"In Da House" - Interview with Oveous 1/10/11

Oveous chatting with our MelloMondays team member, Nakya

Our feature poet for tonight, Oveous, sat down to talk with us for a minute. Peep the interview below:

MelloMondays: MM, Oveous: OV

MM: I just have to ask, where did you find a Member's Only jacket in 2011?

OV: Oh, yeah (laughs). I found it at a vintage store, Metropolis, in East Village [New York].

MM: Where in New York are you from?

OV: All over, but I guess you could say Manhattan. I live "underneath" Harlem, but it's not really Harlem so I can't claim it. 

Oveous on stage with MelloMondays' own DJ MIDWID

MM: How often do you make it out to MelloMondays?

OV: I've been coming down once or twice a year since 2006. It's always a good time.

MM: How did you first hear about us?

OV: Through a friend who performed here - Lemon Anderson. He's an actor and Def Poet.

MM: I hear you were on Apollo [Showtime at the Apollo, television talent showcase], how was that?

OV: I won Apollo four times; actually every time I went on there, except the last time. I performed a rap, disguised as a poem. Just switched the flow up a little bit. 

Striking a pose on stage

MM: You do music and poetry, which do you prefer?

OV: My first love is music, but I like both.

MM: Do you ever integrate writing poetry and music? Do your poems start off as songs, or your songs start off as poems?

OV: Neither. I sit down with the intent to write a song or a poem. They're completely separate to me. Some things inspire songs, and others inspire poems. It can also work where one inspires the other. Like the poem I did about my brother's death, that has inspired a song.

MM: Were there any performances or parts of tonight that stood out to you?

OV: So far, I would say Asia's jokes [host]. I think there was one where he played off of the 'Once you go black, you never go back' and said something like, "Once you've had this Asian penetration, you've never had a better sensation"...or something [laughs]

MM: [laughs] Asia's jokes are always funny. One last thing, any special tattoos?

OV: No tattoos, because everybody has them. The only way to be different now is to not have any. And, I haven't felt strongly enough about a symbol to put it on my body.