Original Date: Sept. 10, 2010
Source: Seriously Sensual: The Corner’s Artist’s Spotlight.
This is the transcript of the interview…
SS: Tell ‘The Corner’ about yourself?
BB1: I am a spoken word artist, poet extraordinaire. I’m willing to perform at your school, your club and your circus. Also, I’m a Graphic Designer (info@dldavisdesign.com), Web Designer (info@1loveps.com), and I do Custom Poems (info@poetryforallreasons.com). I’m a father, son, and junk food eater champion three years running (laughs). I’m a crazy kind of guy and a kid at heart.
I was born in Los Angeles, California. Raised in the greedy gutters, the awful alleys, and on ‘The Back Streets’ of LA, a place I call, ‘Lost Angels’. I’ve learned I am not the product of my environment. I don’t have to be and I refuse to be…therefore I am not.
I’m a very pessimistic person. I choose not to get my hopes up about a lot of things. I figure if things work on in my favor, great! If things do not work out in my favor, oh well. I will not be too disappointed because I have a pessimistic attitude. I’m okay with being a pessimistic, it works for me.
Prince is my favorite artist, then (in no particular order) Pattie LaBelle, Smokey Robinson and Jill Scott.
I have written a few plays. Well, they are plays in my head. I have the stages all set up. Some of my poems are plays. I have the whole setup in my head.
SS: What has inspired you to be a poet?
BB1: What has inspired me…Ahhh that question is phrased differently than usual. Hmmm… Meeting like- minded people. It just makes my day.
SS: Do you remember your first Poem?
BB1: I do not, but I will tell you this, it was a love letter to my high school sweetheart. I was writing her a letter, the usually mushy goosy stuff and yeah, as I was writing, it just didn’t feel right. True story… as I focused on the page, words began to…the words began to rearrange themselves, and I saw other words and sentences, in my third eye form and flow on the page. That’s when I went into my edit mode (erasing and moving stuff around) and before I knew it, there it was, my first poetic form of writing if you will.
SS: Did she like it? Care to Share?
BB1: Yes, she liked it… (Chuckles)
Trust me, she liked it. I don’t remember it, but it was the typical love letter that became a poem.
SS: What is your favorite piece of poetry? It can be yours or someone else work?
BB1: ‘My Pen’ by Lyrical Toye, ‘Mr. Mystery Man’ by Lyrical Movements, ‘I Saw You’ by BB2, and ‘I Have A Dream’ by yours truly.
SS: Who or what is your muse?
BB1: Generally speaking, life. Women, Jazz music, my daughters. Love, Hate. And (because I wrote a piece about this) the sound of the waves clapping against the shore.
SS: What put you in the space of mind to write about the waves…how did you get to that place?
BB1: It’s peaceful. Here’s what lead me to that. I have a quote that I made up, which is, “Keep an open mind and inspiration will come to you.” By me keeping an open mind, I can find inspiration in many things I see or hear. That’s step one. Step two, the waves and the beach are really peaceful to me and being in a peaceful place allows me to relax, thus brings forth my open mindedness.
SS: How did you come up with your Poetic name?
BB1: Which one?…(laughs)
I have like nine.
SS: Dang well…pick one or two or three…
BB1: 1LOVE: If you recall some years ago, that was a hit, or the current greeting to someone, even when you say “goodbye”. So, when I thought about that name, to me, it means, “one love for everybody. One person, one love.” Unless you give me a reason not to love you. So since I consider myself a loving person, I ran with that name.
I’m also known as, by a few people, DL. That refers to my first and middle initial.
SS: Well how did you come up with the name everyone knows you by, via your Award winning radio show, Bad Boy 1?
BB1: Basically what happened, me and Bad Boy number 2 runs the expressions radio show and I think what had happened was, my brother (BB2) came up with it. We were clowning on air one day. Basically Bad Boys referring to us. The concept came from my brother. In some instance or another, he mentioned the name on air. I’m going to say he did, because I don’t think I did, and we just ran with it. And we have been running with it ever since.
SS: Yes you have, yes you both have (laughs). You mentioned you are a father, how has your daughters, inspired your works, or your life?
