Rapping Evolution With Baba Brinkman

By Benjamen Judd

BUY TICKETS

Like rap? Like science? What could be better, then, than learning science through the art of rap? NOTHING. Which is why Rap Guide to Evolution has become such a hit internationally and is returning to our very own shores to perform at the Canberra Theatre Centre this coming Wednesday, June 11.

After nailing it with a sold-out five-month season off-Broadway, rapper Baba Brinkman is bringing back his infamous show to Australia and this time he is bringing with hum a live DJ and awesome audio-visual backing.

A fascinating performance combining the wit, poetry and charisma of a great rapper with the accuracy and rigour of a scientific expert,Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Guide to Evolution uses hip-hop as a vehicle to communicate the facts of evolution while illuminating the origins and complexities of hip-hop culture with Darwin as the inspiration.

A smash hit at the Edinburgh Fringe, off-Broadway in an extended run, and around the world, The Rap Guide is at once provocative, hilarious, intelligent and scientifically accurate. Brinkman performs his clever re-workings of popular rap singles as well as his own originals to illustrate natural selection, sexual selection, evolutionary psychology and much more.

Brinkman undertook the project at the suggestion of Dr Mark Pallen, author of The Rough Guide to Evolution. After seeing Brinkman’s internationally acclaimed Rap Canterbury Tales, Dr Pallen challenged the polymath rapper to “do for Darwin what he had done for Chaucer”. In order to ensure scientific and historical accuracy, Brinkman consulted Pallen throughout the creative process, making The Rap Guide to Evolution the first peer-reviewed hip-hop show. Pallen has described Brinkman as having “swallowed the idea and turned it into a work of genius”.

Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Evolution will show at the Canberra Theatre Centre this coming Wednesday, June 11.