♪♪ ♪♪ [ Man vocalizing ] -Oh, that one?

-Yeah, that one.

[ Guitar plays ] -What we need is to locate the theme.

-Yes.

-And I feel like the best way to do that might be, like, giving each other a little snippet and then building off of that.

Like, I'll write a little something, then you respond... back to it.

-Right.

Write something.

That would be easy.

-Yeah?

All right.

-Yeah, I can do that.

Cool.

-You guys got anything?

-Yeah.

-You got something.

-You got something?

[ Guitar playing ] -1.

A-2.

-I dug a fist-sized hole in the limbo of tree trunk and root cascade in my backyard redwood.

Shoved my lips to ground till dirt tunneled into throat and my fingernails sprouted splinters.

Found myself tripping on potholes and barbed wire, body-bound sentry of bark and spine calling itself freeway when it is really forest.

-♪ I can spin something right here ♪ ♪ But I don't know ♪ ♪ We can drop something right here ♪ ♪ And we can come in with that dunh-dunh, dunh-dunh ♪ ♪ Dunh-dunh right here ♪ -Yeah.

-♪ And I'm gonna do something [Singing gibberish] right here ♪ ♪ When I write ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Something we gonna write, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ Roll.

♪ Something when I write it ♪ ♪ Something, ain't gonna fight it ♪ ♪ You've been trying to light it ♪ ♪ And back to the chorus and then her ♪ ♪ I'll say "step one" ♪ That's your in right there.

♪ I've been trying to default ♪ -Poetry.

-Mm.

-Toni Morrison.

-Okay.

-Nonfiction.

Amazing.

I saw this -- the author speak.

It explores, like, what it means to be a young black person in America and in Oakland.

It's so good.

It's so good.

It makes everything just explode and all make sense.

-Yeah, I think this is the one I need to read.

You know, like, for everything that I'm working on and everything that I'm a part of, like, this one sounds like the one.

-How's the food?

-The food is pretty smackalacka.

Boy!

-[ Speaks indistinctly ] Why won't you eat?!

-What?

I'm eating.

-No, you're not.

I haven't seen you.

You're supposed eat at the same time as me.

[ Speaks indistinctly ] -[ Laughs ] -You should take "Notes from Underground" by Dostoevsky with you.

It's a very small book.

Why?

It's a very good book.

-I'm taking "The Communist Manifesto" with me.

-No, drop that and take Dostoevsky.

-I need a variety of things.

-Or take "The Stranger."

-I've read "The Stranger," and I don't -- -You didn't like it?

-No, it's not that I didn't like it.

I just don't feel the need to reread it right now.

-What's up?

-What is up?

Oh, are we gonna do the dude handshake?

-No.

Oh.

No, no.

-Oh.

-Run it back.

Run it back.

-Okay.

All right.

-Let's try again.

-All right.

Ready?

-Uh... -Oh, you're awful.

-Well, I don't know how to do it.

-It's simple.

What's up?

[ Laughing ] Oh, my God.

Hi.

-Hi.

What are you thinking for your second section?

-Like, step one, step two.

♪ I'm trying to take off ♪ -I'm just trying to take off.

-♪ I'm just trying to take off ♪ Something like that.

So, yeah, like, you're the takeoff.

You're, like, that thing.

I'm the trying, and you're the one who's doing it.

What if we did that?

-I'm thinking that we take a mini trip.

-To where?

-Around the city.

-I'm with that.

Why, though?

-You can't write about a world if you don't study it.

And the best way to study it is to live in it.

♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ I lived my whole life to have fun ♪ ♪ You took your love... ♪ -How old is your brother now?

-He's 5.

-It's your only sibling?

-No, I have five siblings.

-That's a lot.

-But I only live with my little brother.

You don't have a sibling, do you?

You do.

-Mm-hmm.

-How many?

-I'm the youngest.

Two.

-Two.

Okay, cool.

Oh.

Are we hitting the hoodle?

-Hitting the hoodle?

-Mm-hmm.

-I love that.

-[ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ] They don't have a bathroom, do they?

-Oh, God!

-What?

-They have a bandanna scarf that costs $77 in there.

-They have Earl Grey tea ice cream.

-[ Groans ] Why does that anger me so much?

I'm sure white people love it, it's for them.

-Do you remember what Oakland was like before?

-Yeah, for sure.

I mean, more where I, like, grew up, for sure.

Now it's, like, all white and all the houses are super-condo and weird, and... -Yeah.

-Yeah, it's a drastic change.

How about you, though?

-Yeah, I think a lot about how we're, like, the last generation of Oakland kids who are going to remember what it was like.

-Yeah.

For sure.

That means we hold the culture.

We hold it.

And we have to share it, preserve it, save it.

-And mourn it at the same time.

-And mourn it.

Wow.

-What was the song that you played at the studio called?

-It's called "Mortal Lately."

-[ Chuckles ] Well...yeah, yeah, yeah.

