Friday, July 29, 2005
The Canterbury Tales
I was listening to NPR today (I don't know what show) and heard some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales set to a rap beat, complete with bleeping of the words too hot for the FCC. It's a fine concept, sure, but the execution suffers because the rapping is done by a very white-sounding Canadian by the name of Baba Brinkman. According to the CBC, "Brinkman likens the competitive nature of telling entertaining stories to the rap freestyling seen in Eminem's movie 8 Mile." Yes, that may well be, but sadly, one can't really liken the sound of Brinkman's Chaucerian rap to Eminem (or any other popular hip-hop artist). Brinkman really just sounds...Canadian. I don't think 50 Cent has to worry about his spot on the charts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
In high school I had to memorize the beginning of the Canterbury Tales in, what was it, Olde English? Middle English? "Wan thaht apprille with hes surres sota" thing. White boy rappin' Chaucer just won't cut it for me! And Canadian rap? Well, that's just wrong. Didn't that Canuck who rapped 'Informer' teach them anything??
I totally support the promotion of Chaucer to the younger generations, but unless Mr. Brinkman can manufacture some hip-hop cred, I just don't see the kids loving this.
Anyone ever see the Pier Paolo Pasolini movie version of The Canterbury Tales? I saw it back in my inexperienced college-girl days, and there was a lot of racy stuff in that movie. I'm fuzzy on the specifics, but I'm thinking poker-in-the-ass, maybe? Or mouth in lieu of a poker at the same location? Italian actors' penises...it's all vague now, but I remember just being embarrassed by that movie. Ah, youth...
Post a Comment