Mr B is the all-singing, all-rapping chap from Surrey who wants to bring gentlemanly etiquette into hip hop. How I Invented Hip Hop is a series of songs performed by Mr B on a banjolele, his cross between a banjo and a ukulele, accompanied by beats from the likes of Run DMC. As he stepped on to the stage in a tweed waistcoat, with a pipe and a moustache, I knew the evening would get progressively weirder, yet entertaining. Mr B’s repertoire of songs includes numbers such as Let Me Smoke My Pipe, All Hail The Chap and the more controversial song, You Just Can’t Rape A Goat These Days. All of these have various opportunities for audience participation in a call and response type format in which Mr B will play a tune on his banjolele and the audience will respond with All Hail The Chap! Generally, Mr B, a cricketer from Surrey, has everybody smiling with his borderline crazy act. Yet there are moments when, despite his excellent articulation, the lyrics of the raps are too fast and the comedy is lost. The strange lack of narrative, except for a song about the history of hip hop, making the show quite fragmented and its purpose is slightly questionable. Mr B bases his act on a stereotype which is fairly predictable; although it is impossible to deny that I hadn’t predicted the rap about goat rape. This is certainly a show for the open-minded who appreciate a good old fashioned cup of British tea. Mr B fills the Voodoo Rooms with laughter but also a mild feeling of confusion as he expresses his love for hip hop through what can only be described as posh rap.
