Of those of you who have listened to Reflection Eternal's brilliant new album Revolutions Per Minute (released May 2010), most, I'm guessing, were unaware that it contains a plug for our show, which opens today.
Here's from a song on the album named Long Hot Summer, also appropriate for our show.
Symmetrical braids, incredible edible legsThe play really does fit seamlessly with Talib Kweli's song, as a reference to love serenades. Kweli's whole song (see: incredible edible legs) could easily be a letter from Cyrano to Roxanne, so full it is with professions of deep-seated love. Kweli evokes Cyrano because he sees himself within the tradition of great love poets--something I don't think he's wrong to believe.
Just to track her down, I went on a ghetto crusade
Serenade this angel like Cyrano de Bergerac
The lightness of her being was unbearable (a reference to Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
Long-time Kweli fans (such as, you guessed it, me!) will also remember that this is not his first reference to Rostand's play. When Kweli was with Blackstar, he and Mos Def launched their careers with their smash single Definition, an homage to meaningful lyrics in hip-hop. Again, Kweli turned to Cyrano as an icon of lyrical power and talent:
Consider me the entity within the industry without a history
of spittin the epitome, of stupidity -- livin my life
expressin my liberty, it gotta be done properly
My name is in the middle of e-Kweli-ty
People follow me and other cats they hear him flow
And assume I'm the real one with lyrics like I'm Cyrano
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