Baba Brinkman; photo by Yuval Binur

Baba Brinkman, a BC-bred, New York-based hip-hop artist is helping spread the word about evolution, human nature, stats that you didn’t even know existed, and yo, male/female bling. He works through his one-act, 90-minute set with witty, poetic, and expertly-paced songs and spoken word, accompanied by DJ Jamie Simmonds on turntable decks (also responsible for writing a majority of the show’s music).

Baba Brinkman; photo by Katherine Kiernan
[Baba Brinkman; photo by Katherine Kiernan]

Through tunes such as “The Weak and The Strong, We Got it Going On”, Dead Prez’sI’m A African” (grammar geeks unite: he notes the grammatical fault behind the rap band’s choice of A over An), and popular sing-a-long “Don’t Sleep With Mean People”, the audience is taken on a journey of evolutionary proportion.

With The Rap Guide to Evolution, Baba connects our collective ancestry to Africa; he’s a master at connecting the dots through weaving one story after another on the sparse Cultch stage.

He describes his theories via statistics and multimedia imagery (projected on a screen next to DJ Simmonds) and later works his magic into “science rap”. The bottom line is survival of the fittest, the core of Darwin’s argument.

Baba Brinkman; photo by Katherine Kiernan
[Baba Brinkman; photo by Katherine Kiernan]

Brinkman was commissioned by Birmingham University microbiologist (and author of The Rough Guide to Evolution) Mark Pallen in 2008 to write a rap show about evolution. The show premiered at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to high acclaim, earning him the coveted Scotsman Fringe First Award for Best New Theatre Writing. The show’s also been a hit off-Broadway.

Baba’s most recent play, Ingenious Nature, explores NYC’s online dating scene using evolutionary psychology to search for a mate.

After last night’s show, I met third-generation Dutchman Brinkman (his father and oma were also in attendance for the opening), where I suggested Baba create a piece about our food’s evolutionary cycle. Hopefully it sparked him to start setting words into song (hunting and gathering to fast-food and GMO issues, I can see it all forming now).

Baba Brinkman; photo by Yuval Binur

Directed by Dodd Loomis, The Rap Guide to Evolution gets a final dose of hip hop when Brinkman asks for three suggestions from the audience to help improve upon future shows. A freestyle number, “Performance, Feedback, Revision” is the result of that brief engagement.

Brinkman’s adaptations are now used in hundreds of classrooms, bridging the educational gap between music and science.

An intelligent, often hilarious show awaits Vancouver audiences at The Cultch through November 10, with post-show talkbacks tonight and on November 5.

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