Eminem called himself a “modern-day Shakespeare” in 2001. Now the Royal Shakespeare Company is trying to further bridge the gap between rap and the writer: They’ve created an app with Samsung, “RE: Shakespeare,” which remixes Shakespeare through a hip-hop lens.
The app, available through Google Play, is hosted by the experienced Shakespeare actor David Tennant. Its features include an examination of Shakespeare’s insults and courtships (disses and pickup lines, if you will); beatboxing from the producer Shlomo; and a quiz to determine if certain lines are from Shakespeare or hip-hop. (“Sleep is the cousin of death”? That’s Nas, not Macbeth.) Users can also access 360-degree footage of a Royal Shakespeare production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
The company hopes to capture the attention of a younger audience and show Shakespeare’s modernity. This isn’t the first time it has engaged with hip-hop: in 2010, its “Sound and Fury” project combined Shakespeare soliloquies with spoken word.