BB1: Where do I begin? Let me just start with, my oldest daughter. She’ll be 21 on the 19th of this month. Three days ago she landed in Japan, she’s in the Navy. I couldn’t be more happy for her, more proud of her, to be doing something with her life that is going to be, VERY…no, EXTREMELY beneficial to her. With my poetry, I had the pleasure of collaborating with her.
(takes a moment)
You are breaking me down here
(pauses)
We hadn’t had contact for seven years. Once we were reunited I featured her on the Xpressions Radio Show.
SS: I remember that…What happened?
BB1: I didn’t know she was a poet. If you can imagine meeting a stranger and finding out that the person you are talking too, is literally, half or more of who you are. Forget that she’s my daughter, but she has the passion for the same thing I do. I did not know that. It’s like looking in the mirror, like “Shit, you do that! Okay. I was floored. So her bringing such joy and happiness in my life and to be able to write a piece with her, based on our reunion, I could not have asked for more.
7yrs/Sealed With A Kiss
We Are Poets!
2 poets who were stranger…even though I’ve known her all of her life.
With the exception of the 7yrs we were apart,
which left a gaping whole in my heart.
I wish I was there from the beginning,
the conception of her writing.We Are Poets!
7yrs we were not connect.
My life was affected in the following ways.
Like, Frankie Beverly without Maze.
I, leaned to the side instead of standing tall.
No balance at all!
Like an alien abduction, I was gone without a trace.
Every time a star twinkled, I saw her face.
She, she is my world!
Beam me back! From outer space to earth.
I was so out of place, lost without her.
I prayed, “Hope it’s not too late!”
As I navigated back to my fate.We Are Poets!
Connected again.
Poetry runs thru our veins like in a pen.
Poetry is our life line, thus no one can take that from us.
Like, August Rush, we found each other.
After Purple Rain, comes the rainbow.
U are more of an inspiration than u will ever know.
U are my muse for this…and I seal it with a kiss.
U and I are gonna write even after we die, cause We, Are Poets!
And when God asks, “What was u thinking when u sealed it with a kiss?”
I’mma be like, “Yo G! Jasmine inspired me to write this.”
U inspired this, my muse…my focus.
Look in the mirror and say, “I inspired my daddy to write this!”
And seal it with a kiss.POP QUIZ…
“I love u very much.
Always have and always will…beyond words”
Sealed, with a kiss.
(c) 2010
(By, 1LOVE a.k.a Bad Boy #1, dedicated to his daughter)
My younger daughter, she and I share a passion also. She enjoys working with computers. Let me get more specific, the HTML part of websites and computers. She likes to go in and get behind the scenes. There’s Myspace’s ‘Pimp my page’, she pimps her own pages. She and I were separated for a while too. Later on I found out we shared a passion for HTML.
I was wowed. “You do what!?” She also dibbled dabbled in poetry. She wrote little short poems as a child. Words can not explain…to meet two strangers (my daughters), whom reflect all of me. They are me!
SS: That is true, not everyone has that experience to see that in their children.
BB1: Right. “Oh, you have your momma’s lips or eyes. That’s just genetics. But to see your children have the other part of you…of me, reflected is surreal but beautiful.
My daughters are the apple in both of my eyes, and the left and right side of my heart.
SS: What is your poetic style? Radical? Erotic? Or a little bit of everything?
BB1: (cracks up laughing) I can’t say everything, but I do “normal” poetry but definitely erratic. Um, and I don’t know if it can be labeled as erotic, but definitely sensual and smooth.(laughs)
A short story to that, (laughs)
Earlier we talked about my poetic name, back to my brother and I. He’s known as the ‘Ninja’ which (to us) means, he’s the erotic one. He woos the women and kills them softly with his erotic poems. I (on the other hand) am known as the ‘Samurai’, this is where my erratic persona comes out (laughs).
I’m known as the Samurai. See I…snatch your jugular out, piss in your eye sockets and dare you to say something about it. Yeah, I straight chop ‘em up and eat you for lunch and dinner. So yeah, my writing style consists of those three style: erratic, sensual, normal. The ‘Samurai’ is my erratic writing.
