WEBVTT

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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

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If I could request the resetting of the clock, 
it's on at four minutes at the moment,

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I presume from the one before...
Fantastic!

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Okay! So, my name is Akala,

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I'm from the Hip Hop
Shakespeare Company.

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And before we get into 
the philosophy of our work,

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what that means, what 
the intention is behind it,

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I'm going to challenge you guys 
to a little bit of a pop quiz.

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And we've done this pop quiz 
quite a few times,

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we'll talk about it after we do it.

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I'm gonna simply tell you some quotes.

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One line quotes, taken either from 
some of my favorite hip hop songs,

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or some of my favorite 
Shakespearean plays or sonnets.

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And you're gonna tell me
by show of hands,

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whether you think it's
hip hop or Shakespeare.

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(Laughter)

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Does that make sense? Okay.

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So the first one we'll go for is:

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"To destroy the beauty from which one came."

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"To destroy the beauty from which one came."

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If you think that's hip hop, 
raise your hands please.

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If that's Shakespeare, 
raise your hands please.

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Brilliant, okay, that's 70 percent 
towards Shakespeare.

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It's from a gentleman known as 
Sean Carter, better known as Jay-Z,

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from a track called "Can I live?"

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We'll go for another one.

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"Maybe it's hatred I spew, 
maybe it's food for the spirit."

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"Maybe it's hatred I spew, 
maybe it's food for the spirit."

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Hip hop?

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Shakespeare?

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Getting overwhelmingly towards 
Shakespeare. Interesting.

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Anyone heard of a gentleman 
known as Eminem?

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(Laughter)

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He's not Shakespeare.

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That's from a track Eminem did 
with Jay-Z actually, called "Renegade."

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We'll go for a couple more.

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"Men would rather use their broken weapons 
than their bare hands."

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"Men would rather use their broken weapons 
than their bare hands."

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Hip hop?

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Shakespeare?

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Pretty even spread with
a Shakespearean lean.

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That one is from Shakespeare, 
it's from a play known as "Othello."

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We go for:

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"I was not born under a rhyming planet."

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"I was not born under a rhyming planet."

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Hip hop?

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Shakespeare?

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That one is Shakespeare. It's from
"Much Ado about Nothing."

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We go for two more.

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We go for:

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"The most benevolent king 
communicates through your dreams."

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"The most benevolent king 
communicates through your dreams."

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Hip hop?

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Shakespeare?

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Ah, fifty-fifty there.

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A gentleman known as the RZA
who's the head of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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We're gonna be revisiting the Wu-Tang later,
we'll be talking about him a lot.

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He's one of the main exponents 
of hip hop philosophy,

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someone, or a collective, that 
had a huge influence on me.

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But we'll revisit them.

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Last quote of the day.
Let's go for...

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"Socrates, philosophies and 
hypotheses can't define."

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"Socrates, philosophies and 
hypotheses can't define."

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Hip hop?

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Shakespeare?

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Overwhelmingly towards hip hop. 
And that one, that is hip hop.

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That's Wu-Tang again, that's 
from a man named Inspectah Deck.

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Interestingly, that quote 
comes from a single, or track,

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known as "Triumph" 
from the album "Wu-Tang Forever."

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"Wu-Tang Forever" was the first hip-hop album
to go number one in this country.

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So that was what made hip hop cross over
with this kind of lyricism,

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but we're gonna revisit that a little later
and revisit the Wu-Tang, as I said.

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So, as you can see, it wasn't as clear-cut
as many of us may have thought.

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The language used,
the subjects spoken about,

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various things make it very, very difficult
once the context is taken away,

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once our perception is taken away,

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and we have to look at just 
the raw language of the two art forms.

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And don't worry, we've done 
that exercise over 400 times,

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and as of yet, no-one
has got them all right.

