“Keef Yards,” says its creator, Lynez, is not a place. It’s a state of mind, “like an answer or retort” to questions understood around and among people about meaning, history and change to the culture.
“You can smell it a mile away,” he said.
“Keef Yards,” the song, is about life, with Lynez delivering a series of messages with the bass rap and beat layered onto a blues background. The span of the lyrics is laid out in the opening lines:
You say life’s precious, cherish every breath
Can’t remember your first, don’t want to see your last
I don’t want to see you hurt, but I don’t want to see you laugh
“It’s a good record,” said Lynez, “very classic, a good perceptive theme. Nothing from the norm. It's a dope record.”
He has, he said, “a lot of space for understanding” about changing times and people and music.
“It's about, like, sensing things sometimes when things get foul on the street, especially when things change and you don't know where to go, when you're trying to move together and work together and appreciate each other for the kind of values of the culture and your beliefs.”
Lynez has been making music since he was 15, but got out of it when, at age 28, his son was born. The son is now 10, and Lynez is getting back into music seriously, looking to create more, get into performing and making his extensive catalog of music available online.
He wants not only to make a living at it, but to honor the traditions and practice of rap. Punchline was about punch lines, comparisons, charisma. Lyrical skill and talent became less valuable when, in the early 2000s, rap became more serious, with more prophecy and politics, he said.
“I didn’t do that. I didn’t have prophecy or philosophy. I just had some dope rhymes. I would just rap round my friends. I’d be out there in the street and talk to the people.”
Which doesn’t mean it was without meaning or was not involved with life and people’s experiences of life.
“But, you know, the essence of hip hop was always about dope rhymes. So, for punchline rappers, that was the state of meaning, understanding that not only you have to have talent, you would automatically include anything serious that might be involved in hip hop or rhyming in MC. It’s a serious thing for everybody.”
So, some 20 years later, “no one really gets into punchline rap.” Rap in general got “back to its essence,” but with more emphasis on lyrical skill.
“Rhymes are more complex, and much more sincere nowadays, and it’s much more appreciated. Punchline rapping will always stay vivid, compared to most, but punchline rap is definitely destined for destruction.”
As rap has grown more serious and meaningful, so has Lynez the father. He is rapping now for his family and for his messages. “I know that there’s a message in a bottle for everyone. That’s one of those sayings that are out there.”
“I’m not just for the entertainment. I have a lot of beliefs, also, so, I’m sharing a lot of views and showing a lot of things for relativity.”
He is rapping his messages of competence in life, understanding, and relevance, especially for youth. He is now working on “Messages to Arkane,” getting the visuals ready to go out.
“It’s a morality thesis about black-on-black crime. This history tends to repeat itself.”
A website is coming soon, but stay connected to Lynez for his music, old and new.
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