The poem, 22 2s was inspired by a song by one of the greatest rappers of all time; Jay-Z. In his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, there’s a song by the same title. In it, Jay Z does something similar, using alternate versions of the word ‘two’ twenty-two times.
That is what inspired my verse.
Where mine differs from his is the presentation. While his verse was about random facts, I tried to keep mine slightly more focused by telling a one-sided story about a character who’s lamenting about his relationships. Of course, he tells the story in a way that makes him look like the good guy/victim, but it is possible that he’s just telling the truth.
If you pay attention to the manner in which I ended the verse ‘I’m just one man with one too many minds’ you’ll see I just cast a shadow of doubt on everything you read.
You’re left wondering; ‘is this guy confused; is he a liar or he suffers from multiple personality disorders?’ – you know, depending on how your own mind works. I intended to do subtexts (as I do in almost everything I write), you could just read the verse first and just enjoy the story, and then, it may take a while before you realize the use of ‘too/two/to’ twenty-two times. Or maybe that’s the first thing you look for (because of the title) and, as you go along you realize the poem makes sense on a pure storytelling level.
Or maybe not.
Written by Seun Odukoya, award winning writer and author three books — For Days and A Night, Songs About AIDS (e-comic) and Saving Dapo. He is a trained Educational Psychologist. He blogs at Seun Odukoya’s Blog and can be reached on seunodukoyaofficial@gmail.com.
