registered in England (Company No 02017289) with its registered office at 26 Red Lion But at the same time, in Titus Andronicus, one guy gets annoyed with another guy, so he chops him up, puts him in a pie, feeds him to his enemy’s parents, you know?

No one feels intimidated by Bob Marley, though.

Since 2009, under the auspices of his “Hip-hop Shakespeare Company,” Akala has been going to community centers, prisons, and schools in immigrant and underserved communities, using the tools of hip-hop to spread an understanding of the relevance of Shakespeare’s poetry. I’m saying what RZA rapped about was… or  Lauryn Hill or any of these great artists, to me, they are my Shakespeares, they are my philosophers, they’re the people who got me into history. Hip Hop and Shakespeare Akala and the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company Teacher Edition- Answers are. What really stood out for you in Akala’s talk?

But what we look at… one of the things that’s interesting about the iambic pentameter, anyone who’s an MC will know that it’s very difficult to write a verse that is transferable. MICHAEL WITMORE: This is a Shakespeare podcast so let’s start by reading some Shakespeare.

Use evidence from the play to support your response. Making connections between Hip Hop rhythms and iambic pentameter in Shakespeare's verse. [CLIP from Akala’s track, “Comedy Tragedy History”]. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account.

A few days ago I wrote about a plan to play a game with my students entitled ‘Hip Hop or Shakespeare?’. BARBARA: Now, you said even when you then change the rhythm it’s fine. You can find more about the Folger at our website, folger.edu. Previous: Creating TNT's Will | Next: Shakespeare's Kitchen.

I will do. Maybe it's hatred I spew; maybe it's food for the spirit Hip Hop Shakespeare.

I am one that I sometimes am critical of mainstream hip-hop and the violence and the misogyny and whatever else. AKALA: I think there’s a lot of different things and it depends where you are. BARBARA: Was it performance first for you? For instance, they share many common misconceptions; Shakespeare as being culturally ‘high-brow’ and of the Queen’s English, and hip hop as being purely gangsta rap. AKALA: There was a … it has echoes of Hamlet. I mean you gotta remember when blues was around, you know, in the UK, we have a paper called the Daily Mail, a favorite right-wing paper. Now I wantSpirits to enforce, art to enchant,And my ending is—. All rights reserved. We invite you to personally participate in the life of the Folger Shakespeare Library by making a tax-deductible donation to the institution. Garland Scott is the associate producer. Yeah? Hip Hop. BARBARA: That’s right. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. You can hear immediately that is not the same as “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day.” It doesn’t have the same roll to it. All Folger programs and events will be held at other venues during construction. You know, they watch MTV and they see MTV’s version of hip-hop culture, which is ironic given that, you know, Viacom is this massive big corporation.

Akala is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. This activity involves students watching a TED talk by hip-hop artist Akala, who highlights links between Shakespeare and hip-hop. But it’s the consistency, I think.

Akala claims that hip hop was originally a way to record knowledge or to brag about one’s intelligence. Both my dad and my step-dad run sound systems and hip-hop. Square

lyrics and which are lines from Shakespeare: -“To destroy the beauty from which one came…”, -“Maybe it’s hatred I spew; maybe it’s food for the spirit.”, -“Men would rather use their broken weapons than their bare hands.”, -“I was not born under a rhyming planet.”, -“The most benevolent king communicates through your dreams.”, -“Socrates, philosophies, and hypotheses can’t define it.”. It’s almost like he’s poking fun at them. Become a teacher member to get access to lesson plans and professional development.

To destroy the beauty from which one came Hip Hop Shakespeare. 4 0 obj Maybe it’s food for the spirit.

This is heavily raised class. And I was like… so people would hear a rhyme differently in different languages. The fact that he dealt with the flaws of humanity.

What was the popular perception of jazz when jazz was the dominant youth culture for black America?

What is the definition of the phrase “hip hop”?

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. AKALA: Yeah, what we try to… I show young people, adult or anyone, I think as a songwriter, for me, actually, any songwriter should be engaging with Shakespeare’s work, if you’re interested (a) in lyricism, but (b) in rhythm. That’s kind of fascinating.

Who We Are. Well done. BARBARA: Okay, that I didn’t know.

“Maybe it’s hatred I spew. Tes Global Ltd is

But, actually, perceptions of Shakespeare can be problematic. BARBARA: Well you also do this interesting exercise… I saw a presentation of yours in India where you asked people to find the pocket of the rhythm in a Shakespeare passage. Sleep is the cousin of death.”.

