House & Adiahla

We are the “Black Dynamic Duo of Heavy Mental Poetry”, our groups name is Higher.Soul.Power.  We are known at the many poetry and cafe houses through out New York’s five boroughs. We make our daily living selling books, mixed CDs, incense and other novelties.  We are known as AD.DI.AH.LA and House, and we have the advantage of meeting people from all over the world everyday; that is the great advantage of being a native New Yorker: New York doesn’t have to go to the world but the world always comes to New York.

To be a true New Yorker is like becoming a professor or a scholar or “Battle Hardened Combat Veteran” that is always ready for a Fresh New Lesson. Because New York is forever changing and complicated like a Rubic’s Cube or a battle field, you never know what to expect.  New York is an education within itself; it is not for the weak or feeble. If you are just coming to New York: “you have to be use to constant change” because it’s like entering into kindergarten.  For example, I saw a guy that was real nice from Pakistan open a news stand, with a big Kool-Aid smile on his face, within two months he was a complete cursing monster with an angry bitter face.  If you are soft in New York, it will make you hard.  New York is like a martial arts teacher that never runs out of techniques or moves, just when you got it figured out, it transforms on you.  So to become a New Yorker is like a spiritual experience.  New Yorkers are like a private club with their own language and their own club card that says “Tough and Ready for Whatever.”  We [AD.DI.AH.LA and House] consider ourselves: “Top Scholars of New York.”

We are the Drum & Bass-Afro Punk B.K. Kings, but it’s all about New York. New York is special to us.  It is the Big City of Dreams, and of course everything in New York ain’t all of what it seems.  The people control the rhythm of New York.  When we think of New York, we think of music. Music is the spirit of New York, and the music is diverse as the people — you can never stereotype in New York.  Look at us, we are two big black guys that love Japanese and Spanish food and that love Rock & Roll and Drum & Bass, and of course Underground Hip Hop.  The night life in New York is like getting high off reality.  The food, the fashion, the vibration, the people  - they work together like different instruments in a band.  You can find peace, or if you’re looking for it, a whole lot of trouble; or you can find the in between, which is living on the edge.  Nothing shocks New York.  New York is always the place to be.