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Not even some of
the most senior professors

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at some of the most respected 
Shakespearean institutions in the country,

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I shan't name names.
(Laughter)

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But needless to say: it's challenged 
a lot of people's perceptions

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and we extend from that, 
we look at some of the other parallels

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between hip hop and Shakespeare,

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at some of the other things they share.

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One of the main things that is shared 
between the two is of course rhythm.

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Iambic pentameter --
dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dum.

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Five sets, two beats, 
it's actually a wonderful rhythm

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to use in hip hop music
and translates in a way

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that even artists writing
today find difficult.

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What do I mean by that?

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It's very difficult to take, even as an MC,
who is a professional MC,

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a lyric written over a grime beat,

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grime is a 140 bpm. 
Very, very fast tempo.

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And then take that same lyric 
and put it on a...

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what we consider to be a 
traditional hip hop beat, 70-80 bpm.

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A very, very difficult skill.
Even writing now,

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with the music to hand.

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Yet, the iambic pentameter 
allows us to do just that.

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I'll show you what I mean rather 
than tell you. So listen up.

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Cue music please.

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(Music)

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What you're about to hear, 
some of you may know of it,

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some of you may not.

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It's Shakespeare's most famous poem,
Sonnet 18.

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I haven't adopted it to make it
fit to the rhythm, but just listen close.

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Okay. Yo.

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"Shall I compare thee
to a summer's day?

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Thou art more lovely
and more temperate:

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Rough winds do shake
the darling buds of May,

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And summer's lease
hath all too short a date:

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Sometimes too hot
the eye of heaven shines,

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And often is his
gold complexion dimm'd;

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And every fair from fair
sometime declines,

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By chance or nature's
changing course untrimm'd;

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But thy eternal summer shall not fade

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Nor lose possession
of that fair thou ow'st;

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Nor shall Death brag thou
wander'st in his shade,

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When in eternal lines
to time thou grow'st:

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So long as men can breathe
or eyes can see,

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So long lives this
and this gives life to thee.

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So long as men can breathe
or eyes can see,

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So long lives this
and this gives life to thee."

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(Applause)

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Now as you can see, 
it sits right there in the rhythm.

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It's right in the pocket of the beat.

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Now we're gonna try a completely different
style of beat, different tempo of beat.

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You're gonna see the same lyric, 
because of this consistent rhythm, can fit.

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Let's try.

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(Music)

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"Shall I compare thee
to a summer's day?

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Thou art more lovely
and more temperate:

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Rough winds do shake
the darling buds of May,

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And summer's lease
hath all too short a date:

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Sometime too hot
the eye of heaven shines,

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And often is his
gold complexion dimm'd;

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And every fair from fair
sometime declines,

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By chance or nature's
changing course untrimm'd;

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But thy eternal summer shall not fade

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Nor lose possession
of that fair thou ow'st;

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Nor shall Death brag
thou wander'st in his shade,

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When in eternal lines
to time thou grow'st:

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So long as men can breathe
or eyes can see,

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So long lives this
and this gives life to thee.

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So long as men can breathe
or eyes can see,

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So long lives this
and this gives life to thee."

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(Applause)

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What I'd like you all to do is just 
put your hand on your heart for a second.

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Now... If you feel your heart,

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hopefully, your heart should 
be beating in sets of two,

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one off, one on, dee-dum, 
or an iamb, as we call it.

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If it isn't, I do suggest you 
consult a doctor as soon as possible.

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But because of that --
you can take your hands off your hearts now --

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But because of that, that's why 
this rhythm is so intrinsic,

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where, really, music is imitating 
the rhythm of life, the sounds of life.

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The heartbeat of life.

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And so, this rhythm, iambic pentameter,
even though being such a simple rhythm,

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is intrinsic to so many forms of music.

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Other places in the world, they 
have different sorts of rhythms.

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Like the West-African rhythms, 
it's on the three,

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people speak in triplets, essentially.

