Hip hop goes to Disney Concert Hall

"Socrates is classic mythology of golden age Greece, like KRS-1 is the classic folklore of Generation me..."

Marc Bamuthi Joseph's latest The Living Word Project called "the break/s: a mixtape for stage" came to LA's Roy and Edna Disney/Calarts Theater in Disney Concert Hall. I'm not a big theatre bloke but when I heard that a former National Poetry Slam champion worked with Jeff Chang (author of the hip hop history bible, "Can't Stop Won't Stop") to bring something to stage I had to go!

All aboard Joseph took us on a journey from New York to Haiti, Paris, Tokyo and beyond. And, with the help of turntablist DJ Excess, multi-instrumentalist Ajayi Jackson and video by Eli Jacobs Fantauzzi he infused unexpected humor into this personal study of hip hop. I'm not going to get all arty describing the play. I'll leave that to the experts...

"Thunderous, expansive... Rarely do word and movement mesh so seamlessly and elegantly... [Bamuthi's] stories put sound and gesture on a single continuum of expression."
The Washington Post