Dry Ink » Hannibalized!

The Mighty Hannibal backed by Herman Hinson and the Buckboard Express at the filming of the Atlanta Burn to Shine. By Bryan Akers

“I’m not stepping foot into anywhere that Ted Kennedy is gonna be without a gun.”

That was Hannibal’s reply to me when I asked him why he brought a gun to Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral. “The secret service are all packin’, Ted Kennedy is packin’, I’m bringing my gun too.”
It was MLK day and I was speaking to The Mighty Hannibal as I was trying to simultaneously boil some perogies and rummage through my refrigerator for something to mix them with. Our conversation wound through race and politics as we traded sound bites and quotes from the primaries. He was livid over Robert Johnson’s thinly veiled drug reference comments about Barack Obama, his response is unprintable, and we both expressed our weariness about another term with the Clintons. His support for Obama stems largely from the fact that Hannibal sent him a record sometime last year and Obama wrote him a handwritten letter thanking him for turning him onto his music and appreciating his support. Montell Williams did the same thing. We wrapped up our conversation and I settled on the last of a jar of marinara sauce for the topping on my meal.

We talk almost every day. I talk to him more than my mom, more than my girlfriend, more than anyone in my life. Sometimes he needs a favor or a phone number; sometimes he just wants to hear where I’ve recently been to or what I’ve been keeping busy with. He always seems to call me at the most awkward of times. If I eat at some sketchy place for lunch and then am forced to barricade myself in the bathroom for an hour, the phone will ring and it will be Hannibal. In the middle of my exit review from college, in the middle of job interviews, Hannibal always seems to have bad timing with me, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

It truly is a privilege to have become friends with him over the past year. Unlike the few other phone calls that I receive, he isn’t calling me to nag me about something or to remind me to do this or that, he just wants to talk and be entertained for a few minutes. He is blind, don’t forget, and spends most of his days sitting by the phone calling his friends or calling people to push his records and music. It’s his only form of real entertainment. But it always gets back to the music with Hannibal. That’s his passion. That’s his drive. That’s what keeps him going.

When I visited his apartment in the South Bronx over the summer for an afternoon, I got an inside glimpse into his life. The living room of his apartment has just a couple of chairs, one of which is positioned next to a table on which rests his telephone. A brown cardboard box of his CDs and records sits underneath, and the only thing on his walls is his proclamation from Mayor Shirley Franklin declaring January 12^th Mighty Hannibal day in the city of Atlanta. We sat and listened to records for an entire afternoon and I felt like a better person because of it.

Hannibal is a remarkable individual who seems almost larger than life. He has a story for everything and they pretty much always check out. He knows everybody, seems to have been everywhere. I take our conversations for granted sometimes. I’ll be messing with something on my car and take his call and we’ll chat and then I’ll become engrossed in whatever it is that I was trying to do at the same time when all of a sudden Hannibal will end one of his diatribes with something like, “…and that’s who killed Sam Cooke!” or, “…and that’s how Sammy Davis Jr. got his eye gouged out!” and my ears will perk up.

He called me last week after he got off the phone with Little Richard’s brother. He told me that the only way to get Richard to do anything is to go through his brother, and apparently Little Richard said that he would write the introduction to the autobiographical book that Hannibal is trying to write. It’s appropriate enough, since Little Richard gave Hannibal the idea and the title for the autobiography. A few years ago the two old friends were talking and Hannibal was in the middle of one of his stories about jamming with Muhammad Ali or something similar, when Little Richard cut him off and said, “You know James, you should just write a book about this stuff.” “A book? I’m no legend like you,” Hannibal fired back. But before he could finish his sentence Little Richard cut him off, “No…. But you were there!”

And so hopefully in the next year or so I’m Not A Legend… But I Was There! will be published. It’s one of many irons that Hannibal currently has in his fire. There’s also the Burn to Shine film that was shot over the summer, and is the main reason that Hannibal and I have formed a friendship. On top of that, he’s been producing his own documentary on his life that he comes into town every once in a while to film a few more scenes of. He also called me recently asking if I knew any good lawyers. Not because he was in trouble or someone owed him money, but because he has been trying to charter a music school in his name for poor underprivileged children in the metro Atlanta area. He’s a busy man. When most of his peers are retired or taking it a lot easier, it seems as if he is trying to makeup for lost time.

A few weeks back my phone rang when I was at work. It was Hannibal. His message was short and brief, “Call me back, I need some advice.”

Need advice? My co-worker and I speculated what it could mean. It sounded serious. It was the same tone that the chubby kid on the bus in sixth grade used right before he launched into a long sob story wondering what he should do about the girl that he liked that isn’t noticing him. When I finally called him back he immediately went into it. Basically, his question was, if he put out his first show in Atlanta in 30 years that he did at the Earl on Mighty Hannibal day with the Black Lips on DVD, would anyone be interested?

“Absolutely!” I said, “I was there, it was great!”

“Fantastic. I knew I could count on you.”

And that was it. That was what he wanted. It was as if the entire decision weighed on my reaction to the idea. I know that wasn’t the case but it seemed kind of funny. I will go through great lengths for this man to help him in any way that I can. His request was simple. He wanted me to put a streamed version of the show online, and give details on how people could order a high quality DVD copy of it. So here it is, on Dry Ink TV. Hannibal’s first show in Atlanta in 30 years as backed by The Black Lips. And please, do yourself a favor and send Hannibal $15 for your own copy. Your life would be a little bit livelier and richer with him in it. Mine is and that is what I’m ultimately getting at. The Mighty Hannibal, in my eyes, is one of the last of an incredible generation of living legends in soul music and R&B. Once he is gone, the world will be a lot duller of a place because the man who got kicked out of James Brown’s funeral is truly a gift to us all.

For a Copy of this DVD please send a Check or Money Order for $15 plus $5 for shipping to:
James Shaw
1068 Ward Ave.
Apt 4C
Bronx, New York 10472

Additional contact info:
Email: jshawhanibal@aol.com
Phone: 347-597-8218

Please be sure to include your SHIP TO address.
www.themightyhannibal.com

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