Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy: No Milk for the Foxes; Denmarked; High Rise E(s)Tate of Mind

This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker’s work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK’s class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners.

The plays are accompanied by two introductory essays: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers.

Conrad Murray is an artist, performer, beatboxer and rapper from Mitcham, South West London. He is a qualified and experienced secondary school teacher, the artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre’s Beatbox Academy, co-artistic director of the hip hop theatre company Beats and Elements and associate artist at BAC. His shows include No Milk for the Foxes (Camden People’s Theatre 2015); DenMarked (BAC 2016); Frankenstein (BAC 2018); High Rise eState of Mind (BAC/CPT 2019). He is currently musical director and composer on Crongton Knights (Pilot Theatre), director on Pied Piper: Silent City (BAC), and composer and musical director for Mrs Noah (Headlong); he is also working with the BBC on a screen adaptation of Frankenstein to be screened on BBC4 in March 2020. He was awarded the Off West End and Total Theatre Awards for Frankenstein.