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Rap & Hip-Hop [History]: My Tell of the Tale of Two (Music) Cities©

by Letra Bledsoe

We are showing a screening of a staged reading of Letra Bledsoe's Jukebox Musical - Rap & Hip-Hop [History]: My Tell of the Tale of Two (Music) Cities©. The screening lasts approximately 35 minutes and Letra spends the latter portion of the program fielding questions about her work.

Letra's Concept

Essentially, there are three characters. My “Tale” is a story, within a story, within a Musical story. My Story has unseen Main Characters, who are vital to Storyline, Plot, Theme, and to the Music of the Story, because those Characters are what makes or unfolds my “Tale.” They are the characters unfolding “My Tale,” the Rap & Hip Hop artist, about who make the story, and the music of the Jukebox Musical. It has several non-vital “Exposition Characters,” that are not main Storyline or Plot Characters, who are “Telling [My] Tale” of “Rap & Hip-Hop (History),” through their ongoing dialogue, of reminiscent and reflective thinking, through the conversations that are made of actual song lyrics, quotes, and anecdotes of the artists. My “Telling of the Tale” Raps and Rhymes the “Beginnings” of Rap & Hip-Hop. Snippets of music recordings are utilized, until such a time that there is a full stage production with live musicians performing the music, as they play the part of the music characters, of the story. Mine is a Jukebox Musical “Tale.” The music, unseen yet heard, is a vital Character to the Story, because it helps in the “Telling” of “[My] Tale.” And that is what makes my “Tale” a Jukebox Musical. Early Rap, especially the very early, or the beginning years of Rap, is a gender-specific, male-dominated, and Race-specific (Black American), and a very region-specific (N.Y.C.) genre. Conversely, My “Tell of the Tale” is told much in the same way as Lin Manuel-Miranda did for his story, HAMILTON. It Rhymes, my Rap & Hip-Hop (History): My Tell of the Tale of Two [Music] Cities© the story of the “Beginnings” in N. Y. C. and how the genres of Rap and of Hip-Hop crossed, when the Rap genre began to migrate (West). My “Tale” emphasizes what happens as a result. There are personal touches or points of view, because I lived it and partook in the Era or the “Times."

My “Rap & Hip-Hop” Jukebox Musical “Tell of the Tale” is fun, and it makes for an untold and never-before-seen production. My “Telling of the Tale of Two (Music) Cities” is a non-fictional and biographical “Tale” of the antagonists and protagonists, in the beginnings of “Rap & Hip-Hop,” and of my time around the “Rap & Hip-Hop” genres, “Back in the day.” The “Tale” is not about me, not so much. Rap & Hip-Hop [History]: My Tell of the Tale of Two (Music) Cities© has drama, of the antagonists, and in the “antagonists vs. protagonists,” so-to-speak. It has “Good vs. Bad or Good Guys and Bad Guys.” The story “Tells” music history (learning) of the “Rap & Hip-Hop” genres. It has music, poetry, and art – the “Rhyme” – in the photographs, and in the story being told through “Rap & Hip-Hop” music. My “Tale Tells” of people, places, music genres, Pop Culture, and of an Era. My “Tell of the Tale” has humor and emotion, both happy and sad. Rap & Hip Hop [History]: My Tell of the Tale of Two (Music) Cities© speaks to an audience, of that generation, and on to today’s youth.

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