I feel like that song is, like, a perfect example of both political and personal healing work.

-I feel like I wrote that song so that young black boys could actually recognize the human in them, you know?

Instead of, like...

Instead of the image that they are automatically put in just being born.

I mean, I wrote it really for that very feeling, like, that very, like, reminder that I am a person, that you are a person.

I feel like we're often not allowed that.

♪ See, I've been feeling pretty mortal lately ♪ ♪ Like I'm close to the end ♪ ♪ I know Mama going to hate this ♪ ♪ But she knows best that I was born vulnerable ♪ ♪ Pops, when he schooled me on it, heart on my sleeve ♪ ♪ I'm honest, ego too strong, I'll call it ♪ ♪ I'm calling 'cause I ain't never been no ♪ ♪ Bulletproof, infatuation of ending ♪ ♪ It's like they haunted ♪ [ Speaking indistinctly ] ♪ It's like they haunted ♪ Yes.

♪ And at 16, I ain't even put the work in ♪ ♪ And you all ain't even hear my stories yet ♪ ♪ But they shoot and call it righteous ♪ ♪ They shoot and call it redemption ♪ ♪ I ain't never been one for fighting ♪ ♪ They'll play this at my funeral ♪ Oh.

-So, what do you want to say about where you're at right now?

-I mean, I feel like I'm just, like...

I want to grow up so bad, but not have the responsibilities of growing up.

-[ Laughs ] Yeah.

-And that's kind of where I'm at, for sure.

I'm a very broke person.

I can't, like, handle the actual responsibilities of being grown.

-Mm.

-But the idea of it is just... -Yeah.

-...all that I want right now.

[ Laughs ] -I feel like that's so much of, like, entering adulthood.

-Yes, I agree.

-Who do you feel like you're learning vulnerability with?

-I mean, for sure my girl.

You have to learn how to take the risks with the relationship -- to better it, though.

-Yeah.

Get uncomfortable?

-You have to get uncomfortable to get comfortable.

-Yeah.

-And we're doing that.

Like, we're 10 months in now.

-That's almost a year.

-That's almost -- We were talking about it last night.

We were like, "Dude!"

We're like, "10 months!"

So, we are now learning that, though.

And it's been really beautiful for us.

Like, we both, like, are really excited about our relationship.

'Cause we've wanted it for so long.

I've liked her since, like, third grade.

So it's been a long time in the making.

-That is a long time.

-How about you?

Any, um... -[ Laughs ] -Any little things?

-I don't date right now because I'm about to leave.

-Have you ever, like, been in love with someone?

Like, in a place where you had to be vulnerable with them, where you, like, couldn't help it?

Or something like that?

Like...you know.

-Mm... -Mm?

-My dad grew up in, like, '60s Detroit, and when I came out, it was really funny.

He...

I sat my entire family down, I did the whole thing.

I don't think I really needed to, but I did.

And then my dad was like, "Uh, someone on my soap opera is gay."

-That's hilarious.

-And that's all he said.

That's all he said for a long time.

Yeah.

-That's terrible.

-[ Laughs ] But I think it was, like, his way of saying... "I guess that's normal."

-Yeah.

"Okay, that's okay."

-And, like, "that exists somewhere in my world" -Yeah.

-"So it's, like, okay."

[ Lock disengages ] -♪ At 10, I'll be so down ♪ ♪ You got my soul, honey ♪ ♪ Mosh pit and big crowd ♪ [ Jazz music plays ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -Yeah.

[ Jazz music plays ] -Yeah.

-All right.

One more try.

-Just a bit.

-Melody.

-Here we go.

Her water breaks.

We breathe.

How could I ever forgive myself?

Your sacrifices and my negligence, yet you always find time to forgive me.

A cycle unbroken, and our hearts are all frozen, it's groundbreaking.

And I heard your dress is bulletproof.

And motherhood ain't much different than water.

One time for her water breaking.

Two times for the summoning.

Three times for the healing.

And four times became more shock.

[ Light applause ] -I dug a fist-sized hole in the limbo of tree trunk and root cascade in my backyard redwood, shoved my lips to ground until dirt tunneled into throat and my fingernails sprouted splinters.

Found myself tripping on potholes and barbed wire, body-bound sentry of bark and spine calling itself freeway when it is really forest.

Wrap a child in wood, and she will show you how soft she is.

Babe bound.

Wrap a child in harmonies, and she will exist in between dreamland and choking.

So many bodies trying to locate breath as if it is not birthed from seed inside the stomach, aching beneath the concrete, dug a hole, devoured soil until my wound reintroduced itself to childhood, and said, "Hey, baby, hey."

[ Applause ] ♪♪ -♪ I know it's a shame ♪ ♪ But I could have been myself for this one ♪ ♪ Could have been myself for this one ♪ ♪ And I know it's a shame ♪ ♪ But you gonna have to let go of this one ♪ ♪ "Have to let go of this one," she said ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