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]