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Well, we found that this rhythm 
really acts as a mnemonic device,

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for young people to remember the lyrics.

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But also, really, as a way to understand 
some of what is being said.

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The rhythm helps us understand it.

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It helps us to communicate feeling.

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And of course, in hip hop, tonality,

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the way you say what you're saying,

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the mood with which 
what you're saying,

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the rhythm with which 
what you're saying,

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is as important as what 
you're actually saying.

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But revisiting the philosophies

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and the perceptions or conceptions 
of these two art forms,

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these two things we think
we know so much about,

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we'll start with Shakespeare.

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Over the course of the past 
three or four years,

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having worked with hundreds, 
thousands of young people now,

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at hundreds of workshops,

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we found out very interesting things

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about people's perception 
of Shakespeare.

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Who they think he was,

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what the inherited beliefs 
of the time in which he lived,

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the people he was surrounded by, 
his background, are.

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Some of them are of course,
just as with hip hop, complete nonsense.

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This idea for example 
that Shakespeare spoke,

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as people say to us, posh, 
or the Queen's English.

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Received pronunciation.

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Well, received pronunciation 
we know wasn't invented

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well after 100 years 
after Shakespeare died.

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He'd never heard what we think
of today as the Queen's English.

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When he was alive, people 
spoke a bit more like a mix

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between people from 
Yorkshire and Cornwall.

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So for example, the word "hours" 
was pronounced "urrs."

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"Urrs and urrs and urrs."

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Or: "mood" and "blood" ... rhyme!

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"mu:dd" and "blu:dd" was the way
in which people would pronounce those words.

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The times in which he lived, you know,

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the chasm between rich and poor
being larger than it is today,

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though we seem to be doing our best
to recreate that chasm.

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But... you know, he was living in very
tumultuous, very violent times

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and we really receive almost 
a sanitized vision of that violence,

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you know, coloring our view of the past.

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We know over ninety percent 
of Shakespeare's audience

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couldn't read or write.

00:09:48.325 --> 00:09:51.364
So how is it that in the 
21st century in Britain

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that he's come to be viewed
as almost the poster child for [elitism],

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and even within that now 
we're getting a debate:

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Did he even write his own plays?

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Because of course, this comes down to

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who's allowed to be the custodian 
of knowledge and who isn't.

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Shakespeare was someone
who didn't go [to uni].

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He wasn't Oxbridge. He's seen -- by some --
they need to see him that way --

00:10:11.466 --> 00:10:15.019
as someone who's not entitled to be 
a custodian of knowledge.

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So we have to find an explanation
for his intelligence

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rather than just accepting 
his intelligence as an actual fact.

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Which brings me on to hip hop.

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Many people have opinions of hip hop --

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of course, the media's had some 
very loud opinions of hip hop.

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But I've found again over this 
working with thousands of people,

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and these hundreds of workshops,

00:10:32.978 --> 00:10:35.161
and interactions with these institutions,

00:10:35.161 --> 00:10:37.237
many people who have 
an opinion of hip hop

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know absolutely nothing about it.

00:10:39.060 --> 00:10:40.939
Zero. Zip. What do I mean by that?

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So... the very words "hip hop,"

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the "hip" in that word comes 
from the Wolof word "hipi,"

00:10:46.626 --> 00:10:48.339
Wolof is a Senegalese language,

00:10:48.339 --> 00:10:51.219
it means "to open one's eyes and see" 
as a term of enlightenment.

00:10:51.219 --> 00:10:53.780
The word "hop" from the English 
signifying movement,

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thus "hip hop" means 
"intelligent movement."

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Hip hop contains five elements

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as codified by its founding 
fathers in New York City.

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It contains five elements.

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DJing, MCing, break dancing, graffiti art

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and the fifth element, which is the one
I want to talk about today:

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Knowledge.

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An element we don't see so much
in the television or the radio, perhaps.

