Hip-Hop Artist Gives Chaucer a New Rapping
A Canadian hip-hop artist has turned the Canterbury Tales into rap in a bid to teach Chaucer to schoolchildren.
Baba Brinkman, an English graduate, unveiled his translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th century verse at the Fringe last year.
Now the rapper has adapted The Miller’s Tale, The Pardoners Tale, The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe and The Knyghtes Tale for his tour, with the Knyghtes Tale reduced from 2000 lines to just 400. Unusually for a rapper, he has toned down the often explicit verse to make his songs suitable for children.
Brinkman, 26, set about the task after deciding the dense literature would be more accessible as rap, and so “Whilom their was a dwelling at Oxenford/ A rich gnof, that gestes heeld to boorde” becomes “Listen to this tune, it’s about a rich man/ Licking a silver spoon, who lived in a mansion.”
Source: news.scotsman.com