Runic Rap: Akala Print

This is the fourth in my new series of paintings, Runic Rap.

Runic Rap is an attempt to place contemporary UK rap artists in the bardic/scop tradition that has its roots in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Hip Hop artists are today's bards - the social commentators and storytellers who describe life on this island, over drum beats. They carry the mantle of the deep rooted poetic tradition that has existed here in one way or another for thousands of years.

Many UK rappers are migrants or descendants of migrants, and are often perceived as separate from Britishness for this reason. But British history IS the history of migration and collaboration.

UK Rap is the inheritor of both the American-born Hip Hop and the British bardic context.People believe performing poetry over music was somehow invented in a vacuum in 1960/70s New York. You just have to see any performance of Beowulf to see how wrong this is.

Speaking over drums is a global phenomenon rooted in our collective ancestors.

Here is Akala painted on a Runestone, in the Northern European/Scandinavian tradition.

The lyrics are taken from his track "Who's the Gangsta?"

'I'm a professor that never went to class
I write literature they write bars
The Celtic Warrior marooned from Yard
When you compare me to these little tarts
All you are showing is you're not very smart'

Gouache and Acrylic Paint on A4 Bristol Board.




Museum-quality posters made on thick matte paper. Add a wonderful accent to your room and office with these posters that are sure to brighten any environment.

• Paper thickness: 0.26 mm (10.3 mil)
• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%
• 21 × 30 cm posters are size A4
• Paper sourced from Japan

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