I don’t think it has the same ring. For instance, they share many common misconceptions; Shakespeare as being culturally ‘high-brow’ and of the Queen’s English, and hip hop …

I don’t… no, definitely not.

He became part of the elite in a way. But it was essentially a concept album with key passages from the text kept. I have a… or so-called. Materially corrupt,Spiritually amuck,Oblivious to the cause,Prosperously bankrupt.Blind leading the blind,Guilty never defined,Filthy as swine,A generation pure in its own mind.

But it’s a dangerous point of reference to think that people suddenly started making music under the condition of enslavement.

Quer ser o melhor vai ser o melhor pra tua comunidadeUm som por semana?Não sou esse tipo de MCEu faço um som por anoE tu não fica uma semana sem ouvirMensageiro sim senhorVagabundo se emocionaPorque sente o espírito dos ancestrais, Griot! It’s not there to beat you over the head with. It doesn’t matter that it’s from the projects of Staten Island.

You must know that this guy is clearly good at putting words together. AKALA: Right.

But what do you want people to go home with? ( Log Out / 

Using rap music to interpret Shakespeare is the most popular approach among educators when drawing connections between hip-hop and Shakespeare. 3. Ian McKellen came. He is an icon and that’s fine. AKALA: A hundred percent.

1. But many of these stories are not original stories. The two were not mutually exclusive as hip hop artists wanted to educate themselves and others and transmit their knowledge through music. Students answer a few questions about this talk, then watch another video - a fictional rap battle between Shakespeare and Dr Seuss. AKALA: Yeah, well, I mean they think they know it. BARBARA: Well, and that’s the irony, too. The sonnets fall into two groups: sonnets. Most people know the iambic pentameter, but if you look at something at like The Tempest, it’s not in pentameter at all.

Students then compose their own rap verse (as Shakespeare) to 'speak back' to Thing One and Thing Two.

“The milk of human kindness” Shakespeare. That’s not an easy feat and…, AKALA: Yeah, exactly, right? BARBARA: So, and for people who haven’t heard it, you recite a passage, I gather, and you ask the audience, do they think it’s hip-hop or do they think it’s Shakespeare. ( Log Out /  And so people would gather. BARBARA: Well I’d love to hear your Dostoyevsky rap, but I’m gonna content myself with your Shakespeare ones.

I mean it’s… listen, I don’t like to embarrass people but we did a workshop, one of our launch workshops. AKALA: Yeah, I mean he is an icon.

I’m Michael Witmore, the Folger’s director and, no, I’m not going to give you the answer right now. AKALA: How difficult that is to do to make sense, to rhyme, to be semi-autobiographical and to put ten syllables in every single line.

Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and DerbyAm I, who ready here do stand in arms. Created: May 1, 2012| Updated: Oct 13, 2013. 1.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. Miles Davis, of course he’s a genius.” It’s similar with hip-hop.

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This website and its content is subject to our Terms and And it’s ‘cause it was “mood” and “blood” or “loins” and “loins,” which means loins and lines. It’s literally all over the place. It wasn’t allowed to be in the city because it wasn’t considered proper by the religious establishment of the time. They’re a bit naïve and it’s, for me, it’s this ability to convey what it is to be human, the human frailties but these timeless characters, more than even the plays themselves, these… they’ve become real people, if you like. It’s all over the place. If you’re not an expert on jazz or on classical music, it can all sound the same till you get into it, right?

AKALA: Yeah, we did a production of Richard II which we’re revamping and will go on tour soon. London WC1R 4HQ.

And when you hear a song, same thing. AKALA: What we now call hip-hop, really, the main thing that changed with hip-hop was the production technique rather than the art of rhythmically rhyming over the beat of a drum that had been going on for hundreds of years.

I mean I deliberately when… so when I designed this exercise, I deliberately obviously didn’t pick certain instances from Shakespeare with line…. But the fact is, similarly with Shakespeare’s sonnets, to take a coherent narrative, to rhyme it over the beat, to actually have flow and persona, like any art form is very, very difficult. AKALA: Well, he wasn’t from the bottom of the society.

Your ears literally don’t have the vocabulary to understand it. I have a problem with that being the only voice that cuts through and being seen as the dominant perception.

AKALA: Yeah, I mean the politics of class, really, in the UK, even in a lot of Britain’s former colonies, actually, there’s less of an intimidation, ironically, towards Shakespeare than in the UK itself, where if you’re in India, for example, you know, a society where they have their own three millennia long tradition of, you know, literary history, people I worked with in India, I… even children from tougher backgrounds were just like, Shakespeare’s… yeah, he’s another writer.