Chloe Coleman
Deputy Head of Press, Easter 2014
Email: pressofficer@cus.org
Press Release – 08.02.2016
‘This House Would Teach Rap over Shakespeare’
On Thursday 1st May the Union was witness to a slightly unusual debate on whether the teaching of rap should replace
the long-established position of Shakespeare in educational institutions.
The first speaker in proposition was Cambridge’s own Dr J Griffith Rollefson, a lecturer in Musicology and
Ethnomusicology. Dr Griffith Rollefson approached the debate from a colonialist angle in stating that most of the
culture we study is the domain of ‘white landed men’, ignoring the significance of true ‘popular culture’. Rap music, he
argued, can both tell us about our marginalised history and help us make sense of our presence.
Shakespearean actor Peter Eyre opened for the opposition with an anecdote about his 11 year old self discovering
‘another world’ in Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’, where ‘everything can exist side by side. His passionate defence of
Shakespeare’s timeless appeal reminded us that to read Shakespeare is to be taken both out of and into oneself, and his
quip about his career progressing from portraying Hamlet to Yorick went down very well with the Chamber.
Franklyn Addo, a sociology student and award-winning rapper proved a popular speaker in proposition, sharing with the
Chamber what rap music meant for him. He attacked claims raised by a point of information of phallocentrism and
misogyny in rap music by suggesting that this did not account for the genre in its entirety, referring instead to our
tendency to forget the linguistic skill and mastery of language needed for the composition of rap.
The final speaker of the night was Isabel Adomakoh Young, second year English student and writer of the ‘Lionboy’
series with her novelist mother Louisa Young. Miss Adomakoh Young reminded the Chamber that Shakespeare wasn’t
merely writing for the middle classes and if taught well has the power to inspire and engage a disenfranchised younger
generation.
The quantity and variety of floor speeches were testament to the ability of this debate to spark conversation about issues
larger than the motion itself. A speech about the ability of rap to serve as a gateway to wider considerations of language
and ultimately an appreciation of Shakespeare was met with great applause; its sentiments were echoed by Mr Addo’s
concluding rap proclaiming himself and Shakespeare to be ‘kind of alike’, epitomizing the debate in its entirety.
Debate Result
Ayes: 40
Noes: 72
Abstentions: 18
The motion ‘This House Would Teach Rap Over Shakespeare’ was duly carried.
--By Chloe Coleman
Deputy Head of Press, Easter 2014
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