West London’s very own freestyle ‘gangsta’ rapper MC Hammersmith is back and his rhymes are razor-sharp as ever. Giving improvisation a hip-hop makeover, MC Hammersmith’s hour somehow combines his middle class persona with unbelievably quick wit and sick beats – continually catching us off guard and making us laugh our socks off.
MC Hammersmith never misses, spitting bars with 100% accuracy
The structure of the show is clear and simple, similar to most improv performances: the audience send in challenges, random words, questions etc. and MC Hammersmith takes these and runs (or rather, raps) with them. His improvisational skills are astounding: when the randomiser didn’t work he was unfazed and decided that instead of incorporating ten of the audience’s random words into a rap he would do twenty. Throughout the show he riffs with members of the audience, using anecdotes to further inform his work. The raps themselves are ironically eloquent, demonstrating his penchant for linguistics and encyclopaedic knowledge of rhymes. Expect phrases such as “you know this is true, I say this with glee”, and “my gosh it’s divine”. His sincerity makes him captivating to watch and very charismatic – especially when he asks audience members “if that’s okay with your good self”.
As you might guess from the British public, he can get some pretty risky questions and challenges, but he tackles them with ease. The show changes every day, but some of the impressive challenges MC Hammersmith completed on this particular performance included rapping in alphabetical order, rapping whilst getting a piggy back and shouting like a dictator and rapping in a German accent. One of the highlights of the show is when the audience hold up random objects from their bags and MC Hammersmith weaves together a rap-narrative with them, including each one in his lyrics. It’s thrilling to see such demanding challenges being undertaken live on stage, making us constantly ask “what will he do next?”
One minor drawback is that he uses the same beat to underscore multiple raps, making quite a few of the rhythms the same. It would add more variety and intrigue if he introduced a few more tracks which would also help he show feel slightly less formulaic, especially after doing so many performances.
In his rhymes, however, MC Hammersmith never misses, spitting bars with 100% accuracy. Don’t come expecting swagger, because you won’t want it when you get there. The dichotomy between his geeky persona and rap fluency is what makes the show truly pack a punch.
