us to create portraits of each other. Mind you, we all just met and we had a half hour to "get to know" someone and capture them artistically. We were allowed to use any artform, so I tributed my new Floridian brother Trevor here by spoofing his fellow Floridian Tallahassee Pain aka T-Pain, turning "Buy U A Drank" into "Guide You To Think", a song about Trevor's journey as a graphic artist. In return, he utilized his visual art skills to make this beautiful portrait of moi. My first day in the program and I left with art in hand! I'm framing that bad boy. (at Teachers College, Columbia University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BomK-Oig0vZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4gzwnvcmyk3t

[brokeballer]

I never knew that my journey from artist to teacher to teaching artist would take me to Columbia University. Shout out to my colleagues as we begin our teaching artist certificate program at Columbia University Teachers College! (at Teachers College, Columbia University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BomCPkmg8u7/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=aw4tyx46y1bx

[brokeballer]

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"It's funny how I call you my ex / 'Cause X is an unknown, and I know / When I was right in your midst, Miss, I couldn't write shit / But now I'm writing love poems..." Still one of my favorite videos, directed by the incredible Eve Smith @evad1va and featuring the indelible Amin Drew Law and Gowri K. "Forget You" by Droopy the Broke Baller is available on iTunes. See the full video at the Broke Baller YouTube channel! https://www.instagram.com/p/BohGfFPgJQ7/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qi69ksjji7np

[brokeballer]

Meet Stanley. All summer he was taken around the world by the triumphant NHL champion Washington Capitals, who drank liquor out of him, fed their kids out of him, etc. I was jogging down 7th Street before the season opener and saw people lined up down the block to take pictures with Stanley. If the Caps want Stanley back, they will have to fight for him. But if last night's 7-0 thrashing of the Boston Bruins is any indication, they're ready for that fight! #ALLCAPS (at National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bog_rtWglAD/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1k1fgazb73aze

[brokeballer]

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Word to Jhene Aiko. https://www.instagram.com/p/BofoiNUAhYz/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1w621le142mdc

[brokeballer]

#30DaysOfBounce #BounceForWhat Day 14: "Monkey on tha Dick" by Magnolia Shorty. So I’ve been really busy and it’s been hard keeping up with my blog. But I had to bring back dat Bounce for Magnolia Shorty’s birthday. (I know I’m breaking chronology, but I’ll pick back up with the all-important 1993 shortly.) You can read the complete version at www.brokeballer.com, but here's an excerpt: Among the many memorable figures of Yoruba lore stands the “trickster” dichotomy of Eshu-Eleggua. On one side, you have the playful but powerful Eleggua, representing opening and closing, the beginning and ending of life. Then you have the mischievous and unruly Eshu, who means no harm but whose unpredictable “tricks” can hurt you if you play around with his energy. Eleggua is represented by the number 3, the colors red and black, and toys, including toy soldiers. And since Eshu-Eleggua have been associated with the figure of a monkey, their “trickster” tales have been translated into African-American folklore as the tales of the so-called “Signifying Monkey”. So then, is it a coincidence that the cover of Magnolia Shorty’s album Monkey on tha Dick features 3 figures (a monkey and two women scantily-clad in soldier gear) as well as the colors red and black? Or that the “two” women on the cover are really the same woman duplicated in reverse, much like the mirror-image dynamic of Eshu-Eleggua? Or that Magnolia Shorty herself was named after the infamous Magnolia Projects in the 3rd Ward of New Orleans? Or that renowned music writer Nik Cohn, who has a whole chapter in his New Orleans Bounce book called “Monkey On Tha Dick”, named the book no less than Triksta? (Happy birthday and rest in peace to the Signifying Soldier, Magnolia Shorty!) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoW4IfvA8oq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=151lp5j5119sn

[brokeballer]

@emmagmusic doing her thang at Dangerously Delicious Pies. Congratulations to Emma on her outstanding new single and video "Superhero"! (at Dangerous Pies DC) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoW0GqDgvZl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=94adohyd5ire

[brokeballer]

One time for black love. Beats the hell out of those "I'm With Stupid" t-shirts! #makaveli #meandmygirlfriend #meandmygirlfriend❤️ (at H Street) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoWzXkSA5rx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1mi2ungya62hb

[brokeballer]

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Today, I took great pride and honor in aiding my friend Tiffany in her anthropological ethnographic study by taking her up U Street aka Black Broadway to give my personalized tour of its spoken word and open mic history from my perspective as a 20 year acolyte of the saidsame. I was able to share stories like Raheem DeVaughn and Urban Ave 31 trying out new sounds at Bar Nun, Beny Blaq finding a "grown and sexy" lane for poetry at Cada Vez, learning how to host (and self-publish) at Mango's, getting cussed out by Face when he hosted one of my first U Street open mic experiences at Kaffa House, Dehejia Maat and Lorna Pinckney building artistic movements at Bohemian Caverns, my honest embarrassment at not even being sure exactly where Urban Energy used to be because the block looks so different now, blessing Mocha Hut for over 3 years before unceremoniously losing the space, my New Orleans bredren Dale letting us into his capoeira space when we were homeless, eating Jamaican food from Tropicana with my sista-friend Donya at State of the Union, and more. People have been telling me for years that I should tell these stories and this is only the beginning. I sit humbled at all of the energies I've absorbed, the luminaries of introduced and performed with, the experiences I've shared, and all the people I've been inspired by over the years. If I have inspired any in return at all, it was only a reflection of all the light which you all have chosen to shine upon me. @spitdatdc #ustreet #dcpoetry (at The Lincoln Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn7h5jkgPzG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1q3dn84stftr0

