Hip Hop is my favourite type of music so I went into the performance expecting quality beats, rhythms and rhymes and that's what I got, which was awesome. Baba, the guy who twisted the original tales into the rap style, told me he did this to appeal to a wider audience and send out the messages the original tales wanted to get across, as they are still relevant to modern day life! I didn't know how he would carry out the performance and I expected him to recite the original poems then burst into his version. I was far from right! He introduced the performance by creating a setting for the story. He set the story on a rappers' tour bus, him being a stowaway after the gig.
 | | Eminem doing a Rap Canterbury Tale?! |
For those who have watched films such as 8 Mile, you'll know about rappers battling against each other with their beats, rhythms and rhymes. This is how Baba decided to present each tale. He took on the role of different rappers from the gig and each one took it in turn to present their own modern Canterbury tale. I liked how easily Baba managed to slip into different characters with the use of simple prop and costume changes. The first character he took on was the tour manager. I liked the way he played upon the stereotypical gangsta image of a rap artist's manager. He put on an over exaggerated, smooth ghetto accent, walked with a swagger and wore shiny sun glasses. This made me giggle because he pulled the cheesiness off really well! He was the guy that started off the rap battle and made the action start. The first rap was a take on The Miller's Tale which is all about womanising and cheating on unsuspecting husbands. Baba again played on using stereotypical imagery, associated with hip hop and pulled out some grotesque silver bling to show a new character. I thought this character was hilarious as he reminded me of Eminem because of the way he spoke and bounced around. Before the performance I read the original tale and I didn't get it at all. As soon as he started to rap it in plain English I got it! I really liked how he not only rapped; he acted out the story which made it more interesting. Baba was amazing with his facial expressions, body language and different tones in his voice. It really brought the character and the story he was telling to life!
This first performance was brilliant and I couldn't wait for the others to come! The next was even better. The story was about greed and sneaking behind other people's backs. I thought that this was good because it's relevant to some of the stuff going on in the world right now. | "It was so funny it made me cry and made my stomach muscles ache from continuous giggling!" | | Esther |
The opening line to the Pardoners Tale is "My story begins in a bar, where three friends drink cheap gin and party hard all weekend". This made me laugh because when the character Baba was now playing introduced himself, he said that tonight he had been living the famous lifestyle and was slightly drunk! I liked the relationship between his lyrics and his actions. I also liked his costume because it made him look ridiculous! Baba made me laugh all the way through this rap which made it even better. The next rapper decided to touch upon how men judge women on their appearance. I liked the fact that Baba took on the role of a female rap artist to do this. He spoke in a really over the top female voice which actually sounded like a mouse which added to its funniness! He put a jumper up his top to make the woman look a little round and put on some pink, star sun glasses. I liked how her attitude and way of thinking came across. She made it clear that she thought men were shallow and only went near beautiful women. At the end of her rap she pulled out the jumper, took off the horrible shades and shook her hair in a Wella style to reveal a beautiful lady! I thought that this was a really good way to get the whole, 'don't judge a book by its cover' message across.
 | | Ghetto bling bling! |
The best part of the performance in my opinion was when Mr Cool manager spotted the intruder and made him perform. Baba got up and stood smack bang in the middle of all these famous rappers and began to rhyme. Unlike the other tales this was more of a history lesson on where hip hop and language manipulation came from. This was awesome and really interesting. I thought that this was a good way to round up the performance. At the end of the raps, the manager spoke directly to us. He wanted our opinion on who should win the battle. Each rapper stood forward and depending on how much we liked them depended on the amount of noise we made. The whole theatre erupted into claps and whoops as each rapper came forward. It was evident that the tearaway fan won the battle though because I couldn't hear my own voice over the noise! This was by far the best performance I have ever been to! It was so funny it made me cry and made my stomach muscles ache from continuous giggling! | 