00:11:15.904 --> 00:11:19.261
But of course the representations 
of that culture today are not owned

00:11:19.261 --> 00:11:21.463
by the people who founded that culture.

00:11:21.463 --> 00:11:22.905
But when it's understood,

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if we go back to the medieval 
West-African empires

00:11:24.989 --> 00:11:27.543
of Mali, Songhai, Gao, ancient Ghana,

00:11:27.543 --> 00:11:30.459
you have a character that 
the Malians refer to as a griot.

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These griots still exist today,
well, who was the griot?

00:11:32.730 --> 00:11:36.970
The griot was a rhythmic,
oral poet, singer,

00:11:36.970 --> 00:11:41.762
musician, custodian of the history, 
of the spiritual tradition, etc. etc. etc.,

00:11:41.762 --> 00:11:43.971
of those empires, of that culture.

00:11:43.971 --> 00:11:45.531
When we start to understand

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how those musical oral cultural traditions 
manifested in many complex ways,

00:11:49.527 --> 00:11:53.290
in the Americas, and helped
influence jazz, blues, funk,

00:11:53.290 --> 00:11:54.929
up to hip hop,

00:11:54.929 --> 00:11:57.662
we get a much greater sense 
of what the founding fathers,

00:11:57.662 --> 00:12:01.492
Afrika Bambaataa, Kool DJ Herc 
and Grandmaster Flash were trying to do

00:12:01.492 --> 00:12:03.493
when they codified this culture in this way,

00:12:03.493 --> 00:12:05.571
and understood in that context, of course,

00:12:05.571 --> 00:12:08.277
hip hop becomes a very 
different proposition

00:12:08.277 --> 00:12:12.411
to a way in which much of the time 
it has been represented,

00:12:12.411 --> 00:12:14.811
when we understand what 
was going on in New York City

00:12:14.811 --> 00:12:16.527
in the late seventies, early eighties.

00:12:16.527 --> 00:12:18.809
People coming out of 
a post-civil rights era,

00:12:18.809 --> 00:12:23.450
aesthetic influence by the literature 
of Amiri Baraka or James Baldwin,

00:12:23.450 --> 00:12:25.528
influenced by the persona 
of a Muhammed Ali,

00:12:25.528 --> 00:12:27.111
influenced by the funk 
of a James Brown.

00:12:27.111 --> 00:12:30.130
James Brown the drummer, incidentally, 
is the most-sampled drummer in history.

00:12:30.130 --> 00:12:33.653
His famous loop becomes 
the basis of all hip hop music.

00:12:33.653 --> 00:12:35.810
And that is the only 
intellectually honest context

00:12:35.810 --> 00:12:38.361
in which to place hip hop as a culture.

00:12:38.361 --> 00:12:40.371
And that's kind of what I grew up in.

00:12:40.371 --> 00:12:42.414
That's what I was massively influenced by.

00:12:42.414 --> 00:12:46.091
And it became, really... Up until 
the mid-nineties, it was still normal

00:12:46.091 --> 00:12:50.489
for the most commercially successful rappers 
to boast about how clever they were.

00:12:50.489 --> 00:12:53.089
To talk about kicking science, 
dropping knowledge,

00:12:53.089 --> 00:12:55.570
spreading mathematics, 
while simultaneously

00:12:55.570 --> 00:12:58.944
talking about what life was like 
in the projects of New York City.

00:12:58.944 --> 00:13:01.694
There was no contradiction between
both of those elements,

00:13:01.694 --> 00:13:05.210
and again, it was about who 
was custodian of the knowledge.

00:13:05.210 --> 00:13:07.262
Who was choosing to pick up that 
baton and run with it?

00:13:07.262 --> 00:13:10.255
And one of the things that was 
so inspirational about hip hop

00:13:10.255 --> 00:13:12.620
was that people who were told 
they were not supposed to do that,

00:13:12.620 --> 00:13:14.393
without trying to be anything they weren't,

00:13:14.393 --> 00:13:16.340
without dressing any different,

00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:18.341
without speaking any differently,

00:13:18.341 --> 00:13:20.139
they decided, they made the decision:

00:13:20.139 --> 00:13:21.890
"We're going to become 
custodians of this knowledge.

