On Hearing Rap...for the First Time.

  It's been about for a few years now and I've heard it, but never heard it. The flow has been often ethnic, almost inchoate, and illiterate. Musical, rhythmic, and touching my soul at times, but not of my experience and sometimes so unsympathetically presented that I could not care less about the story behind the riff

Enter Kate Tempest on Charlie Rose, a young English woman who has elevated rap to the level of epic poetry. She electrified me. Speaking, and explaining sections of her prose poem, "Brand New Ancients," she talked about her art and admiration for her talented father.

Her art harks back to the Iliad and Odyssey, poems memorized and recited before ever being written down. Her work is vital and visceral. 

She's won the Ted Hughes award and The Guardian comments "She is one of the brightest talents around. Her spoken-word performances have the metre and craft of traditional poetry, the kinetic agitation of hip-hop and the intimacy of a whispered heart-to-heart... Tempest deals bravely with poverty, class and consumerism. She does so in a way that not only avoids the pitfalls of sounding trite, but manages to be beautiful too, drawing on ancient mythology and sermonic cadence to tell stories of the everyday."

To see her work, log onto You Tube and search for "Kate Tempest."

Enjoy!