Charlie Dupre's new CD "The Stories of Shakey P" is a recording of his show of the same name.  In it, the lyrical rapper/MC performer takes a swing at Shakespeare (and his contemporary Christopher Marlowe) with a really funny, fast-paced rhythmical wit that sends up the Bard while taking the living rise of out of him.

The first track sees Shakespeare and Marlowe re-imagined as teenaged rap battlers who duel each other in the school playground with Marlowe overcome by his new rival.  The following tracks take a look at some of Shakespeare's most popular characters and, using humour and rhyme, Charlie makes Macbeth seem clueless, Don Pedro from "Much Ado" seem helplessly smug and Hamlet comes across as downright schizophrenic.  One of his tracks "OT", about Othello, is incomplete but can be found in it's entirety on Charlie's Souncloud page www.soundcloud.com/charlied.

The bonus track is not Shakespeare-based but is Shakespearean theme.  It's about a sexual encounter that nearly goes wrong and touches on Shakespeare's popular theme of identity and is spliced with the bawdiness found in so many of his plays.

If you catch Charlie at a gig, I recommend getting one of his CD's available at a negotiable price.

Charlie Dupre appears at Paper Tiger Poetry this Friday 19th April as part of our Shakespeare evening.  Come along and check him out!