Shakespeare and Hip Hop

Hand up if you have struggled to teach the language of Shakespeare to teenagers in drama class? Keep your hand up if the boys in your class were disengaged after the first five minutes because they thought the greatest playwright who ever lived was a total bore?

Looks like you may need to watch this video by English rapper Akala where he compares the intellectual writing skill of Shakespeare to modern-day hip hop music and mashes hip hop beats with iambic pentameter to produce rapping rhymes Shakespeare never dreamed of.

Akala is the brains behind the London-based Hip Hop Shakespeare Company who reach out to teenagers in schools with their music theatre productions and education programs.

modern hip-hop shares many similarities with the themes, language and rhythm used by The Bard