Deciding to become a poet as your profession might seem like a longshot, but National Poetry Slam champion IN-Q has carved out a place for himself where spoken word, poetry and music intersect.
IN-Q, which stands for In Question, uses his talent with words to inspire audiences to question what they know about the human experience. He’s also managed to parlay his career as a slam poet into that of a multi-platinum songwriter, working with artists such as Selena Gomez, Aloe Blacc and Miley Cyrus.
On Jan. 15, In-Q brings his unique form of poetry to a live performance at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown L.A.
IN-Q recently came by The Frame to talk about his career as a poet, what inspires his art and how his love of poetry and hip-hop are equal.
Interview Highlights
What made you decide to pursue poetry as a career?
I never really thought that I would be a poet. I started out as a rapper. And I was 100 percent certain that that was going to be what I was gonna do for the rest of my life and I was gonna get signed and have fortune and fame — and it never quite worked out that way. Then, when I was 20, I ended up at a place called Da Poetry Lounge, which is on Fairfax and Melrose, and started doing my rapping a capella and people responded to it and pretty soon I realized I was more of a poet than a rapper.
What were you rapping about then and was it reflective of what was going on in your life?
I always kind of drew from the things I was thinking and the things that I was feeling. Interestingly enough, when rap started to become about the lowest common denominator, I wasn't able to express myself in the way that I wanted to, so poetry allowed me to be more conceptually free with what I talked about.
What do you mean by lowest common denominator? Is that what was selling or the way people were performing or what audiences came to expect a rap performance would sound like?
Yeah, I think it became more popular to talk about sex and violence and money and that's what was selling at the time. I didn't want to focus on that. It's a part of everybody's life, it's certainly a part of mine, but it wasn't the thing that moved me.
What are the parallels between rapping and slam poetry? What do they share the most?
Passion, they both come from a place of truth, like a raw voice and rhythm. The way that poetry works, at least for me, and the way that hip-hop works is there's a bounce to what's being said and it really brings the audience in, in a way that no other art form does. And you can say more in a shorter amount of time.
When you're composing your work, when you're going through your creative process, do you hear a rhythm, do you hear a rhyme, or do you hear a subject that you want to address? What's the sequence of events?
They're always different, but I got something yesterday, for example. Someone said something in a conversation, then I responded, and my response to the conversation was, "I want to have a house where I can make memories in every room." And then I said, "Excuse me," and I jotted that down. That's the start of a poem. Other times I have something that I really need to write, for whatever reason, and I just wake up in the middle of the night. I have no idea where the poem is going to go, but I kinda trust that the poem will write itself if I pay attention.
You said you've gone from rapping to poetry slams, did songwriting come along at the same time and was it a natural outgrowth of where you were going as an artist?
It just came around by accident, which is really why poetry came around. Because of my rapping I got into poetry and because of my poetry I got into songwriting. I think most poets, at least at this stage, are using poetry to get into other genres. What I've tried to do is use poetry to get into another genre and then use that genre to get back into poetry.
Are your favorite poets rappers or poets? Not that they're distinct, but one has a platform and one doesn't.
If you don't think Kendrick Lamar is a poet, you're not listening. He's the best MC in the world to me. There's a lot of really great poets that are in my community: Lemon Andersen; there's a guy named Shane Koyczan, he's unbelievable; Shihan the Poet. These guys have always been an inspiration to me along my road. It's like steel sharpening steel. There's a lot of MCs out there who are doing incredible work and they continue to challenge and inspire me as well.
IN-Q performs an original piece during his interview on The Frame:
IN-Q performs for inmates at Ironwood State Prison:
IN-Q performs with Cirque du Soleil: