Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
If I could request the resetting of the clock, it's on at four minutes at the moment,
I presume from the one before... Fantastic!
Okay! So, my name is Akala,
I'm from the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company.
And before we get into the philosophy of our work,
what that means, what the intention is behind it,
I'm going to challenge you guys to a little bit of a pop quiz.
And we've done this pop quiz quite a few times,
we'll talk about it after we do it.
I'm gonna simply tell you some quotes.
One line quotes, taken either from some of my favorite hip hop songs,
or some of my favorite Shakespearean plays or sonnets.
And you're gonna tell me by show of hands,
whether you think it's hip hop or Shakespeare.
(Laughter)
Does that make sense? Okay.
So the first one we'll go for is:
"To destroy the beauty from which one came."
If you think that's hip hop, raise your hands please.
If that's Shakespeare, raise your hands please.
Brilliant, okay, that's 70 percent towards Shakespeare.
It's from a gentleman known as Sean Carter, better known as Jay-Z,
from a track called "Can I live?"
We'll go for another one.
"Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit."
Hip hop?
Shakespeare?
Getting overwhelmingly towards Shakespeare. Interesting.
Anyone heard of a gentleman known as Eminem?
(Laughter)
He's not Shakespeare.
That's from a track Eminem did with Jay-Z actually, called "Renegade."
We'll go for a couple more.
"Men would rather use their broken weapons than their bare hands."
Hip hop?
Shakespeare?
Pretty even spread with a Shakespearean lean.
That one is from Shakespeare, it's from a play known as "Othello."
We go for:
"I was not born under a rhyming planet."
Hip hop?
Shakespeare?
That one is Shakespeare. It's from "Much Ado about Nothing."
We go for two more.
We go for:
"The most benevolent king communicates through your dreams."
Hip hop?
Shakespeare?
Ah, fifty-fifty there.
A gentleman known as the RZA who's the head of the Wu-Tang Clan.
We're gonna be revisiting the Wu-Tang later, we'll be talking about him a lot.
He's one of the main exponents of hip hop philosophy,
someone, or a collective, that had a huge influence on me.
But we'll revisit them.
Last quote of the day. Let's go for...
"Socrates, philosophies and hypotheses can't define."
Hip hop?
Shakespeare?
Overwhelmingly towards hip hop. And that one, that is hip hop.
That's Wu-Tang again, that's from a man named Inspectah Deck.
Interestingly, that quote comes from a single, or track,
known as "Triumph" from the album "Wu-Tang Forever."
"Wu-Tang Forever" was the first hip-hop album to go number one in this country.
So that was what made hip hop cross over with this kind of lyricism,
but we're gonna revisit that a little later and revisit the Wu-Tang, as I said.
So, as you can see, it wasn't as clear-cut as many of us may have thought.
The language used, the subjects spoken about,
various things make it very, very difficult once the context is taken away,
once our perception is taken away,
and we have to look at just the raw language of the two art forms.
And don't worry, we've done that exercise over 400 times,
and as of yet, no-one has got them all right.
Not even some of the most senior professors
at some of the most respected Shakespearean institutions in the country,
I shan't name names. (Laughter)
But needless to say: it's challenged a lot of people's perceptions
and we extend from that, we look at some of the other parallels
between hip hop and Shakespeare,
at some of the other things they share.
One of the main things that is shared between the two is of course rhythm.
Iambic pentameter -- dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dum.
Five sets, two beats, it's actually a wonderful rhythm
to use in hip hop music and translates in a way
that even artists writing today find difficult.
What do I mean by that?
It's very difficult to take, even as an MC, who is a professional MC,
a lyric written over a grime beat,
grime is a 140 bpm. Very, very fast tempo.
And then take that same lyric and put it on a...
what we consider to be a traditional hip hop beat, 70-80 bpm.
A very, very difficult skill. Even writing now,
with the music to hand.
Yet, the iambic pentameter allows us to do just that.
I'll show you what I mean rather than tell you. So listen up.
Cue music please.
(Music)
What you're about to hear, some of you may know of it,
some of you may not.
It's Shakespeare's most famous poem, Sonnet 18.
I haven't adopted it to make it fit to the rhythm, but just listen close.
Okay. Yo.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee."
(Applause)
Now as you can see, it sits right there in the rhythm.
It's right in the pocket of the beat.
Now we're gonna try a completely different style of beat, different tempo of beat.
You're gonna see the same lyric, because of this consistent rhythm, can fit.
Let's try.
(Music)
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee."
(Applause)
What I'd like you all to do is just put your hand on your heart for a second.
Now... If you feel your heart,
hopefully, your heart should be beating in sets of two,
one off, one on, dee-dum, or an iamb, as we call it.
If it isn't, I do suggest you consult a doctor as soon as possible.
But because of that -- you can take your hands off your hearts now --
But because of that, that's why this rhythm is so intrinsic,
where, really, music is imitating the rhythm of life, the sounds of life.
The heartbeat of life.
And so, this rhythm, iambic pentameter, even though being such a simple rhythm,
is intrinsic to so many forms of music.
Other places in the world, they have different sorts of rhythms.
Like the West-African rhythms, it's on the three,
people speak in triplets, essentially.
Well, we found that this rhythm really acts as a mnemonic device,
for young people to remember the lyrics.
But also, really, as a way to understand some of what is being said.
The rhythm helps us understand it.
It helps us to communicate feeling.
And of course, in hip hop, tonality,
the way you say what you're saying,
the mood with which what you're saying,
the rhythm with which what you're saying,
is as important as what you're actually saying.
But revisiting the philosophies
and the perceptions or conceptions of these two art forms,
these two things we think we know so much about,
we'll start with Shakespeare.
Over the course of the past three or four years,
having worked with hundreds, thousands of young people now,
at hundreds of workshops,
we found out very interesting things
about people's perception of Shakespeare.
Who they think he was,
what the inherited beliefs of the time in which he lived,
the people he was surrounded by, his background, are.
Some of them are of course, just as with hip hop, complete nonsense.
This idea for example that Shakespeare spoke,
as people say to us, posh, or the Queen's English.
Received pronunciation.
Well, received pronunciation we know wasn't invented
well after 100 years after Shakespeare died.
He'd never heard what we think of today as the Queen's English.
When he was alive, people spoke a bit more like a mix
between people from Yorkshire and Cornwall.
So for example, the word "hours" was pronounced "urrs."
"Urrs and urrs and urrs."
Or: "mood" and "blood" ... rhyme!
"mu:dd" and "blu:dd" was the way in which people would pronounce those words.
The times in which he lived, you know,
the chasm between rich and poor being larger than it is today,
though we seem to be doing our best to recreate that chasm.
But... you know, he was living in very tumultuous, very violent times
and we really receive almost a sanitized vision of that violence,
you know, coloring our view of the past.
We know over ninety percent of Shakespeare's audience
couldn't read or write.
So how is it that in the 21st century in Britain
that he's come to be viewed as almost the poster child for [elitism],
and even within that now we're getting a debate:
Did he even write his own plays?
Because of course, this comes down to
who's allowed to be the custodian of knowledge and who isn't.
Shakespeare was someone who didn't go [to uni].
He wasn't Oxbridge. He's seen -- by some -- they need to see him that way --
as someone who's not entitled to be a custodian of knowledge.
So we have to find an explanation for his intelligence
rather than just accepting his intelligence as an actual fact.
Which brings me on to hip hop.
Many people have opinions of hip hop --
of course, the media's had some very loud opinions of hip hop.
But I've found again over this working with thousands of people,
and these hundreds of workshops,
and interactions with these institutions,
many people who have an opinion of hip hop
know absolutely nothing about it.
Zero. Zip. What do I mean by that?
So... the very words "hip hop,"
the "hip" in that word comes from the Wolof word "hipi,"
Wolof is a Senegalese language,
it means "to open one's eyes and see" as a term of enlightenment.
The word "hop" from the English signifying movement,
thus "hip hop" means "intelligent movement."
Hip hop contains five elements
as codified by its founding fathers in New York City.
It contains five elements.
DJing, MCing, break dancing, graffiti art
and the fifth element, which is the one I want to talk about today:
Knowledge.
An element we don't see so much in the television or the radio, perhaps.
But of course the representations of that culture today are not owned
by the people who founded that culture.
But when it's understood,
if we go back to the medieval West-African empires
of Mali, Songhai, Gao, ancient Ghana,
you have a character that the Malians refer to as a griot.
These griots still exist today, well, who was the griot?
The griot was a rhythmic, oral poet, singer,
musician, custodian of the history, of the spiritual tradition, etc. etc. etc.,
of those empires, of that culture.
When we start to understand
how those musical oral cultural traditions manifested in many complex ways,
in the Americas, and helped influence jazz, blues, funk,
up to hip hop,
we get a much greater sense of what the founding fathers,
Afrika Bambaataa, Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash were trying to do
when they codified this culture in this way,
and understood in that context, of course,
hip hop becomes a very different proposition
to a way in which much of the time it has been represented,
when we understand what was going on in New York City
in the late seventies, early eighties.
People coming out of a post-civil rights era,
aesthetic influence by the literature of Amiri Bakara or James Baldwin,
influenced by the persona of a Muhammed Ali,
influenced by the funk of a James Brown.
James Brown the drummer, incidentally, is the most-sampled drummer in history.
His famous loop becomes the basis of all hip hop music.
And that is the only intellectually honest context
in which to place hip hop as a culture.
And that's kind of what I grew up in.
That's what I was massively influenced by.
And it became, really... Up until the mid-nineties, it was still normal
for the most commercially successful rappers to boast about how clever they were.
To talk about kicking science, dropping knowledge,
spreading mathematics, while simultaneously
talking about what life was like in the projects of New York City.
There was no contradiction between both of those elements,
and again, it was about who was custodian of the knowledge.
Who was choosing to pick up that baton and run with it?
And one of the things that was so inspirational about hip hop
was that people who were told they were not supposed to do that,
without trying to be anything they weren't,
without dressing any different,
without speaking any differently,
they decided, they made the decision:
"We're going to become custodians of this knowledge.
We're gonna educate ourselves
and we're gonna transmit this knowledge through the music."
The main exponents of that in my life, the main influence on me,
was this group I already told you about, the Wu-Tang Clan.
When "Wu-Tang Forever" came out, when I was in school,
it was the first album that united people that listened to all different sorts of music.
And up to then, hip hop, still, in London, really only appealed to
a particular segment of the people, in my school, anyway.
And then "Wu-Tang Forever" came out,
and all of a sudden, kids who listened to Heavy Metal,
kids who were into Blur and Oasis,
everybody was united around this one sort of album.
And what was it about?
It was this openly proud, intelligent discourse
that was so undeniable that really appealed,
in my opinion, and pulled everybody in.
And I'm gonna show you an example of a poem,
well, what I would call a poem, but some people would call it rap,
by the lead member of this group, a gentleman known as the RZA.
I spoke about him earlier.
He actually produced the music for the film "Kill Bill" as well,
so some people may know him better in that capacity.
There was a poem he wrote called "Twelve Jewels,"
and this will give you just a sense, as someone, as I said,
who was one of the most successful MCs of his time,
how normal it was to be so boastful about one's intellect.
It's a piece called "Twelve Jewels," you can look it up on the internet.
I'm only gonna share a little bit.
It goes like this:
"In pre-existence of the mathematical, biochemical equations,
the manifestations of rock, plant, air, fire and water,
without their basic formations, solids, liquids and gases,
that cause the land masses and the space catalysts
and all matter that exists and this dense third dimension
must observe a physical comprehension.
It takes a nerve to be struck.
Wisdom is the wise poet spoken to wake up the dumb who've been sleeping.
The fourth dimension is time. It goes inside the mind.
When the shackles energize up through the back of your spine.
So observe as my Chi energy strikes a vital nerve.
One swerve with the tongue pierces like a sword through the lung.
Have you not heard that words kill as fast as bullets?
When you load negative thoughts from the chamber of your brain,
and your mouth pulls the trigger that propels wickedness straight from hell.
From the pits of your stomach where negativity dwells."
That's just a little piece of the RZA's "Twelve Jewels."
But it's interesting.
Because when you understand that kind of lyricism,
you realize that hip hop carries that same power as with Shakespeare.
You know, the transmute philosophy, as with any great art,
to question the world around us.
And this brings us, really, to the conclusion
about what the work we do with the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company
from theater productions to education productions
to hopefully film and TV, which we're working on at the moment.
What it's all about
it's about who is going to be custodian of the knowledge?
And in the 21st century, particularly moving towards post-industrial societies,
where we don't need masses of workers,
we're not training masses of workers to go and work in factories anymore,
these are big questions.
What is the purpose of education today?
What are we teaching young people?
What are we training the next generation to do and form?
Are we training each individual human being in a society
where, increasingly, the success or failure of a society
is going to be dependent on the mind, or ideas, of the people within that society?
Are we training people to aspire to be the best they can be?
To reach their full potential?
Wherever they're born in that society
or are we still working in the old, stratified ways of thinking
that people have stations and places they need to be,
or are we encouraging people to think as big as possible?
