Blake Remixed

From innocence to experience, Blake Remixed mashes up the life and beats of Andy Brooks (aka Testament) with the work of the great radical poet. It’s an unlikely clash of hip-hop and literature, joined by video projections and the live-mixed soundtrack of DJ Woody. 

Hip-hop, like William Blake, writes its own mythology. Testament unites the two, with guest performers Soweto Kinch, Ty, Jehst and Shlomo appearing via projections in the guises of Blake’s four Zoas: Tharmas, Urizen, Luvah and Urthona. These figures guide Testament as he moves from geeky teenager to up-and-coming hip-hop artist to weary prison workshop leader, all the while looking up to his own musical deities.

Testament is a performer with as many skills as he has alter-egos. He goes under one persona when he’s beatboxing, another when he’s rapping, another when working with young offenders. He has a whole percussion section behind his lips and an astonishing ability to wrap his tongue around rapid-fire lyrics. 

In the show, Blake’s lines are brilliantly woven into raps, his rally against the “mind-forg’d manacles” of London proving particularly—and depressingly—open to 21st-century updating. There are also hints of his radical politics and unorthodox approach to spirituality in Testament’s autobiographical narrative, which has an ambivalent relationship with religion. 

This remix, though, is one that misses a beat. Though consistently engaging, Testament’s show never quite gets Blake and hip-hop to speak to each other in the way it aims for.