Synopsis

Akala delivers a rapid-fire performance built around Shakespearean language, turning the playwright's famous titles and phrases into sharp hip-hop wordplay. The video keeps the focus on his commanding presence and lyrical precision rather than developing a conventional storyline. As the verses move through comedies, tragedies, histories, characters, and quotations, Akala presents himself as a modern "Black Shakespeare," linking literary tradition with contemporary rap culture and challenging assumptions about who can claim ownership of the canon.

Factoids & Trivia

• The song began as a BBC Radio 1Xtra challenge. Akala was asked to create a freestyle using Shakespeare play titles and wrote a version containing 27 titles in less than half an hour.

• Producer Reza Safinia encouraged Akala to expand the freestyle into a complete track. It became part of Akala's 2007 album *Freedom Lasso* and was released as a single in April 2008.

• The lyrics draw on Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, histories, characters, and well-known quotations, using them as punchlines, boasts, insults, and structural devices rather than simply listing references.

• The production combines an electronic sample from Baxter Baxter's "Straylight" with live drums and string instrumentation. Annasara Lundgren is credited for violin on the album track.

• The track helped reinforce Akala's "Black Shakespeare" identity, a concept that later became central to his educational work and to The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company, founded in 2009.

• A 2016 mix appeared on *10 Years of Akala*, introducing the song to a later audience while preserving its central blend of Shakespearean references and hip-hop technique.