People will tell you that romance is dead. In a world of tweets, texting and commitment issues, it is easy to feel that some of the eloquence has drained out of our communication. Though our habits remain the same, the results are possibly a little less impressive than they once were. Young lovers agonising over the composition of a missive… tearing their hair out, rewriting again and again, and seeking advice from their friends.
However, “what u up2 bae? <3” feels like shortchange compared to “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” Admittedly, bae is going to think you’ve gone stark staring mad if you start making all sorts of floral and weather related messages. And there is a certain beauty to true love expressed through cat memes, I mean come on, we’re only human?! But would it hurt to inject a little poetry back into our lives?
American fitness expert and writer, David F Brand, certainly seems to think not. Reinterpreting rap lyrics in Shakespearean form, Brand reworks the lines into 16th century rhetoric. Posting on his website, so far Brand has gone all Elizabethan on Drake’s Hotline Bling, Ice Cube, Slick Rick and Notorious B.I.G.’s Juicy. Using only words found in Shakespeare’s original writings, Brand’s reworkings definitely lend a new tone to each artist. Though I would be interested to hear “Drakespeare” playing out in da club…
And just because no mention of Hotline Bling would be complete without it, let’s watch it again!
Image: Pigeons And Planes