[brokeballer]

#BounceForWhat #30DaysOfBounce Day 13: "Another Bitch" by UNLV. Read the full blog at www.brokeballer.com! Here's an excerpt: The University of Nevada at Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels are the fourth winningest basketball team in Division I history. In 50 years, they’ve only had 4 non-winning seasons. In 1990, they beat Duke in the NCAA Championship with a score of 103-73, not only setting a championship score margin record but becoming the only team to break 100 points in the championship (a record that holds to this day). So by 1992, when beloved UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian was forced out in controversy after a 19 year stint with a 509-105 record, you could say that UNLV had made a name for itself. But if you saw people walking around with UNLV hats in the streets of 1993 New Orleans, they probably weren’t reppin’ the Runnin’ Rebels. You see, in NOLA, UNLV represented a different kind of ballin’. The U is for Uptown, Uptown / The N is for Niggas, Niggas / The L is for Livin’, Livin’ / The V is for Violent, fucking Violent… UNLV consisted of Lil’ Ya (aka Lil’ Fat), Tec-9, and Yella Boy (though I’m not sure Yella was a part of the group yet when they recorded “Another Bitch” seeing as he didn’t have a verse and wasn’t even invited to the party when Ya was passing poor Yvette around to the crew). UNLV were pioneers of a sound known informally as “gangsta Bounce” wherein they used the Bounce cadence and sampled “Triggerman” here and there but lyrically weren’t quite as formulaic as the early Bounce hits with their reliance on repeated chants and ward shout-outs. UNLV tended to go into more storytelling, and the stories they told were as raw and street as their first album title 6th & Baronne suggested. In 2007, 10 years after Yella's death, UNLV finally acquired their catalog from Cash Money. I'm always happy to see any independent artists find victory over Industry Rule #4080. So shout out to the Uptown Niggas Legally Victorious. Runnin' Rebels, indeed. #unlv #6thandbaronne #neworleans #nola #Bounce #nolabounce #neworleansbounce https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6t0HiAGWx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=6dlz7wddx6rj

[brokeballer]

#BounceForWhat #30DaysOfBounce Day 12. Read the full blog at www.brokeballer.com! Here's an excerpt: “Splift Out” (the lead single from P.M.W.’s 1992 debut EP Home Grown which reappeared as a slightly different version on their 1993 debut album Legalize “Pass The Weed”) came out at a perfect time to scandalize my youth. My little sheltered Catholic school self really didn’t know anything about marijuana until I was indoctrinated by the likes of Redman, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and P.M.W. (Shout out to Spice 1, whose 1992 song “187 Pure” inventively told a whole story with personified marijuana paraphernalia, just as he’d done with liquor brands on “187 Proof”.) “Splift Out” had so many specific references to weed paraphernalia that I’m surprised to this day by how much relatively uncensored radio play it got, even in a town as irreverent as New Orleans. The song rides a smooth-assed sample of “Don’t Look Any Further” by Dennis Edwards. So when Junior Mafia used the same sample on 1995’s “Get Money” remix (which ‘Pac in turn flipped to diss Biggie and his crew on 1996’s “Hit ‘Em Up”) and the wider rap world went wild, NOLA knew better. We’d been smokin’ and ridin’ to that sample for a few years already, so we figured Biggie was borrowing from Big Man. “’Cause ain’t no nigga like a bombed-out nigga ‘cause a sober-ass nigga ain’t shiiiiit…” You’ll also notice the samples of Bounce standards “Drag Rap” and “Brown Beats”. But to me the most memorable things about this song were Big Man’s lyrics and delivery, so straightforward in their irreverence as to be outright humorous. (Notice Big Man’s spoofing Jimi’s “sliiiiide and do the P-Pop” when he says “Sliiiide and pass the weed, nigga”.) As Bounce artists went, Big Man was actually a pretty strong rapper with a steady flow and decent lyrical ability. (This would be showcased even more on the second P.M.W. full-length, 1994’s High Life, on which Big Man held his own on a song with no less than revered Underground King Bun B.) Big Man had this gift for (ahem) blunt humor which allowed him to say some pretty ridiculous things while seeming serious. #pmw #cashmoney #nola #504 #bounce #neworleansbounce https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn4imtBAYJz/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=bmf8pu2pxapk