00:13:21.890 --> 00:13:23.181
We're gonna educate ourselves

00:13:23.181 --> 00:13:25.861
and we're gonna transmit 
this knowledge through the music."

00:13:25.861 --> 00:13:28.391
The main exponents of that in my life,
the main influence on me,

00:13:28.391 --> 00:13:30.659
was this group I already 
told you about, the Wu-Tang Clan.

00:13:30.659 --> 00:13:33.140
When "Wu-Tang Forever" came out, 
when I was in school,

00:13:33.140 --> 00:13:39.186
it was the first album that united people
that listened to all different sorts of music.

00:13:39.186 --> 00:13:43.976
And up to then, hip hop, still, in London, 
really only appealed to

00:13:43.976 --> 00:13:47.101
a particular segment of the people, 
in my school, anyway.

00:13:47.101 --> 00:13:48.976
And then "Wu-Tang Forever" came out,

00:13:48.976 --> 00:13:51.419
and all of a sudden, kids 
who listened to Heavy Metal,

00:13:51.419 --> 00:13:52.740
kids who were into Blur and Oasis,

00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:55.421
everybody was united around 
this one sort of album.

00:13:55.421 --> 00:13:57.019
And what was it about?

00:13:57.019 --> 00:14:02.221
It was this openly proud, 
intelligent discourse

00:14:02.221 --> 00:14:04.500
that was so undeniable
that really appealed,

00:14:04.500 --> 00:14:06.461
in my opinion, and pulled everybody in.

00:14:06.461 --> 00:14:08.860
And I'm gonna show you 
an example of a poem,

00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:11.300
well, what I would call a poem, 
but some people would call it rap,

00:14:11.300 --> 00:14:14.660
by the lead member of this group,
a gentleman known as the RZA.

00:14:14.660 --> 00:14:15.819
I spoke about him earlier.

00:14:15.819 --> 00:14:18.261
He actually produced the music 
for the film "Kill Bill" as well,

00:14:18.261 --> 00:14:20.544
so some people may know him 
better in that capacity.

00:14:20.544 --> 00:14:22.321
There was a poem he wrote called
"Twelve Jewels,"

00:14:22.321 --> 00:14:24.419
and this will give you just a sense,
as someone, as I said,

00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:26.939
who was one of the most 
successful MCs of his time,

00:14:26.939 --> 00:14:30.903
how normal it was to be so boastful 
about one's intellect.

00:14:30.903 --> 00:14:33.072
It's a piece called "Twelve Jewels," 
you can look it up on the internet.

00:14:33.072 --> 00:14:34.660
I'm only gonna share a little bit.

00:14:34.660 --> 00:14:37.421
It goes like this:

00:14:37.421 --> 00:14:40.419
"In pre-existence of the mathematical, 
biochemical equations,

00:14:40.419 --> 00:14:43.579
the manifestations of 
rock, plant, air, fire and water,

00:14:43.579 --> 00:14:46.740
without their basic formations,
solids, liquids and gases,

00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:49.861
that cause the land masses
and the space catalysts

00:14:49.861 --> 00:14:52.818
and all matter that exists 
and this dense third dimension

00:14:52.818 --> 00:14:55.085
must observe a
physical comprehension.

00:14:55.085 --> 00:14:56.941
It takes a nerve to be struck.

00:14:56.941 --> 00:15:00.260
Wisdom is the wise poet spoken to wake up
the dumb who've been sleeping.

00:15:00.260 --> 00:15:03.583
The fourth dimension is time.
It goes inside the mind.

00:15:03.583 --> 00:15:06.340
When the shackles energize
up through the back of your spine.

