His treatment of “The Canterbury Tales” and “Beowulf” demonstrated the perceptiveness of a literary scholar and the wit of a chart-topping rapper. Full of head-bobbing rhythms and clever rhymes, the show brushed the dust off of literary classics and revealed their modern relevance to a packed house last night.
Brinkman is a Canadian rapper and playwright. His show drew themes that resonate with modern audiences, like relational strife. As a comparative literature student working on his thesis, he said he saw parallels between the rich storytelling of English classics and modern rap.
Phil Lankford, research collaborator in the English and comparative literature department, first saw Brinkman in 2005.
“I was so impressed by his ability,” Lankford said.
He has spent the past two years planning to bring Brinkman to Chapel Hill to expose students to the artistic variety available to them.
Lankford, along with the UNC Carolina Scholars program and literature professor Ted Leinbaugh funded the performance so students could experience the show for free.
For those unfamiliar with the art of literary hip-hop — “lit-hop” — the gulf between 14th-century texts and catchy rap rhymes seem too wide to bridge. Yet Brinkman’s transformation of age-old appeared effortless.
“The things that transfix us and we’re passionate about today are still relevant and resonate with what was of interest to people 600 years ago,” he said.
