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Tough But Loving
The mc : THE MEDITATIVE CONTEMPLATIONZ is a collection of aphorisms, prose-poems, meditations, and monologues focused on themes such as spirituality, adversity, love, and wisdom. Do you think of your work as closer to poetry, philosophy, or spoken word?
Not to sound facetious, but I look at my work as one entity with many different facets & perspectives.
As an admirer of the late great martial artist & philosopher Bruce Lee, I like to think of my works, be it literary or musical, as a fluidity that is adaptable, flexible & powerful given the artistic objective.
As someone who has many different disciplines, including Dance, Songwriting, Poetry, Acting, Performance, Composition, Production & of course Literary book creation, I tend to incorporate all of these elements within my projects.
For this particular book, the mc :THE MEDITATIVE CONTEMPLATIONZ I was Profoundly influenced by Marcus Aurelius’ book Meditations, which leaned heavily towards stoicism.
The actual title of my book, the mc, heartens to my passion for performing, recording & writing original rap music. The term ‘mc’ in the Hip Hop realm is an acronym for master of ceremonies. Meaning the rap artist embodies all of the elements which make him or her stand out & be a respected individual, including: voice inflection, flow, cadence, storytelling, lyricism, & microphone presence.
Again, I am one who incorporates every aspect & element of my other disciplines to create a cohesive narrative in my creative projects. Having no particular set style or genre allows me & the reader the freedom to feel the work from numerous angles & viewpoints simultaneously.
The comparison between fighters and artists is powerful. What draws you to that parallel?
I began to notice this comparison as someone who is a fan of boxing & a practitioner of the creative arts. The rejections I have faced while pursuing my creative endeavors can be extremely painful, similar to what a boxer may feel in a professional fight with a formidable opponent.
While the boxer has to endure physical blows, the artist feels mental blows to their egos & self esteem with every rejection of their art they have experienced and will receive.
I noticed this startling parallel while listening to the wisdom of the great fighter Mike Tyson, whose Talent for combat was genius & legendary. I connected with the pain he felt & immediately took notes in comparison to myself as an artist speaking for other artists who may feel similar.
The Fighter & The Artist both have to endure these moments of pain, fatigue & frustration to overcome their biggest & most difficult opponent, and that is themselves.
How do you balance intensity with tenderness in your writing?
Great question.
As someone who writes poetry & songs, I tend to view the softer side of my poetry creation as the mother, showing empathy, compassion, gentleness & docility.
The songwriting aspect is the father, as I see it, a bit louder (as it often involves music), tough but loving, encouraging but also aware that he has to teach his son or daughter about the sometimes harsh ways of the world.
These are the 2 dimensions in which I create my music & books.
This Ying & Yang philosophy helps me to create a more balanced picture for my readers as well as the listeners of my musical creations.
What kind of reader did you imagine engaging with this book?
I imagined the open-minded reader who enjoys delving into their higher selves. Who sees no limitations on what art should convey, nor is overly concerned with the niceties of art that is deemed comfortable.
I’ve always felt it’s not the job of the artist to make the person feel comfortable but to merely “feel.” It is this feeling that will Inspire future generations to continue & expound upon the precepts left by their artistic predecessors.
In short,
The mc was written for readers who are interested in art that has the potential to embrace the flames of eternity through bravery, which is eternal.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Artist/Songwriter/Producer/Writer/Actor and Dancer zO-AlonzO Gross is a hybrid of Philosophy, Prose, Poetry, Classic Literature, Parables, Art & Rap lyricism.
This Stunningly Unique book delves into such topics such as Spirituality, Adversity, Wisdom, Blackness, Death & Legacy all told with vivid Artwork from some of the World’s most formidable visual artists such as Pat Turner, Della Marie Perry, Ahannie_Nikoke & Hubert Daniluk. One will get the sense that this is something not to merely read, but to experience and feel as well as return to time and time again.
