This is a Shakespeare podcast.

So let's start by reading some Shakespeare.

Maybe it's hatred I spew.

Maybe it's food for the spirit.

Wait, is that Shakespeare?

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger's director, and no, I'm not going to give you the answer right now,

but you'll learn it in a second because, as you'll hear, asking the question, is that Shakespeare,

or is it hip-hop, is often the opening gambit that launches a conversation about poetry and prejudice

for the British poet, rapper, and educator Kingsley James Daly, who goes by the stage name, Akala.

Since 2009, under the auspices of his hip-hop Shakespeare company, Akala has been going to community

centers, prisons, and schools in immigrant

and underserved communities using the tools of hip hop to spread an understanding of the relevance

of Shakespeare's poetry. How? Well, like this.

That way I call is a diamond fella

All your little boys are a comedy of errors

You bellow but your fellows get played like the cello

I'm doing my ting, you're jealous like a fellow

Who you? What you gonna do?

Little boys get tamed like the shrew

Your midsummer dreaming, your tunes ain't appealing

I'm capulet you ain't feeling

...