Inner Conversations Spoken Word Performance

well first of all i want to pick up

every single person behind the scenes

who helped like put this

this whole thing together um i actually

grew up watching these

and obviously ted talks have massively

inspired me along my journey

um so yeah just to elaborate on what

someone was saying just there

um my name is aaron unknown i’m from

south london

um and yeah i started independent record

label about three years ago

so anyone can do that like you should

just go online google how to start a

label

it’s pretty simple or if you see me

afterwards come and ask me if anyone out

here wants to do that

i can explain to you how to do that um

but yeah so i started my own label

i was like let me just put my own stuff

out see how it see how it goes because

music for me was always a hobby

but i was like let me try and take it to

another level put some stuff out see how

it goes

um and the response was was just amazing

so i was like wow

um and the main sort of feedback that i

got was

that i’ve sort of helped people to go

and do their own thing or

i’ve inspired someone to take their

steps do you see what i’m saying so

i’ll just like okay i need to keep going

and keep going so

today i’m this is more of like a an

unorthodox piece because

i’m not really much of a speaker i don’t

know if you can tell

i like to put my um expression into my

music

so i’m going to give you a spoken

rendition of one of my songs it’s called

letter to myself

and i wrote this song during mental

health

awareness week i think that’s what it’s

called last year and i released it

for everyone but i think for me as a

young man

growing up seeing like a lot of young

men facing

like there’s a lot of toxic masculinity

do you know what i mean and a lot of

people

are sort of pressured into this macho

mode and it’s like you can’t show your

emotions you can’t be upset about things

and you have to sort of just bottle it

all inside so

this for me was like let me go within

myself

let me not look externally because all

of my peers would be like

man up what are you doing like why are

you crying you’re being a girl or

whatever

and for me it’s like you have to listen

to yourself sometimes so i went with it

myself

and i wrote a letter to myself and yeah

this is it

so

hyping again negative thoughts they had

me drink driving again

i lost touch with the circle just to

hide in my ends to lie in my bed

most days high up my head see what goes

up must come down the same if you’re

flipping it around so i broke the cycle

again

now i’ve found my lines and we’re

forming up a pride you know there’s only

certified guys in the den

i realized that i had to start writing

again some individuals rely on what i

write with a pen but i lost touch with

what i love

but now i’m back with it suddenly i’m

climbing up the spiral again

i stopped answering my phone i had to

focus on my goals

and last year i had to say goodbye to

some friends but most of them were just

snakes in the grass that would buy to my

bread right to die but they lie and

pretend

they’re always claiming how they got

your back a hundred percent but only

there when they want something

you see it’s funny had him saying

brothers that had moved sly for a tens

will probably try to get your wifey and

get lively in bed so while they’re

putting in 80 the scales are out of

balance because you know i’m always

putting in 100

but sleep has been lacking lately my

energy is channeled into stresses of

reality like paying the rent

but it’s a letter to myself real talk a

letter to myself

hey a letter to myself see i was better

in my wealth subsequently was

detrimental to health look

this is a letter to myself so yeah i

sort of sing in there so i’m not really

gonna sing

um i’ll just come into the second verse

um you say you’re feeling down and trust

me i know the feeling

some days can’t leave the house

reschedule another meeting

exhausted to the core i’m still having

trouble with sleeping i used to smoke

myself to oblivion in the evenings but

the first step to healing is discovering

the weakness

and if you feel there’s nothing to

believing well let me give you something

to believe in

one moment to address all the blessings

that you’re receiving so take a deep

breath and know your breathing

take a big stretch up to the ceiling and

leave your house with nothing but your

keys my brother

you don’t need a reason maybe discover

another region

participate in things that seem

appealing i’m taking off my bucket list

with places that i’m seeing in but

when’s the last time i took a scene in

when is the last time i took a scene

in i’m discovering myself and i’m

releasing all my demons see i’m living

my reality don’t pinch me when i’m

dreaming it’s a letter to myself

this is a letter to myself hey a letter

to myself

yeah yeah so so that’s how it ends there

and obviously it phases out i’m singing

the chorus or whatever

thank you wow

so yeah that basically i sort of wanted

to elaborate on that piece

i’m a lot calmer now i don’t know if

you’ve noticed when i first came up here

i was a bit shaky so

the whole reason why i’m still here and

i just need to give a massive shout out

to um

to selvan and matty like to personally

big shout out to every single person

that has welcomed me since i’ve been

here but

like those two particularly last night i

had a bit of a

um a bit of a journey um

drove up here from london with my

girlfriend she’s sitting right there

bless her

and um yeah i sort of pulled over a few

times and i just contemplated not even

coming here because i was like i can’t

do this

this isn’t my like i’m so nervous blah

blah and i just had this overwhelming

sort of sense of nerves and those two

guys really really calmed me down last

night they just helped me sort of see

the bigger picture and i don’t know i’m

just so happy that i actually came up

here

and that’s why i wanted to base sort of

the end of this speech on

the inner conversation because as we

look inside ourselves

sorry everyone basically everyone has a

little voice within their head yeah

and i don’t know if we if we ever really

look to see what that ever is you know

what i mean so from a very young age

i’ve had this little voice and i was

like let me explore that what

what is this and i chose to listen to it

and every time i listened to it

it saved me from like a crazy situation

or it pulled me out of something i don’t

know if anyone here can relate to that

but

i see that as like my conscience right

and

a lot of the time as people we sort of

look

outside for the answers and i don’t know

if i’m sort of going back in circles now

because i mention this at the start but

basically i just want to say that you

have to look within yourself

like you could be seeking externally for

your whole life and i’m only 26 years

old i’m still searching for

sort of my direction but with that

it’s like i don’t know how to explain it

it’s just like you have to

listen to yourself and just take time

meditate upon yourself don’t always just

ask

your peers or whatever or your family

members because they won’t know and

they’ll try and

like everyone has their own individual

perspective there’s no way that i could

ever say

anything that you guys have seen or that

vice versa you could never

see anything that i’ve ever seen because

we all see it from a slightly different

perspective

so i think it’s very important to just

live your own truth

from yourself and yeah and then express

it to the world you know what i mean

but on that sort of very short bombshell

i think i’m gonna leave it there

but um anyone who’s interested in

seeking

my music further just search around

unknown onto any

digital platform whatever and you can

find a lot more like i said

um speaking in public isn’t my strong

point

give me half an hour here to do my music

and you’ll see a completely different

side of me but

um yeah i don’t know so

have a lovely day and i hope you all

enjoyed

and yeah big love

[Music]