13 Mics
(Co-written and co-directed by Benji Reid and Jonzi D)
Benji Reid is a hip hop veteran, a European body-popping champion. He will stand before us, centre stage and ask “is hip hop dead?’ 13 Mics is his reply, mimicking the mayhem of answers as he astral travels from bebop to hip-hop creating a montage of the 20th Century and taking us from soothsayer to gangster rapper; hip hop backpacker to bling bling.
Raucously acted and hilariously observed, this is hip hop theatre performed through legendary dancing and rapping, and encased in the funk laden sounds of some serious live bass guitar, drums and dj-ing. 13 Mics is like nothing else. It is one man’s passion for hip hop exposed through his imaginative, chaotic and anarchic force.
Statement:
“I dreamed of the image, of me being surrounded by a web of microphones. I knew I had something to say but what? When Jonzi D and I went into rehearsals we knew one thing, we had thirteen microphones and there was a story to tell. We experimented with object manipulation, I wanted to bring each mic and stand to life.
I wanted to know the story of the microphone. We had fun coming up with some truly funny stuff but not anything we could use.
We would talk every night trying to unearth the narrative, but the break through only came when reading ‘hip hop connexion’, an article on Q-tip and the death of hip hop. That idea struck a chord with me, as I felt the original energy and vibe of hip hop had shifted and was more focused on niggers, bitches and bling.
I was bought up through hip hop as a culture of love, peace and harmony and knowledge of the self, so from this, we went to work developing the charters for the show. The band really helped bring the whole concept to life.”
