When Dirk “Baba” Brinkman stepped on stage, a look of skepticism was etched across the audience’s face. The Canadian rapper looked as if he had never heard a rap song, let alone written one. But when he opened his mouth, all skepticism was replaced with the bobbing of heads to the flow of his words and the rhythm of the music.

Brinkman’s act,” The Rap Canterbury Tales,” has taken him all over the world and on Nov. 12, it took him to Loyola’s own Roussel Hall. “The Rap Canterbury Tales” is an adaptation of the Geoffrey Chaucer classic, a collection of stories told from the viewpoints of several different travelers. Unlike the “Canterbury Tales,” the rap version only contains three of the twenty-nine stories: The Pardoner’s Tale, a story about drunk friends who challenge death and meet their fate along the way; The Millers Tale, a story about deception and revenge that would make Jerry Springer look like Pee-wee’s Playhouse; and finally, Brinkman’s personal favorite, the Wife of Bath, your sweet, traditional fairy tale.

Despite those differences, Brinkman’s version still contains the same point, but the old English has been replaced with a special brand of rap called “lit-hop” which Brinkman describes as “Lil Wayne mixed with William Shakespeare.”

No matter how odd the combination may seem, Brinkman brought the two seemingly opposite genres together with Eminem-esque ease that only he could accomplish. “I came to the show because I thought it was crazy mixing ancient with modern,” theatre freshman, Brittany Chandler said. “But in the end, I loved it.”

And that is the type of response that Brinkman said he loves to hear.
“I love it when I’m at a show and the crowd reacts,” he said. “I try to show how rap and medieval literature coincide with each other.”

One example of that is how Brinkman compared a line in the Pardoner’s introduction that says “… I’d have a jolly wench in every city” to rappers who claim how many women they keep, namely Ludacris’ song “Area Codes.”

Not only was the show highly entertaining, it shed light on subjects never before thought of. It also made “going medieval” on someone a good thing, and anyone who can do that deserves a trophy.

Shanta Eason can be reached at [email protected].