Page 38 - Provoke Magazine Vol3

OWords with bbie
WEST
I sat on the couch to chat with a poet I have been following since 2014. His performance had me immediately captivated. His stage presence and concise delivery made me run several Google and YouTube searches to keep up with his star power. You can find our full interview on the Provoke US Magazine YouTube channel, but I want to highlight parts of our talk here. Heavily edited so make sure to check out the full feature! There are more details and a performance as well. I was able to get some information he admitted most hadn’t asked about. I am glad to have been the first to get us the details; this brother is one you will remember!
Edward Wilson is how you were born, what birthed about Obbie West? I wish it was a little deeper than what it is. I was never a fan of social media, but I got on Facebook with the intentions of finding an old friend. I didn’t want to use my name and most people knew me as Bobbie so I scrambled the letters in the name and came up with Obbie I am from the Westcoast and that was Obbie West. I didn’t know at the time, people could search you by your email. I started getting friend requests and engaging. Shortly after that, I began modeling and poetry came next. Anyone who met me from those worlds knew me as Obbie West and now I can’t shake it.
Hailing from the West Coast, what brought you to way to Texas? When I was 17 I joined the military. I am playing Sega and I hear a guy talking to my mom about a place that I could eat and live for free that had nothing to do with being incar- cerated. I didn’t want my mom to take care of me even though I was a mama’s boy. But I didn’t want to add pressure. Once you join the military, I chose the army, they put you where they want to put you. I retired in January this year and nobody knows about any of that. To avoid the stigma of people associ- ating me fully with things I was part of that aren’t me I’ve kept those parts of my life separate. When did the poetic side of you come about? 2013.
So you are a newbie and this good? The newbie part yes, this good, I appreciate, (he laughed) Newbie is relative to my peers. Growing up for me roses are red violets are blue was poetry. But I studied the words. I was fascinated by the color- ful expression of pimps. Not what they stood for but how they said it. I arrived at a time when one day I was in the shower and my mind had left earth. I was living a life of necessity and
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