00:15:06.340 --> 00:15:09.260
So observe as my Chi energy 
strikes a vital nerve.

00:15:09.260 --> 00:15:11.750
One swerve with the tongue 
pierces like a sword through the lung.

00:15:11.750 --> 00:15:14.918
Have you not heard that words
kill as fast as bullets?

00:15:14.918 --> 00:15:17.540
When you load negative thoughts
from the chamber of your brain,

00:15:17.540 --> 00:15:21.341
and your mouth pulls the trigger 
that propels wickedness straight from hell.

00:15:21.341 --> 00:15:24.542
From the pits of your stomach
where negativity dwells."

00:15:24.542 --> 00:15:27.910
That's just a little piece 
of the RZA's "Twelve Jewels."

00:15:27.910 --> 00:15:29.625
But it's interesting.

00:15:29.625 --> 00:15:31.909
Because when you understand
that kind of lyricism,

00:15:31.909 --> 00:15:35.878
you realize that hip hop carries 
that same power as with Shakespeare.

00:15:35.878 --> 00:15:38.542
You know, the transmute philosophy,
as with any great art,

00:15:38.542 --> 00:15:40.212
to question the world around us.

00:15:40.212 --> 00:15:42.304
And this brings us, really, 
to the conclusion

00:15:42.304 --> 00:15:45.047
about what the work we do with
the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company

00:15:45.047 --> 00:15:47.823
from theater productions
to education productions

00:15:47.823 --> 00:15:51.252
to hopefully film and TV,
which we're working on at the moment.

00:15:51.252 --> 00:15:52.304
What it's all about

00:15:52.304 --> 00:15:54.951
it's about who is going to be 
custodian of the knowledge?

00:15:54.951 --> 00:15:58.590
And in the 21st century, particularly 
moving towards post-industrial societies,

00:15:58.590 --> 00:16:00.495
where we don't need masses of workers,

00:16:00.495 --> 00:16:03.098
we're not training masses of workers 
to go and work in factories anymore,

00:16:03.098 --> 00:16:04.667
these are big questions.

00:16:04.667 --> 00:16:06.778
What is the purpose of education today?

00:16:06.778 --> 00:16:08.781
What are we teaching young people?

00:16:08.781 --> 00:16:12.103
What are we training the 
next generation to do and form?

00:16:12.103 --> 00:16:14.583
Are we training each individual 
human being in a society

00:16:14.583 --> 00:16:17.983
where, increasingly, 
the success or failure of a society

00:16:17.983 --> 00:16:22.929
is going to be dependent on the mind, 
or ideas, of the people within that society?

00:16:22.929 --> 00:16:25.862
Are we training people to aspire 
to be the best they can be?

00:16:25.862 --> 00:16:27.740
To reach their full potential?

00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:29.461
Wherever they're born in that society

00:16:29.461 --> 00:16:33.022
or are we still working in the old, 
stratified ways of thinking

00:16:33.022 --> 00:16:35.740
that people have stations 
and places they need to be,

00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:37.824
or are we encouraging people 
to think as big as possible?

00:16:37.824 --> 00:16:39.541
Because maybe, I don't know 
who in Shakespeare's life

00:16:39.541 --> 00:16:42.405
encouraged him to become 
a custodian of the knowledge,

00:16:42.405 --> 00:16:46.049
but if he was not able to do that, 
we'd be missing his section of work,

00:16:46.049 --> 00:16:47.828
similarly with hip hop.

00:16:47.828 --> 00:16:49.706
So really, that's what
we want to think about.

00:16:49.706 --> 00:16:52.569
Education, who does it belong to,
who doesn't it belong to.