Nicknamed “Neo-Shakespeare” for his penchant of combining Classical Literature with Rap Aesthetics zO proves his range is diverse and ever far reaching as he delves into the realm of philosophy, prose & parables with a fresh insight Inspired by the Great thinkers of the written word pulling from a diverse array of Artists Friedrich Nietsche, Voltaire, Marcus Aurelius, Ayn Rand, Carl Jung, Audrey Lorde, e.e Cummings, William Shakespeare, Gil-Scott-Heron, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Woody Allen, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Langston Hughes, Kendrick Lamar, J.Cole, Nas, Tupac Shakur, Kahili Gibran, Rumi, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Robert Greene, Michael Eric Dyson & the words of Jesus Christ. An open mind with a willingness to look into the heart of the Universe is all that is needed to begin to grasp the concepts presented within this volume which will read different with every exploration.You are cordially and with Love Invited.Experience. Feel. Discover. the mc (Meditative ContemplationZ) by zO-AlonzO Gross.
The mc : THE MEDITATIVE CONTEMPLATIONZ
The Meditative ContemplationZ feels less like a conventional book than a staged interior performance, a gathering of aphorisms, prose-poems, meditations, and lyrical monologues arranged around spirituality, adversity, love, wisdom, death, Blackness, and legacy. What held me all the way through was the sense that zO-AlonzO Gross isn’t trying to build a neat argument so much as a lived atmosphere. He moves from compressed lines like “time leaveZ stretch marks” to longer pieces that open into memory, social critique, and testimony, as in the barber shop vignette “They call me speak easy,” with its grief over gentrification and lost Black community, or the recurring insistence that art, suffering, faith, and self-knowledge are bound together. The book’s visual dimension matters too. The paintings and photographs don’t feel ornamental. They reinforce the sense that this is a collaborative, almost theatrical object, one that wants to be seen as much as read.
Gross writes with a seriousness that can be hard to pull off, and here it works because the conviction is real. When he says the artist has to love the work past indifference, bad turnout, family doubt, and years of invisible labor, I believed him. The same goes for the passage comparing fighters and artists, where the body blows of one life meet the psychic blows of the other. That idea could’ve landed as a slogan in weaker hands, but here it has bruises on it. I also liked how often the book risks tenderness without getting soft. A line about love arriving as “a cold bottle of water next to her bed at 3 am” is so simple, so unshowy, and because of that it lingers. Even the spiritual passages, which lean grand and incantatory, have a searching quality rather than a smug one. The book keeps returning to the thought that to know God, or truth, or purpose, you have to strip away performance and get closer to the self beneath it.
This is a book whose force comes with rough edges, and I mean that as praise. The diction can be florid, the capitalization and stylization relentless, and some pieces hit with more depth than others. There were moments when the aphoristic mode flattened complexity into a pronouncement. But even then, the voice felt urgent, personal, and proudly self-fashioned. The sections on Blackness especially gave the book another register, sharper and more satirical, turning wit toward racism, stereotype, and the humiliating absurdities of public life. Those pieces widened the book’s emotional field. They reminded me that Gross is not only meditating in private but answering the world, sometimes with sorrow, sometimes with laughter, sometimes with a line sharpened like a blade. The artwork and photographs throughout fit the pieces beautifully, and they add a thoughtful, provocative visual layer that deepens the book’s reflective mood.
I found The Meditative ContemplationZ uneven in the way many deeply personal books are, but also vivid, memorable, and unmistakably alive. I came away feeling I’d spent time inside a singular mind, one that believes art should console, provoke, testify, and leave a mark. I’d recommend it most to readers who like poetry-inflected nonfiction, spoken-word energy on the page, and books that care more about voice, spirit, and emotional truth than formal restraint. It’s a book for people who don’t mind a little intensity if the feeling behind it is earned, and here, more often than not, it is.
Pages: 140 | ISBN : 978-1088058848
