Rapper Kingslee Daley, aka Akala, is a man on a mission; to get at-risk kids exploring words, from Shakespeare to Jay-Z. Scott Kara reports.
If Shakespeare was alive today he would be a mega-mogul bard similar to Jay-Z reckons Kingslee Daley, a British rapper, producer and hip-hop educator.
Daley, or Akala as he is better known, is the founder of London-based Hip Hop Shakespeare company and works with young people and at-risk youth. Based on his belief that the themes, words and rhythms of Shakespeare and rappers like Jay-Z are similar he holds workshops and live performances that aim to build self-confidence and engage their creative and artistic sides.
"The moment that they see there's this commonality of metaphor, subject matter and a love for words, then they realise Shakespeare is not this irrelevant boring guy from 500 years ago that spoke posh," he says.
He is doing workshops - that culminate in a final performance - as part of community music project People In Your Neighbourhood in Auckland from July 18-22.
One of the first things they do in a Hip Hop Shakespeare workshop is a quiz which takes lines from a rap song and a Shakespeare work to see if participants can distinguish between the two.
"Everyone always gets them wrong," he laughs. Even actor Sir Ian McKellen, who is an expert on Shakespeare, sat the test and couldn't tell the difference between some of the raps and rhymes.
"It's about encouraging young people to be inventive, to not think that they have to play by the rules, and you can be an expert with words and make up your own rules.
"Because many young people are completely alienated from Shakespeare, or don't have any entrenched attachment about what Shakespeare was trying to say, they come up with much more profound and human explanations of what they think he was saying."
Akala and his sister, British singer and rapper Ms Dynamite, grew up surrounded by music because his parents ran a Jamaican sound system; then he got into hip-hop artists like Public Enemy and Nas.
"So when I started to read poetry at school it immediately became obvious to me that music and lyrics were poetry."
But it wasn't until the now 25-year-old left school, recorded an album and a song called Shakespeare, that he started analysing the great bard's work alongside the rhymes of the great rappers like Chuck D, Nas, and Jay-Z.
And now he's got his own classroom - although it's a little different from the one he sat in as a youngster.
"There are only two rules in my class: You can't say I can't and you can't say I don't know because neither of those are true. If you've got an idea share it. Because a lot of the best writers ever have completely thrown out the grammatical rule book.
"There is nothing I enjoy more than watching a young person perform and having a love for words - because that love for education will change your life."
LOWDOWN
What: Akala, of London's Hip Hop Shakespeare Company here for People In Your Neighbourhood
Where: Workshops, July 18-22; Showcase, Ponsonby Social Club, July 22, 6-8pm
More info and workshop details: www.piyn.net
- TimeOut
