It’s hard to say exactly what it was that had the audience doubled over laughing during MC Hammersmith’s performance at Cheerz. No really, it’s hard to say – at least in any family-friendly language.
“Gangsta rap” isn’t something that you might expect to see on the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival line-up, much less when said gangsta rap comes sailing out of the mouth of someone who describes himself as “a mix between Louis Theroux and David Tennant” in appearance. He’s not wrong.
MC Hammersmith, also known as Will Nameeh, really does have the quickest tongue in the west – middle-class West London that is – and he can spit a bar that will take down the most straight-faced foe at 40 paces. And the Cheerz crowd loved it.
The award-winning veteran of the Fringe scene hosts an evening of improvised comedy raps based entirely on your suggestions, leaving audiences astounded at his lightning-quick wit, and outright lyrical genius.
Raps and backflips as Hammersmith delights Cheerz audience
Bounding onto the stage in the attire of a fine English gentleman, it’s no wonder that the audience was a little stunned when he affectionately greeted everyone, and started every single sentence after, with the term “mother flippers” (this may or may not have been adapted for the purpose of this review…).
Talking of flippers, it became immediately obvious that audience participation was going to be the – potentially broken – backbone of the show. “Backflip!” was the first random word of the night chosen by a voice in the crowd upon which he was to base a freestyle, and totally improvised rap.
Many might have shied away from such a task, but not Hammersmith. With the help of several rather burly blokes hand-picked from the crowd, he not only completely smashed his way through a lyrical rollercoaster of absurdly hilarious rhymes, incorporating details about each of the lads, but ended with an acrobatic crescendo too. An actual backflip, no less.
MC Hammersmith was a belly-achingly funny tour-de-force
Dragging apprehensive watchers from seat to stage to inspire his off-the-cuff raps throughout the night, he drew on everything from job titles, to love interests, to embarrassing stories (We’re looking at you Terri with the French Bulldog…), culminating in a belly-achingly funny, completely fluid and seemingly breathless hip-hop tour de force.
Dropping comedy bombs into every articulate verse, it’s obvious this well-educated West London gent not only has a vocabulary to rival Susie Dent, but a wickedly fast tongue that could get the better of any of today’s rap giants in an 8 Mile style hip-hop battle.
Hammersmith might also just be the only artist to rhyme ‘rapping vulture’, with agriculture, and get away with it.
Some of the biggest laughs of the night came when Hammersmith sought a love interest, and found it in the arms of hunky Jamie, who worked as a drilling supervisor.
I’ll let your imagination fill in the blanks as to where the foul-mouthed linguist went with this one.
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This also presented him with the perfect segue to take a stab at the oil and gas sector, which he did with relish. He definitely knew his audience, and attacked with playful but slick mocking.
After a seemingly short, but phenomenally packed hour of tear-streaming laughter, the crowd ruefully left their seats, perhaps just a little bit offended, but desperate for more.
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