Word to the wise in west London

There's a lot in a word, as Christian McLaughlin finds out at two of west London's top venues.

Bookmark
Share

My London

00:00, 18 FEB 2009
Updated11:14, 1 OCT 2013

SOHO THEATRE : 'Apples and snakes' Featuring rapper Ty

"I intend to be stripped bare," says Ty, one of the leading lights of intelligent British hip-hop. "A one-on-one lyrical expose of some of my thoughts."

Revealing passages from his upcoming fourth album, A Special Kind of Fool - and any range of thoughts from his verbal variations - the Mercury Award nominated rapper will be taking to the stage for one night only.

A veteran of the spoken word circuit, ''rapping translates easily'', he has teamed up with consistently superb poetry-pushers Apples and Snakes to take over the top floor of the Soho Theatre.

"All my stuff is just honesty," says the Camberwell-based Londoner of Nigerian descent. But beware of expectations. "It's not a brutal, put-your-nose-out of-joint honesty. If you're looking for that angry rapper, that political one, or the softly-spoken PM Dawn type, you're not going to find it."

It's a zero tolerance for stereotypes that's drawn fans from all walks of life. His primary purpose is to entertain, but the desire to shift the boundaries, little by little, that black artists face in the mainstream UK music industry is never far from his lips.

Supported by hiphop/poetry crossover upstarts Ben Mellor, MC Angel, Michael Frearson and host Saran Green, one thing you can expect is to get more connected to each other. "Our parents wouldn't have known each other," says Ty.

"It's the power of words and music that have brought us together."

21 Dean Street on Wednesday, February 25. 8pm. £8/6. Call 0870 4296 883. See www.sohotheatre.com

LYRIC THEATRE, Hammersmith: Lyric Lounge, Lounge Act.

Lounging is the act of chilling in a near horizontal state. Lyric Lounging is the act of chilling with entertainment to mentally activate.

It's the pet project of slam poets Dean Atta and Deanna Rodger, who, with the support of the Lyric Theatre, are continuing to feed their performative skills back into their aspiring peer-group.

"The first event, a slam poetry competition won by the brilliant Bunmi Hazzan, is now evolving into a Jools Holland/Jonathan Ross set-up, with guests hitting the sofa for question time after their performance," Deanna says.

Highlights from the line-up include spoken word artist Jasmine Ann Cooray (listen to her MySpace page and you'll see why) and neo-soul singer and songwriter Daley. Making the move from Manchester to London this April, the sensual 21-year-old is risking it all. "There are moments when I find it scary," Daley says. "But I've saved rent money to last me a few months and I feel so focussed it's not even a decision, just something I have to do."

The aim of the game is to inspire others to take similar chances, or at the very least to elucidate part of the process for those that embark on a creative career. With hip-hop, grime, short movies and more, get ready for some sideways stimulation.