BB: So basically you say, you “throat snatch ‘em or snatch their jugular, basically…and you piss in their eye…and that adds up a Samurai?” (laughs)
BB1: Yeah, the Samurai goes for the kill…
SS: Now wait. I say you’re more so…you are…Hannibal Lector, slice and dice ‘em, serve ‘em with a nice Chianti. Not a Samurai. I’m just saying….
BB1: Wow! Yeah, that can definitely describe one of my writing styles. (laughs)
Now let’s expand on that, because all of it is relevant. I haven’t thought of Hannibal Lector, but since you brought him up…Hannibal, Freddy, Chucky, Jason, and Michael…I am all of them combined…to the nth power!
(laughs)
Real talk…I wrote a piece, ‘Bad Motherfucker’, and a good friend of mine was like “Damn!” She raised her eyebrow because sometimes people write what they are, and the thought that “Bad MF” could be a part of me, is kind of eerie. In this piece, I just go to town slaughtering people. I have three pieces like that. I sit on the couch sometimes and wonder, “Is that really part of me?” Could I really do these kinds of things?” I’m like, “No…no…I’m afraid of jail”. Now let me say, after I write those kinds of pieces there is a sigh of relief.
SS: What made you decide to start your radio show, 2010’s National Award winning show, “Bad Boyz Kitchen” with BB2?
BB1: The Xpressions Radio Show was created by, EMichele Paul It was originally known as, PoeticWorks Radio. She decided to go behind the scenes, and she asked me if I wanted to take over the show. I said absolutely. Then BB2 came aboard. We have been a match made in heaven ever since. We built The Kitchen and now the show is a 2010 National Poetry Award Winner.
SS: What is your greatest ambition with your poetry?
BB1: Books and CD’s, as well as a One Man Show. Book one: ‘I Have A Dream’, is done and will be available everywhere soon. Book 2: ‘War of the Words’, is currently in the works. Stay tuned for the One Man Show.
SS: Where would you like to see yourself go as a poet?
BB1: What I said above. There it is. I have nothing else to add to it, I’m good. Wait! Have you seen The Monique Show?
SS: Yes I have…
BB1: There is a segment of her show when she spotlights up and coming artists. I would like to be on that some day and probably catch Oprah before she OFFICIALLY goes off the air.
SS: What is the most difficult thing about being a poet?
BB1: Nothing is “difficult.” I guess sometimes the writing process… sometimes. I love writing…even when I can’t find the next line. Sometimes I get frustrated and aggravated a little bit, but I still love it.
SS: It’s bittersweet.
BB1: Yes! That is the word. Get out of my head or you will have to pay rent…beautifully said.
SS: What is the best part about it?
BB1: The stage. Performing. Yes…that’s like, having cookie dough ice cream and some Louisiana Crunch Cake! Yeah, that gives me a straight up asthma attack and my blood pressure goes up, then I pass out and… I wake up and do it all over again. Like Rakim said, “Microphone Fiend.” I love the stage.
SS: Who is your favorite Poet? I’ll be nice you can say two…
BB1: Georgia Me, she’s one of them, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
SS: If you could have any Poet write a poem about you who would it be?
BB1: (laughs) Really? I have ‘Georgia Me on the brain’; So I’m gonna pick someone else. Oh Okay! (no disrespect to her relationship) Probably, Scorpio Blues.
SS: Have you? Or have you thought about publishing your work?
BB1: Oh, most definitely. That’s the only reason ‘I Have A Dream’ is not available yet. So, yes.
SS: How can your fans reach you and find your work?
BB1: My Facebook Page and My ReverbNation Page. Stay tuned for websites.
SS: I’d like to add a random question just for giggles: If you could have any superpower in the world, just one, what would it be and why?
BB1: (laughs) You know what, I don’t want any, because…I’m thinking…
Superman, he can dodge bullets and save people, but that’s tiresome. Spiderman slinging and saving people…I just want to sleep! I don’t want any, because everything that I’m suppose to know…I will know. I want it naturally. Otherwise, it is not meant for me to know or do. That superpower stuff is not natural. I DEFINITELY don’t want to be a vampire or Highlander (living forever). I don’t want that. Watching everyone you know and love die around you…I don’t want that. I just want to be human.
SS: And on that note Thank you so much for sharing a little insight with us at The Corner. I hope to interview you again, as well as showcase more of your work.
