3.07.2006
tenacity (jonathan mcglone, march 2002)
(#0007) back in high school donnie warner, craig mckey and i, amongst others, got into the art of freestyle rap. well, maybe not the art, but we did freestyle, donnie being the most gifted in my own opinion. senior year donnie entered himself in a battle which took place at the youth center, the neutral zone, in ann arbor, mi. so we all showed up in support, and watched donnie do well, but get knocked out by a horrible ypsilanti rapper who went by the name, of all things, tenacity. besides being not so gifted in recognizing what hip hop is all about (donnie made a point to draw the crowd's attention to this fact in his rap), tenactiy has to be one of the worst emcee names i have ever heard, to date.
more than a year later, after high school and now at calvin college, i was back in ann arbor for a visit. walking around town with old friend karen holmes with no particular destination intended, we stumbled upon a lively freestyle session. i had thankfully brought my camera with me and was excited at this fact because most of the other events in ann arbor were pretty boring that day. as we moved closer i noticed tenacity was there, with bandana tied round head and all, now a part of a rap crew who called themselves the abolitionists. at this particular moment, they featured a beatbox (who was one of the judges of donnie's battle loss to tenacity) and a couple other emcees milling around freestyling, one of them named kadence. they even had a digital camcorder there recording the session, as the crowd grew larger and larger, which you can see in the right side of the photograph if you look close enough.
i snapped these pictures for donnie (there are two others in a flickr photoset), because he should of won that battle on that day back in high school. i never thought i would have to see tenacity again. but, i did, so this time i took at as a sign and captured him in my camera so i would never forget that sometimes the worse of the two ends up winning in some of life's most competitive moments. tenacity, is of course still rapping five years later and has now ventured off into beatmaking with his group the abolitionists projects. donnie has since graduated from depaul university and teaches in new mexico. photo was a glossy photo, a bit beat up, but raw, and digitally scanned for the archive.
more than a year later, after high school and now at calvin college, i was back in ann arbor for a visit. walking around town with old friend karen holmes with no particular destination intended, we stumbled upon a lively freestyle session. i had thankfully brought my camera with me and was excited at this fact because most of the other events in ann arbor were pretty boring that day. as we moved closer i noticed tenacity was there, with bandana tied round head and all, now a part of a rap crew who called themselves the abolitionists. at this particular moment, they featured a beatbox (who was one of the judges of donnie's battle loss to tenacity) and a couple other emcees milling around freestyling, one of them named kadence. they even had a digital camcorder there recording the session, as the crowd grew larger and larger, which you can see in the right side of the photograph if you look close enough.
i snapped these pictures for donnie (there are two others in a flickr photoset), because he should of won that battle on that day back in high school. i never thought i would have to see tenacity again. but, i did, so this time i took at as a sign and captured him in my camera so i would never forget that sometimes the worse of the two ends up winning in some of life's most competitive moments. tenacity, is of course still rapping five years later and has now ventured off into beatmaking with his group the abolitionists projects. donnie has since graduated from depaul university and teaches in new mexico. photo was a glossy photo, a bit beat up, but raw, and digitally scanned for the archive.
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its fascinating to me what we think of those that we perceive to master an art held in high esteem in our youth, both during high school and again after one finishes college. But I guess in this case, he sucked then and now. Point being - he is still there.
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