| Rap Master Red |
15 September 2003
|
Tony Benn Cuts Rap CD
Venerable socialist and former Member of Parliament, Tony Benn has added a new endeavor to his resume; he's a rapper. The 78-year-old, tweed-wearing, tea-sipping Red has released a CD, "Tony Benn's Greatest Hits." The former Viscount Stansgate's disc can be found near those by Eminem, Fifty Cent, and the Wu Tang Clan. And he proves that there is nothing more terrifying that an angry old white man.
To Britons of a certain age and political slant, Mr. Benn (perhaps Comrade Benn would be the title he prefers) is something of a laughingstock. An unreconstructed bolshie in Mrs. Thatcher's England was one thing, but to be the same in Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" is quite another matter. Mr. Benn went so far as to say that the Labour Party Conference was the only place one would be stopped and searched for socialist literature rather than terrorist weapons.
What the CD tries to do is take Mr. Benn's decades of devotion to a noble, and misguided, cause and bring it into the popular culture of the 21st century. This "Das Kap Rap" actually has some appeal beyond the mere novelty of the idea, though. His speech against the war in Iraq last February in Hyde Park was an awesome piece of oratory, while his rages against the euro and mining closures make one "wanna bust a cap" somewhere.
Mr. Benn is an admirable figure if only for his sincerity and lack of hypocrisy. He will not be on Billboard's 100 with this recording, but then in rap, the talent isn't anywhere near as significant as the producer. There is a worker-management row worthy of the old warrior.
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