Rap Vs. Poetry @ The Bedroom Bar 17.08.2012
What a night. Rap Vs. Poetry had the Bedroom Bar bouncing! For those of you who couldn’t make it down on Friday, you missed a great evening where some of the UK’s best rappers and poets went head to head to see which artform would come out on top. The night was hosted by Dizraeli, MC with The Small Gods and twice UK Poetry Slam Champion.
This was my first experience of a rap vs. poetry event, and having been involved with both at some stage or another, I was interested to see how it would play out. In the poetry corner we had Angry Sam, Curious, Kat Francois, Keith Jarrett and Stephanie Dogfoot, and in the rap corner Solo Cypher, LeeN, Con Sensus and myself – with LTD filling in for Stowaway, who couldn’t make it. With each performer flexing their own unique style, this was a chance for the crowd to appreciate not only the artists they came to support, but also the great range of output coming from the scene they didn’t come to cheer on.
Going into the third and final battle round the scores were even, with the poets winning the first round (poets a capella, rappers on beats) and the rappers taking the second (poets over music, rappers a capella). On this occassion, the poets took the victory with a tremendous reception from the audience after some epic third round peformances. The rappers didn’t disappoint though, with each team member again expressing their own brand of lyricism and leaving their mark on the competition.
The night was rounded off with a open mic cipher, a live performance by Dizraeli, and DJ sets from DJs Dave and OptaMystik. What more could you ask for? The good news for those of you who couldn’t make it down is that the kind folk at 1Xtra were there filming the whole darn thing, so watch out for a documentary on rap and poetry featuring some of the highlights from the event.
Shouts to all those who played a part in organising the night from both the Hammer and Tongue and Fat Gold Chain camps. Stay tuned for future endeavours along the rap/poetry tightrope.
The ePicentre 