February 5, 2025
One score and 7 years ago our members brought forth, upon this stage, a new artform, conceived in Rhyme, and dedicated to the proposition that all texts are not created equal. (Doh!)
In 1998, in collaboration with some incredibly gifted and talented minds, I started translating Shakespeare’s first comedy into a full on hip hop musical, in a piece that took New York City by storm. It was at that time we coined the term “Add-Rap-Tation”. We were artists, of that we were certain. We were actors, we were writers and poets, we were rappers. Pioneers? Perhaps we had a glimpse, but we were far too young and it was all way too new for us to have any real idea about that eventually clear fact. Yes, it’s true – Hamilton and Lin can take a backseat to us in that respect. Like wayyy backseat – I’m talkin’ 17 years backseat, don’t get it twisted! But were we teachers and educators? Hmmm…lemme see. To answer that question in the voice of the 22-yr-old I was at the time, lemme put it to you this way –“Awww, HELL NO!”
In 2025, 27 years since, I contemplate and marvel at what has happened. 10 plus Add-Rap-Tations later and countless countries toured, I am humbled by the amount of people who have been moved by our work as Q Brothers. As we toured the world with multiple creations, multiple times over, everywhere we went – EVERYWHERE – people would ask us, “Can you teach a workshop?” To which we would inevitably answer, by nature of who we are and what we believe,“Yeah, I guess so…”
We now have decades of experience teaching our Q Brothers Add Rap-Tation workshop in a range of settings from schools to community centers to prisons, literally all over the world! With so many requests pouring in from educators across the globe who had seen or heard of our work, we always felt limited in our ability to say “Yes!” by the fact that we had to be somewhere in person to offer our master class. But that’s just not true anymore. We can say “Yes!” to everyone now, everywhere, and all the time! Like for real. That amazes me. We spent the last few years creating and refining this online, segmented, interactive course. And while we see our most obvious market being high school and college students, this workshop has been tried and tested among 4th graders, 72-yr-old inmates, as well as members of corporate team building events and beyond. And it’s not just for performers and writers. Some of our most compelling workshop experiences have been at the request of teachers in English and Performance Studies departments. I truly believe there is no limit to the breadth of participants who can fully benefit from and enjoy this comprehensive and fun course that spawned so organically from our passionate, loving hearts. And from our long practiced ability and positive habit of saying – “Yes!!!” Or maybe something more like –“Awww, HELL YEAH!”
Please take the opportunity to check out what we’ve done here. What we have to offer is unlike anything available, anywhere else, in all the world. And we are beyond thrilled at all the places we can go now. Maybe you have some ideas about that? (Awww, hell yeah!) We’d love to hear your thoughts and work with you on getting this exciting new creation into the hands (and on the screens) of those you believe may benefit most from this uniquely valuable experience.
With Love, Gratitude, Respect & Guts,
Let’s Gooo!!!
g (and the Q Brothers Collective)
