Def Poetry Jam was the definitive example of the world of slam poetry. Sometimes the performances were amazing in an otherworldly sense and others were recycled pretentious garbage.

You know the formula… Start off slow, build to a crescendo, repeat your signature line three times and finish with a slow…stuttered….pace. Like hip-hop or any other lyrically-driven form of music, the performers that are brilliant obviously standout from the rest. Philadelphia’s Black Ice was one of the standouts on that show.

He spoke with melody, accentuated his tone with powerful ease and structured his words in a way that they were able to carry the weight of the subject matter effortlessly. I remember being blown away by his performances but I wasn’t quite sure how his style would translate onto record. The most famous slam poet is Saul Williams. His music, much like himself and his poetry, is very eclectic, so you never expected a certain style from him therefore you were simply rewarded with what you got. Black Ice on the other hand is deeply rooted in straight forward hip-hop, so his debut album is a hip-hop album.

Let me step back from that statement. Black Ice’s album The Death Of Willie Lynch is to hip-hop what Gil-Scott Heron’s albums were to Jazz. Does that intrigue you? It should.

The album came out in 2006 and even I just recently came across it. I stop short of calling it a genius effort because there are a few occurrences when he tries to be a rapper instead of the poet he is and that simply is not what he is meant to be. Those songs come across very contrived. But when he keeps it simple and within the style he perfected and combines that with properly matched musical backdrops, then the Gil-Scott comparison I made earlier is right on point.

When so many people are trying to “keep it real” this cat keeps it right. He pulls no punches while steadily pulling cards. From parenting and the music industry, to race and sex, to the disrupting nature of a corrupt society – he speaks on all of it – but most importantly he sounds fly as fuck while he does the speaking.

So next time you’re at the record store or on , skip over the Trasher Roth album and say M.I. Yay No to Rick Ross and pick up The Death Of Willie Lynch by Black Ice. If you have Trasher Roth’s album proceed to punch yourself in the face and then hand the CD to the nearest white girl so she can have two copies and therefore be twice as fucking retarded as you are.

Tear down boundaries. That’s what the Tow Away Zone does every Wednesday morning from 10 am-12 noon in the basement of 91.5 FM (www.WPRKDJ.org) at the Rollins College campus in Winter Park, FL. As 2009 approaches and the one-year anniversary of the show nears, host J. Charles sheds light on the past 11 months…

Why Call It Tow Away Zone? – On Jan. 28, 2008, without a name for my new radio show, I drove in circles around Rollins College in search of a place to park. Running behind schedule (as usual), I made a questionable decision to park alongside a curb that appeared to be out of harms way. Security tried to send me a warning via cell phone. I figured it was about 43 minutes into the show when it happened. I made my way out to the parking lot afterwards to find my car was gone. A $20 cab ride and $100 to get my bucket from the tow yard and I was back in the driver seat once again. So became the name of the show.

Backbone Each Week - Instrumentals and Interludes have been a staple since the show began. For the sake of keeping that element of surprise somewhat intact I offer only the minds behind those sounds (in no particular order)… Wax Tailor, Blockhead, The Budos Band, Omega One, J Dilla, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Jel, RJD2, DJ Shadow.

Most Called Upon, Most Requested – (In no particular order) – Johnny Cash “The Time of the Preacher”; Kid Beyond “I Shall Be Free”; Azeem “Bush Is A Gangsta”; DJ Revelution (w/ Iriscience) “The Revolution”; Spoon “The Underdog”; Murs “Everything”; Bob Marley “Mr. Brown (DJ Spooky remix)”; Mr. Dibbs “Blind Loyalty”; Menomena “Weird”; Flowers Forever “American Dream”; Why? “These Few Presidents”; Q-tip “Shaka”; Black Sabbath “Who Are You”; El-P (w/ Suzanne Venzina) “Constellation (remix)”; South “Wasted”; The Foreign Exchange “Daykeeper”; Tim Fite “All I Need”; Psycho Realm And Street Platoon “The Beginning”; Brother Ali “Here”; Skillz “Pastor Skillz”; Skillz (w/ Common, Talib Kweili) ”So Far So Good (remix)”; Coldplay “Lost”; Radiohead “All I need”; Elbow “Grounds For Divorce”; Vast Aire “Shu (The God of Aire)”; Blur “Brothers and Sisters”; Saul Williams (w/ Zach De La Rocha) “Act III, Scene 2 (Shakespeare)”; Baba “Xperience”; Devotchka “Along The Way”; The Helio Sequence “Halleluhah”.

The Usual Suspects – Along with those bands mentioned above were the likes of (once again, in no particular order)… Beck, The Flaming Lips, Atmosphere, Clinic, John Lennon, The Roots, Mos Def, Ghostface Killah, Digital Underground, Rakim, Nas, Cee-Lo, Jay-Z, Public Enemy, Iggy Pop, Buck 65, Jean Grae, The Beastie Boys, J-live, Jane’s Addiction, Erykah Badu, Modest Mouse, The Beatles, Big Daddy Kane, The Toadies, James Brown, KRS-ONE, MF Doom, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Parliament, Gil Scott-Heron, Presto, Gorillaz, RZA, Shape Of Broad Minds, The Black Keys, Shortstack, Nine Inch Nails, Glue, Gang Starr, Slick Rick, Sage Francis, Lupe Fiasco, Morphine, P.O.S., Primus, David Bowie.

Local Orlando/Florida Connection – On average there have been two songs with local flavor played each week by the likes of Solillaquists Of Sound, X:144 And SPS, DJ Kittybat, Sincere Vega, The Black Hammock Band, All Good Funk Alliance, Kap, Alias The @ikt.

Can’t Forget Back Home – In an effort to never forget where I came from there have been a smaller number of additions to the playlist… AMC “Dun Dun Dunno”; Ryan Weaver “We Dream Tomorrow” and “Long Long Long”; Flux “River Dog”; Vic Freeze “Senora”.

By no means does this cover the whole gamut but it does provide some insight into what the show has evolved into. Tune in to find out where it goes from here.