WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.420 align:middle line:90% I have memorized. 00:00:05.420 --> 00:00:06.230 align:middle line:90% I'll do this one. 00:00:06.230 --> 00:00:10.930 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.930 --> 00:00:13.140 align:middle line:84% This is a piece I wrote for my son Jordan, right? 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:17.730 align:middle line:84% I wrote it-- well, I wrote it to tell him some Halloween tales-- 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:19.020 align:middle line:90% that kind of stuff-- 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:22.836 align:middle line:90% about where I grew up. 00:00:22.836 --> 00:00:24.900 align:middle line:84% A sort of incident that happened there. 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:28.890 align:middle line:84% The deity-- the Orisha Oya is the deity of the graveyard 00:00:28.890 --> 00:00:34.710 align:middle line:84% and of the winds in the Yoruba religion of Ifa. 00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:38.100 align:middle line:90% And she's a spooky woman. 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:42.493 align:middle line:84% And there's a lot of spooky women around. 00:00:42.493 --> 00:00:44.910 align:middle line:84% Those of us who've grown up in the urban parts of America, 00:00:44.910 --> 00:00:46.830 align:middle line:84% I don't know, you guys probably have this out here too. 00:00:46.830 --> 00:00:48.372 align:middle line:84% You always got that one or two people 00:00:48.372 --> 00:00:50.730 align:middle line:84% in the neighborhood who something's just not quite 00:00:50.730 --> 00:00:52.057 align:middle line:90% right, you know what I mean? 00:00:52.057 --> 00:00:53.640 align:middle line:84% And there's all these stories that you 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:55.860 align:middle line:84% don't want to mess with them because something's not 00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:57.090 align:middle line:90% quite right. 00:00:57.090 --> 00:00:59.910 align:middle line:84% This is a story based upon this woman and this is a true story 00:00:59.910 --> 00:01:01.260 align:middle line:90% and she was not quite right. 00:01:01.260 --> 00:01:04.110 align:middle line:90% 00:01:04.110 --> 00:01:06.800 align:middle line:90% It's called "Oya." 00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:09.170 align:middle line:84% "Lightning web walking a graveyard. 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:11.030 align:middle line:84% Wind sepulcher where storms are born. 00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:14.390 align:middle line:90% 00:01:14.390 --> 00:01:16.970 align:middle line:84% Cats around here say she one of the few folks left 00:01:16.970 --> 00:01:19.700 align:middle line:84% in the hood who came up from the South. 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:21.750 align:middle line:84% Say she from Mississippi, or Georgia, 00:01:21.750 --> 00:01:23.060 align:middle line:90% or something like that. 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:25.490 align:middle line:84% Say she used to be a preacher woman, a real fire 00:01:25.490 --> 00:01:27.230 align:middle line:90% and brimstone bride of Jesus. 00:01:27.230 --> 00:01:29.695 align:middle line:90% Say she had the touch. 00:01:29.695 --> 00:01:31.070 align:middle line:84% They say one Sunday night at this 00:01:31.070 --> 00:01:33.080 align:middle line:84% used to be church, she used to pastor at, 00:01:33.080 --> 00:01:35.480 align:middle line:84% that she was doing some healing and rebuking of demons, 00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:38.030 align:middle line:84% and that's when something got in her. 00:01:38.030 --> 00:01:39.500 align:middle line:90% No, y'all ain't heard me. 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:42.530 align:middle line:90% Something got into her. 00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:44.482 align:middle line:84% That's when her left eye went blood red 00:01:44.482 --> 00:01:46.190 align:middle line:84% and she just walked right out the church. 00:01:46.190 --> 00:01:47.280 align:middle line:90% Never came back. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:49.070 align:middle line:90% Never spoke another word. 00:01:49.070 --> 00:01:51.500 align:middle line:84% Just about everybody who remembers that day now is gone 00:01:51.500 --> 00:01:53.838 align:middle line:84% and the few left won't even tell nobody her name. 00:01:53.838 --> 00:01:55.880 align:middle line:84% It's like they all made some pact with each other 00:01:55.880 --> 00:01:57.770 align:middle line:84% not to speak about her except to tell 00:01:57.770 --> 00:02:02.090 align:middle line:84% the young bloods to stay as far away from her as possible. 00:02:02.090 --> 00:02:04.610 align:middle line:84% When she come down the street mumbling to herself, pushing 00:02:04.610 --> 00:02:06.920 align:middle line:84% that shopping cart with all them old bottles, 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:08.870 align:middle line:84% doll heads, and all them rats all up in it, 00:02:08.870 --> 00:02:10.520 align:middle line:84% everybody just get out of her way. