Baba Brinkman

Baba Brinkman earned his Masters Degree in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature with a thesis that drew parallels between the worlds of hip-hop and literary poetry. In 2003 he began his career as a rap troubadour.

In 2004 he took his award-winning hip-hop theatre show ‘The Rap Canterbury Tales’ around the world, including two tours of Australia, three critically-acclaimed runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, several college tours of the US, and frequent returns to the UK and Europe. His rap adaptations are now used in hundreds of classrooms around the world.

In 2007, Baba founded indie label Lit Fuse Records and released the debut album ‘Butterfly Man’ from singer/songwriter Aaron Nazrul. The single ‘When the Night’ was featured on network television’s 90210, and the video enjoyed top ten rotation on Canadian MTV. In 2008, he joined forces with UK BBC Slam Champion MC Dizraeli to form the hip-hop group Mud Sun. They co-wrote and released two albums and ‘The Rebel Cell,’ a hip-hop play that was one of the biggest critical successes of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe, winning the ‘Spirit of the Fringe Award.’ The play has toured the UK several times and recently appeared at venues in Egypt and Palestine.

Baba’s latest project – ‘The Rap Guide to Evolution’ – won the prestigious ‘Scotsman Fringe First Award’ at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009, and was a popular and critical success. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, he toured ‘Rap Guide’ to ten cities across the USA. Never one to rest, he’s currently working on ‘The Rap Guide to Human Nature’ which will debut at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe.

Oh, and in ten summers as a tree-planter in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, he personally planted over one million trees.