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Poetry by Rowan Evans

Tag: Eminem

  • Pull the Lever — Poetry, Hip-Hop, Cadence & the Music That Shaped Rowan Evans

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    I’ve written before about how much Hip-Hop shaped the way I write, but Pull the Lever is a little more personal about that history.

    I got into Hip-Hop young—around nine years old—and artists like DMX, Eminem, Ludacris, Mystikal, and 2Pac became part of the musical landscape I grew up in. I wasn’t trying to become a rapper; I was learning cadence. I was listening to how words moved, how syllables landed, how rhythm could turn language into something physical.

    That influence never really left.

    As I got older, though, my musical world expanded beyond American Hip-Hop. I started listening to music in other languages, and eventually Korean Hip-Hop became part of that landscape too. The final section of this poem deliberately crosses that bridge: Outsider, MC Sniper, and Drunken Tiger are Korean Hip-Hop references, following the line about me mentally crossing the sea.

    There’s something fitting about that progression. The kid who learned cadence from American Rap eventually became a writer whose relationship with rhythm stretched far beyond one language, one country, or one genre.

    I may write poetry, but the rapper’s mind is still wired into the pen.

    — Rowan Evans

    A notebook and pen surrounded by Hip-Hop imagery, transitioning from an American cityscape into a Korean night skyline, with subtle tiger and rhythmic sound motifs.
    From American Rap to Korean Hip-Hop, the rhythm stayed with me—the cadence simply crossed the sea.

    Pull the Lever
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    Pull the lever to find out
    what the cow says—

    The cow says, “move bitch,
    get out the way”—
    like Ludacris and Mystikal,
    don’t piss me off,
    my shit gets mythical.

    I was nine,
    memorizing every line
    that DMX spit—
    like the Ruff Ryders Anthem,
    that was my shit.

    I learned the cadence from Em,
    so when I spit, I spit like Slim—
    not a rapper, just a writer
    with a rapper’s mind wired in.

    I got into Hip-Hop
    the same year
    we lost Pac—
    that was ’96,
    in case you forgot.

    And in my teens,
    I took my love for the game
    and mentally
    crossed the sea—

    I was an outsider,
    so I found the Outsider
    that spoke to me.

    And I studied religiously—
    until my lines hit
    with the precision of a Sniper.

    Hit the bars too hard,
    got my Tiger’s heart
    feeling like a Drunken master.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Slim & Shady Series]

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Slim & Shady IX: Gods & Monsters – Epic Poetry by Rowan Evans

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Slim & Shady IX: Gods & Monsters is a reckoning—an apex of myth, chaos, and lyrical ferocity. In this piece, Olympus trembles beneath the weight of words, monsters roar, and gods are challenged not by force, but by rhythm, rhyme, and raw audacity.

    This installment celebrates the audacious collision of legend and rebellion, a tribute to the voices that have inspired my craft while marking the evolution of my own. It is a hymn for those who revel in chaos, who understand that power is not only in the divine, but in the sharpness of syllables, the precision of cadence, and the courage to rewrite the canon.

    Read it as you would a storm: let it crack the sky, let it shake the ground, let it echo in your bones. Here, I am both the shadow and the spark, the sinner and the saint, and the lyric that laughs while Olympus falls.

    — Rowan Evans

    Rowan Evans-inspired bard confronting gods and monsters atop a crumbling Olympus in epic fantasy style
    Step into the storm—Rowan Evans’ Slim & Shady IX: Gods & Monsters merges myth, rap, and chaos in poetic epicness.

    Slim & Shady IX: Gods & Monsters
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I step into Olympus like a burglar with a grudge,
    my words lightning—zip, crack, jagged—
    splitting the sky between divine and damned.
    Zeus blinks, Apollo spits fire,
    but I don’t flinch, I spit back in kind:
    “Your thunder is borrowed, your glory recycled.
    I’m the storm you whispered of in bedtime tales,
    trained in Multiverse & Madness, tempered in velvet venom.”

    Monsters crawl from shadows—Cerberus grins,
    Hydra heads nod,
    each spit venom in Morse code—“Bow or bleed.”
    I laugh, syllables slicing teeth like blades:
    “Bow? Please. Crowns are gutter trophies.
    Bleed? I bathe in ink, come out polished, primed, and lethal.”
    The echoes of Roses & Ruin taught me subtle cruelty; Olympus is my canvas.

    Athena steps forward, wisdom blazing, spear poised.
    I match her gaze, wordplay lacing her logic:
    “Brains without scars are brittle, goddess.
    Even Olympus cracks; silk & sin whispered the lesson—humility through surrender.”
    Her armor gleams, but I see the cracks—my verses find them, widen them, crown them.

    Hades smirks, shadows curling like smoke:
    “Child, you trespass in my playground.”
    I tip my crown, crooked, cocky:
    “Your playground is a grave. I’m here to haunt you tonight.”
    Each line a hammer, each pause a guillotine.
    Brimstone hums in my veins; Blood & Brimstone sang the prep, now I dance.

    Monsters cheer, gods frown,
    and I don’t care—
    I spit verses like bullets ricocheting off marble and bone.
    Word for word, myth for myth,
    I am the chaos in their canon,
    the question mark in every prophecy.

    Poseidon crashes oceans at my feet,
    but I rhyme tidal waves into whispers,
    turn floods into fountains that crown me in silver and ash.
    The monsters howl; the gods bite lips.
    Velvet & Venom drips from every syllable.

    “Gods of Olympus, Monsters of myth, listen—
    I am ink staining legends,
    the echo rewriting epics.
    You think in absolutes; I think in fractures.
    You worship power; I worship voice.
    You claim eternity; I claim truth.
    Bow if you must. Tremble if you can.
    I am both: shadow and spark, sinner and saint,
    the lyric that laughs while heavens fall.”

    Thunder cracks. Cerberus snarls.
    Hydra hisses in unison.
    Athena blinks. Hades pauses.
    And in the silence that follows, I roar:
    “Gods. Monsters. Try me.”

    If you are interested in reading the whole series, find it here: The Slim & Shady Series

    And if you just want to read more of my work, you can find that here: The Library of Ashes