I’m often asked where the name SilencioBarnes comes from. There’s no big mystery. Here’s where the name comes from, and what it means.
What’s In a Name?
If you were called by anything else…wouldn’t you still be you? I’ve had quite a few names over time. Here’s a non-exhaustive list:
- Lil Shady (after a name they used to call my father)
- Preacher (from how I spoke when I was younger)
- Malcolm (from how I carried myself…and talked, in my youth)
- Poet or Poetry (for obvious reasons)
- Nalij (Knowledge)
- Barnes (or Mr. Barnes)
I have a few more names besides. I still answer to any of them, or whatever else people choose to call me. But, SilencioBarnes (or Silence Born) is the name I’ve settled on.
SilencioBarnes is an amalgamation of two different names: Silencio (Silence) and Nalij Barnes (Knowledge Born). SilencioBarnes is in CamelCase when used as a stage name. It’s separated into Silencio Barnes when used in any other context.
Barnes (Born)
I’ll start with the Barnes part, as that came first. Around my way, I chose the name Nalij for myself (a bastardization of Knowledge). I felt the name suited me and my personality. Even the deliberate misspelling came from my idea of twisted knowledge.
To this day, I’m still known as Nalij (or Barnes) to many, and I readily answer to it. At the time, I was also on my 5 Percenter shit, studying my 120. Barnes is a bastardization of the word Born. Born is represented by the #9 in Supreme Mathematics, and Knowledge by the #1.
When the movie Belly came out, there was a character named Knowledge in it (the name Knowledge is ubiquitous among the Nation of Gods and Earths). At one point, a character played by Method Man greets him with “Knowledge Born! What’s the Science?!” This phrase spread around the hood like wildfire. From then on, anytime I was introduced as Nalij, somebody would inevitably say that catchphrase…it stuck.
Understand, when you say “Born,” it comes out sounding like “Bones” or “Barnes.” That’s just hood vernacular. After some time, people dropped the Nalij and just called me Barnes, or Bones. 
Silencio (Silence)
Silencio – well, that’s a different story. I went to a trade school, Cassadaga Job Corps, to be exact. While there, my initial reticence to talk much around strangers led to the Hispanic kids calling me Silencio. It stuck. After a while, everybody called me Silence or Silencio.
I liked the name and ran with it. It fit who I was at that place and time. I also wanted to get away from the GodBody/5 Percenter stuff as it no longer held any interest for me. I always appreciated the core concepts, but building with the Gods can get to be a little too much. Imagine talking geopolitics and race relations with a dude named C Peace Cipher Divine I Allah who throws more slang, acronyms, abbreviations, big words, and metaphors at you than you can process (in ONE sentence!), and you’ll get the picture.
Putting it Together
I was thinking of doing something more professional with my poetry and music, and wanted a unique stage name. I did a search for Nalij and found there was a million of them out there. Still, I identified with Nalij most, so I was at a loss. I came up with the idea of putting the Silencio with the Barnes. I thought it was rather clever and unique (yes, I know it’s a mouthful at 5 syllables).
There is a special spiritual and poetic significance to my name as well. My name plays with the concept of Silence and the idea of Born or Birth. Sometimes it pops up in my works. For example, here’s the chorus of my short track challenge song, Silk:
I think, therefore I stay in form, with darkness comes the quiet storm
Within that storm my thought is formed, and that is where my Silence Borns
And, sometimes, it just means to bear the weight of silence. Get it? No? Well, fuck it, I tried.
Also, if you actually just read all of that…then I love you. Seriously.
The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Five Percenters or the Nation of Gods and Earths ( NGE/ NOGE), is a black supremacist movement influenced by the Nation of Islam founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, by Clarence 13X, a former member of the Nation of Islam who was previously known as Clarence Edward Smith.
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21 Feb 2014
0 CommentsPopular Gay Rap Songs Are On the Horizon
There’s always been a stigma attached to gay people in the hip-hop community. But the times, they are a-changin. With people becoming more and more relaxed with the idea of gay people in our midst (mind you, they’ve ALWAYS been there), we’re seeing more of them come out. Sports figures are talking about it, musicians are talking about it, celebrities have been talking about it.
But what about the rappers? There’s always been rumors of gay rappers. In fact, almost every rapper that’s achieved any kind of success, has been accused of homosexuality. But what about the future? Given the current path that American society is set on, it’s almost guaranteed that we will not only have openly gay rappers, but openly gay rappers that make openly gay songs. Just think of all those club bangers you love to hear…and then put a gay slant on them.
I posted this on the Facebook wall of my main page the other night:
Now, I said that to be funny. But think about it. These songs WILL come eventually. I’m sure there’s already stuff like that out there, but it’s either tongue-in-cheek (so to speak:), or it’s so underground, only a select few know. I’m talking about billboard charting rap pop songs. When it comes on in the club…will you dance to it? Or act like the beat ain’t hot? 😛
I predict this will happen with the transgender community as well. If you know anything about the music industry, you’ll know that if one song becomes popular, the labels will try to force it down our throats for profit (pun intended).
Consider that the current crop of kids growing up will see a lot of this as normal. Other than the kids that are raised with stuff like this specifically pointed out to them as bad. I can’t wait to see it. Mostly because I want to see the backlash that comes from a very popular gay rap song. It’s going to be epic to begin with, and then it’s going to become the norm. As is the progress of all things.
Here are some links where you can read smarter and less lazier people than me speaking on the subject:
And this one’s just for fun 🙂
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