00:16:52.569 --> 00:16:55.808
And using these seemingly 
disparate art forms,

00:16:55.808 --> 00:16:57.369
these two seemingly disparate worlds,

00:16:57.369 --> 00:16:58.975
and putting them together,

00:16:58.975 --> 00:17:01.082
to show ourselves
a unity in human culture,

00:17:01.082 --> 00:17:05.124
a unity in the ideas
that humans pursue,

00:17:05.124 --> 00:17:07.123
in activities humans pursue.

00:17:07.123 --> 00:17:09.485
And to inspire people 
towards their own form

00:17:09.485 --> 00:17:14.034
of artistic, literary, cultural 
and societal accents.

00:17:14.034 --> 00:17:16.284
I'm gonna share with you 
a little bit... one final piece.

00:17:16.284 --> 00:17:18.722
It's a bit more... 
I don't want to say "fun,"

00:17:18.722 --> 00:17:22.723
but a bit more of a game
and a challenge.

00:17:22.723 --> 00:17:26.865
It came out of a radio,
"Freestyles" on Radio 1 Extra,

00:17:26.865 --> 00:17:29.283
about two and a half,
three years ago.

00:17:29.283 --> 00:17:31.884
And as a bit of a joke,
the DJ said to me,

00:17:31.884 --> 00:17:33.963
"Here's a list of 27 Shakespeare plays,

00:17:33.963 --> 00:17:35.882
attempt to fit them in a freestyle."

00:17:35.882 --> 00:17:38.884
Luckily, we did it, I don't know how, 
we had about ten minutes, though,

00:17:38.884 --> 00:17:41.283
so it wasn't a true freestyle 
in the truest sense,

00:17:41.283 --> 00:17:44.365
but we did it as a track that we then, 
subsequently, put on the album,

00:17:44.365 --> 00:17:46.804
so the first part contains 
27 Shakespeare plays,

00:17:46.804 --> 00:17:48.617
the next parts contains

00:17:48.617 --> 00:17:51.033
16 of Shakespeare's 
most famous quotes interwoven.

00:17:51.033 --> 00:17:54.081
It's entitled "Comedy, Tragedy, History,"

00:17:54.081 --> 00:17:56.328
you can look it up on the web, 
and it goes like this.

00:17:56.328 --> 00:17:58.724
I'm just gonna do it here, 
let's see how it goes.

00:17:58.724 --> 00:18:00.286
"Dat boy Akala's a diamond fella.

00:18:00.286 --> 00:18:01.867
All you little boys
are a comedy of errors.

00:18:01.867 --> 00:18:03.483
You bellow but you fellows 
get played like the cello.

00:18:03.483 --> 00:18:05.200
I'm doing my thing,
you're jealous like Othello.

00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.163
Who're you? What're you gonna do?
Little boys get Tamed like the Shrew.

00:18:08.163 --> 00:18:10.003
You're mid-summer dreamin',
Your tunes aren't appealing.

00:18:10.003 --> 00:18:12.964
I'm Capulet, you're Montague, I ain't feeling.
I am the Julius Caesar, hear me?

00:18:12.964 --> 00:18:16.484
The Merchant Of Venice couldn't sell your CD.
As to me, All's Well That Ends Well.

00:18:16.484 --> 00:18:20.043
Your boy's like Macbeth, you're going to Hell.
Measure for Measure, I am the best here,

00:18:20.043 --> 00:18:21.923
You're Merry Wives of Windsor, 
not King Lear.

00:18:21.923 --> 00:18:23.564
I don't know about Timon,
I know he was at Athens.

00:18:23.564 --> 00:18:25.365
When I come back like Hamlet 
you pay for your action.

00:18:25.365 --> 00:18:27.123
Dat boy Akala, 
I do it As You Like It.

00:18:27.123 --> 00:18:28.724
You're Much Ado About Nothing,
All you do is bite it.

00:18:28.724 --> 00:18:31.724
I'm too tight, I don't need 12 Nights.
All you little Tempests get murked on the mic.

00:18:31.724 --> 00:18:34.842
Of course I'm the one with the force.
You're history just like Henry IV.