Because maybe, I don't know who in Shakespeare's life
encouraged him to become a custodian of the knowledge,
but if he was not able to do that, we'd be missing his section of work,
similarly with hip hop.
So really, that's what we want to think about.
Education, who does it belong to, who doesn't it belong to.
And using these seemingly disparate art forms,
these two seemingly disparate worlds,
and putting them together,
to show ourselves a unity in human culture,
a unity in the ideas that humans pursue,
in activities humans pursue.
And to inspire people towards their own form
of artistic, literary, cultural and societal accents.
I'm gonna share with you a little bit... one final piece.
It's a bit more... I don't want to say "fun,"
but a bit more of a game and a challenge.
It came out of a radio, "Freestyles" on Radio 1 Extra,
about two and a half, three years ago.
And as a bit of a joke, the DJ said to me,
"Here's a list of 27 Shakespeare plays,
attempt to fit them in a freestyle."
Luckily, we did it, I don't know how, we had about ten minutes, though,
so it wasn't a true freestyle in the truest sense,
but we did it as a track that we then, subsequently, put on the album,
so the first part contains 27 Shakespeare plays,
the next parts contains
16 of Shakespeare's most famous quotes interwoven.
It's entitled "Comedy, Tragedy, History,"
you can look it up on the web, and it goes like this.
I'm just gonna do it here, let's see how it goes.
"Dat boy Akala's a diamond fella.
All you little boys are a comedy of errors.
You bellow but you fellows get played like the cello.
I'm doing my thing, you're jealous like Othello.
Who're you? What're you gonna do? Little boys get Tamed like the Shrew.
You're mid-summer dreamin', Your tunes aren't appealing.
I'm Capulet, you're Montague, I ain't feeling. I am the Julius Caesar, hear me?
The Merchant Of Venice couldn't sell your CD. As to me, All's Well That Ends Well.
Your boy's like Macbeth, you're going to Hell. Measure for Measure, I am the best here,
You're Merry Wives of Windsor, not King Lear.
I don't know about Timon, I know he was at Athens.
When I come back like Hamlet you pay for your action.
Dat boy Akala, I do it As You Like It.
You're Much Ado About Nothing, All you do is bite it.
I'm too tight, I don't need 12 Nights. All you little Tempests get murked on the mic.
Of course I'm the one with the force. You're history just like Henry IV.
I'm fire, things look dire. Better run like Pericles Prince Of Tyre.
Off the scale, cold as a Winter's Tale Titus Andronicus was bound to fail."
That's 27 plays.
(Laughter) (Applause) Listen up.
And there is one final bit, this contains 16 of Shakespeare's most famous quotes.
"Wise is the man that knows he's a fool Tempt not a desperate man with a jewel.
Why take from Peter to go and pay Paul? Some rise by sin and by virtue fall.
What have you made if you gain the whole world. But sell your own soul for the price of a pearl?
The world is my oyster and I am starving. I want much more than a penny or a farthing.
I told no joke, I hope you're not laughing. Poet or pauper which do you class him?
Speak eloquent, though I am resident to the gritty inner city, surely irrelevant.
Call it urban, call it street. A rose by any other name, smell just as sweet
Spit so hard, but I'm smart as the Bard. Come through with a Union Jack, full of yard.
Akala, Akala, wherefore art thou?
[I rap] Shakespeare and the secret's out now.
Chance never did crown me, this is destiny. You still talk but it still perplexes me.
Devour cowards, thousands per hour. Don't you know the king's name is a tower?
You should never speak it, it is not a secret. I teach thesis, like ancient Greece's
Or Egyptology, never no apology. In my mind's eye, I see things properly.
Stopping me, nah you could never possibly. I bear a charmed life, most probably.
For certain I speak daggers in a phrase. I'll put an end to your dancing days.
No matter what you say it will never work. Wrens can't make prey where eagles don't perch.
I'm the worst with the words 'cause I curse all my verbs.
I'm the first with a verse to rehearse with a nurse.
There's a hearse for the first jerk who turn berserk. Off with his head, 'cos it must not work.
Ramp with Akala, that's true madness. And there's no method in it, just sadness.
I speak with the daggers and the hammers of a passion when I'm rappin' I attack 'em.
In a military fashion the pattern of my rappin' chattin couldn't ever map it.
And I run more rings round things than Saturn. Verses split big kids wigs when I'm rappin'.
That boy Akala, the rap Shakespeare. Didn't want to listen, when I said last year.
Rich like a gem in a Ethiopia's ear. Tell them again for them who never hear."
It's a pleasure.
(Applause)