By Mike Sonsken
FROM: Cultural Daily

The poet Aaron Kenneth Toney is best known by his moniker A.K. Toney. Toney came to rise in Leimert Park at the World Stage and Fifth Street Dicks during the 1990s right after the Rodney King Uprisings. Perhaps more than any other poet in Los Angeles, Toney bridges jazz and hip hop. Before you listen to the two attached tracks, here’s some exposition on this seminal Los Angeles poet.

Mentored by luminaries like drummer Billy Higgins, pianist Horace Tapscott and OG griots Kamau Daáood, Peter J. Harris and Michael Datcher, Toney is a dynamic wordsmith that stewards the word through print, sound and light. His lyrical dexterity can be heard on his debut spoken word recording, Neo Griot and the Afrocentric Prince.

Toney’s vibe aligns with the Los Angeles spiritual jazz movement that includes the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Kamasi Washington, Jimetta Rose, the Voices of Creation and Josef Leimberg. In many ways the emerging spiritual jazz scene of 2022 is a continuation of what’s been happening in Leimert Park and Watts for decades now. The world is finally catching up to these artists and A.K. Toney.

Before breaking down the record. A word needs to be said about the title and the concept of the “Neo-Griot.” First the word “Griot.” Griot is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa.” The griot’s duty of preserving important community stories and local history is a core concept of African American poetry, especially since the rise of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. Read Rest of Review Here