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:14.240 align:middle line:84% Me, I get my black ass on the other side of the street. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:16.887 align:middle line:84% They say if she even look at you with that blood eye of hers, 00:02:16.887 --> 00:02:18.470 align:middle line:84% it means something coming for your ass 00:02:18.470 --> 00:02:19.428 align:middle line:90% by the end of the week. 00:02:19.428 --> 00:02:21.800 align:middle line:84% I mean, cats that ain't got no respect for their mamas 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.020 align:middle line:84% don't even look cross-eyed in her direction. 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:25.960 align:middle line:84% Laugh if you want to, but all I know is this, 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:28.115 align:middle line:84% there was this one thug cat T-Bone, 00:02:28.115 --> 00:02:29.990 align:middle line:84% this brother from around the projects, right? 00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:32.720 align:middle line:84% Tried to show his ass one day in front of his boys. 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:35.318 align:middle line:84% Said, he don't get no fuck by some old dry bitch 00:02:35.318 --> 00:02:37.860 align:middle line:84% with no teeth, one eye, and a shopping cart full of everybody 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:38.960 align:middle line:90% shit. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:42.110 align:middle line:84% Well, next day we saw this cripple rat 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:44.068 align:middle line:84% walking down the street toward the Jets, right? 00:02:44.068 --> 00:02:46.110 align:middle line:84% So we followed it just to see where it was going, 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:47.300 align:middle line:90% because that's what kids do. 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:50.630 align:middle line:84% Man, you know that thing dragged itself all the way to T-Bone, 00:02:50.630 --> 00:02:51.950 align:middle line:90% and his mama and them building. 00:02:51.950 --> 00:02:53.630 align:middle line:84% Walked up seven flights of stairs 00:02:53.630 --> 00:02:55.550 align:middle line:84% and died right in front of their crib. 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:56.510 align:middle line:90% Coincidence? 00:02:56.510 --> 00:02:57.890 align:middle line:90% My ass. 00:02:57.890 --> 00:02:59.787 align:middle line:84% For the next few days we saw T-Bone, 00:02:59.787 --> 00:03:02.120 align:middle line:84% we told him Yo man, you need to go talk to that old lady 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:03.290 align:middle line:90% and apologize, man. 00:03:03.290 --> 00:03:05.765 align:middle line:84% That rat was a bad sign that she had put something on you. 00:03:05.765 --> 00:03:08.040 align:middle line:84% He just laughed and said, man, to hell with y'all. 00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:10.400 align:middle line:84% Man, I don't believe in that old spook and demon shit. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.480 align:middle line:84% Well, two days later T-Bone fell out the window 00:03:14.480 --> 00:03:15.830 align:middle line:90% of his mom's apartment. 00:03:15.830 --> 00:03:17.330 align:middle line:84% He was laying behind that building 00:03:17.330 --> 00:03:20.272 align:middle line:84% in that vacant lot for five hours before Trey found him. 00:03:20.272 --> 00:03:22.730 align:middle line:84% And when he found him his spine was broken-- was shattered. 00:03:22.730 --> 00:03:24.533 align:middle line:84% His jaw was broken, and his bottom lip 00:03:24.533 --> 00:03:26.450 align:middle line:84% looked like something had been nibbling at it. 00:03:26.450 --> 00:03:30.140 align:middle line:84% Well, you'd have thought that brother would have died. 00:03:30.140 --> 00:03:32.360 align:middle line:84% And I believe that if it had been an act of God 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:34.130 align:middle line:90% he would have, but nah. 00:03:34.130 --> 00:03:36.320 align:middle line:84% Now, he cripple from the neck down. 00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:38.000 align:middle line:84% Can't talk too good and going to be 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.950 align:middle line:90% that way the rest of his life. 00:03:39.950 --> 00:03:42.200 align:middle line:84% Every now and then, you can see his mama 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:44.810 align:middle line:84% rolling him around in that old squeaky wheel chair. 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:48.710 align:middle line:84% Him looking like a cadaver on wheels, drooling on himself, 00:03:48.710 --> 00:03:51.905 align:middle line:84% and mumbling something about graves and mercy." 00:03:51.905 --> 00:03:56.610 align:middle line:90% 00:03:56.610 --> 00:03:57.110 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:57.110 --> 00:03:58.140 align:middle line:90% You want to do another one? 00:03:58.140 --> 00:03:58.973 align:middle line:90% I'll do another one. 00:03:58.973 --> 00:04:01.670 align:middle line:90% 00:04:01.670 --> 00:04:03.670 align:middle line:90% Yeah, man.