Poets In The Kitchen

I am currently a creative writing major here at Florida State. I grew up writing and playing my own music, so I figured that becoming a creative writing student would be natural and expected from me. One of my main inspirations as a writer is the music I listen to. A lot of my favorite artists, not only make good music, but they have very deep, personal, and inteligent lyrics.
Many of the rappers I listen to are seen as poets because of how unique and deep their lyrics are. One of my favorite rappers is from Providence, RI and he goes by the name Sage Francis. He went to school in Rhode Island and got a degree in journalism. He's won many awards for his spoken work and slam poetry pefromances. A lot of his songs are consisted of phrases with double meanings, and very complex word play. One of my favorite examples from him are in a song called "New Word Order". He does this thing where he'll use the last word in a phrase as the first word. It's hard to explain but it's really interesting and creative. "...search for the best deals underneath the sun, block the barn yard punch the clock, knock it into next week." "...concepts of time sheets of acid rain drop and star rolling a dislocated joint custody of the moments you are holding." Underneath the sun/sun block. Time sheets/sheets of acid, acid rain, rain drop, drop and start rollin rolling a dislocated joint, joint custody. It's probably one of the most impressive things I've heard in rap music. After hearing that song I've tried doing something similar in my own writing, but rather than playing with these phrases, I tried playing with the sounds of many words. For example, "and you would think that after spending years tugging on her heart i'd earn a heart of honor on her no longer talking to my former self for myself to learn, no longer." It's still a work in progess, but the idea definitely comes from Sage Francis.
For me, my poets in the kitchen were the rappers and musicians I listen to. Most of the music I've been listening to I've been into since my freshman year of high school. Other artists are Slug from Minneapolis rap group Atmosphere, Tom Gabel from Gainesville punk band Against Me!, Aesop Rock who is a rapper from Long Island. Most of my ideas stem from these people due to their methods of expressing themselves. They tend to do this in a very poetic and honest way, which is something I appreciate and tend to do in my own writing. I feel that if I had never listened to these artists, I probably would be writing, and if I were writing, my style would be completely different. I thank these people for helping mold me into the person I am today. Another poet that I feel you should give a listen to, is Buddy Wakefield. He's a spoken word poet and his performances really add to effect of his words.