00:18:34.842 --> 00:18:38.200
I'm fire, things look dire.
Better run like Pericles Prince Of Tyre.

00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.784
Off the scale, cold as a Winter's Tale
Titus Andronicus was bound to fail."

00:18:41.784 --> 00:18:44.685
That's 27 plays.

00:18:44.685 --> 00:18:50.365
(Laughter) (Applause)
Listen up.

00:18:50.365 --> 00:18:54.531
And there is one final bit, this contains
16 of Shakespeare's most famous quotes.

00:18:54.531 --> 00:18:58.003
"Wise is the man that knows he's a fool
Tempt not a desperate man with a jewel.

00:18:58.003 --> 00:19:01.124
Why take from Peter to go and pay Paul?
Some rise by sin and by virtue fall.

00:19:01.124 --> 00:19:04.449
What have you made if you gain the whole world.
But sell your own soul for the price of a pearl?

00:19:04.449 --> 00:19:07.883
The world is my oyster and I am starving.
I want much more than a penny or a farthing.

00:19:07.883 --> 00:19:11.045
I told no joke, I hope you're not laughing.
Poet or pauper which do you class him?

00:19:11.045 --> 00:19:14.484
Speak eloquent, though I am resident 
to the gritty inner city, surely irrelevant.

00:19:14.484 --> 00:19:17.846
Call it urban, call it street.
A rose by any other name, smell just as sweet

00:19:17.846 --> 00:19:21.004
Spit so hard, but I'm smart as the Bard.
Come through with a Union Jack, full of yard.

00:19:21.004 --> 00:19:22.963
Akala, Akala,
wherefore art thou?

00:19:22.963 --> 00:19:24.805
[I rap] Shakespeare and
the secret's out now.

00:19:24.805 --> 00:19:27.950
Chance never did crown me, this is destiny.
You still talk but it still perplexes me.

00:19:27.950 --> 00:19:31.534
Devour cowards, thousands per hour.
Don't you know the king's name is a tower?

00:19:31.534 --> 00:19:34.724
You should never speak it, it is not a secret.
I teach thesis, like ancient Greece's

00:19:34.724 --> 00:19:38.123
Or Egyptology, never no apology.
In my mind's eye, I see things properly.

00:19:38.123 --> 00:19:41.484
Stopping me, nah you could never possibly.
I bear a charmed life, most probably.

00:19:41.484 --> 00:19:44.884
For certain I speak daggers in a phrase.
I'll put an end to your dancing days.

00:19:44.884 --> 00:19:48.366
No matter what you say it will never work.
Wrens can't make prey where eagles don't perch.

00:19:48.366 --> 00:19:50.322
I'm the worst with the words 
'cause I curse all my verbs.

00:19:50.322 --> 00:19:51.950
I'm the first with a verse
to rehearse with a nurse.

00:19:51.950 --> 00:19:54.843
There's a hearse for the first jerk who turn berserk.
Off with his head, 'cos it must not work.

00:19:54.843 --> 00:19:58.323
Ramp with Akala, that's true madness.
And there's no method in it, just sadness.

00:19:58.323 --> 00:20:00.963
I speak with the daggers and the hammers
of a passion when I'm rappin' I attack 'em.

00:20:00.963 --> 00:20:03.199
In a military fashion the pattern of my rappin'
chattin couldn't ever map it.

00:20:03.199 --> 00:20:08.430
And I run more rings round things than Saturn.
Verses split big kids wigs when I'm rappin'.

00:20:08.430 --> 00:20:11.243
That boy Akala, the rap Shakespeare.
Didn't want to listen, when I said last year.

00:20:11.243 --> 00:20:15.484
Rich like a gem in a Ethiopia's ear.
Tell them again for them who never hear."

00:20:15.484 --> 00:20:17.003
It's a pleasure.

00:20:17.003 --> 00:20:21.003
(Applause)