Beny Blaq isn't your typical spoken word artist, "I'm not a backpack poet or an extra-revolutionary type," he says with a chuckle. He's not someone you can fit into a stereotype and that's what sets him apart from others.

The tracks on his debut album, The First Amendment , won't just have you grooving to the soulful rhythms, they'll also make you think. His first song (and motto), "Silence is Forbidden" starts the CD off with a strong message: We can't afford to be silent.

"I came up with the phrase when I first got into the industry. It stems from a poem that I wrote about my speech impediment - it almost kept me from being a spoken word artist."

Although Beny started writing poetry at the age of thirteen, he never intended to make it a career. In 2005 a friend coaxed him into trying the open mic at Bar Nun in Washington, DC. Beny realized it was time to take control of his stuttering. Proudly he shares with me, "I had to conquer it. I calmed my nerves and realized, it's like teaching and sharing rather than performing." A month later, he was asked to open up for a play, Prison Poetry , and four months after a comedy promoter asked if he wanted to perform in the mid-Atlantic NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) college tour.

"It all happened very quickly. I just wanted to get a feel for open mic and be around the scene. I had no expectations of doing it full-time, but now I am."

The First Amendment , which dropped in 2007, mixes Beny's smooth, commanding voice against the backdrop of R&B sounds. "I didn't want the music to drown out the message so I worked with producers to pick tracks that worked well with the themes."

Besides his life experiences Beny uses Black social issues as a muse for his writing. "I was in the Air Force for 10 years and during that time I lived in Kuwait for 4 months. When I returned, I noticed that African Americans often take things for granted so I wrote 'African Queen' to remind Black men to appreciate Black women."

His signature piece, "The Struggle," twists the names of rap labels to describe how Hip Hop has made rappers' "tongues become nooses." The strong imagery depicts blacks as the music industry's puppets, "They financially back these ways for us to suppress ourselves [through Hip Hop] and then they step out of the picture," says Beny passionately. The wide acclaim for "The Struggle" gave Beny the opportunity to speak on a panel discussion about using the "N-word" in lyrics.

Now Beny has started his own company, Beny Blaq Entertainment, and continues to tour all over the country. He also teaches writing workshops at youth centers and elementary schools.

"I taught a workshop at a juvenile detention center once and that was a definite challenge," he says, "Those were tough kids!"

While he's constantly performing, promoting his new monthly gig in Miami, and keeping up with his computer gadget collection (surprisingly he has a "Jimmy Neutron side"), Beny writes new lines on his PDA--there's just no time for the old fashioned pen and paper routine.

The success of Silence, which was nominated by NUSPA (National Underground Spoken Word and Poetry Award) for Album of the Year, has encouraged Beny to continue to make music with his wordplay. Currently he's working on his next CD, The Gift and the Curse , out mid-2008. The title is an attention-getter that will surely lure listeners into finding out the message behind it, "I learned so much from my first album and I want to come with more heart on this one...I want to open up and let people learn more about the poet."