At first glance, Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer might appear to be some sort of novelty artist. The outfits who mix the ridiculously conservative with the plain ridiculous, the humorous covers of vintage hip hop hits and so on are certainly funny.
And to be sure, Mr. B is simultaneously parodying and paying homage to hip hop, a genre of music that surely deserves both. But he is also so much more. Lord Bassington-Bassington has loved Mr. B for a few years now, and would surely ahve grown tired of him now if there wasn't something deeper.
(Photo by Dan Fullerton McIntyre.)
The secret is, of course, that this isn't a joke. While anyone who has been lucky enough to meet Mr B will know, the man has an immense sense of humour about himself (after all, he is an Englishman!) he also takes his craft very seriously. And having been a musician and performer for more than two decades, it shows in his compositions and in his live performances.
Chap-hop is no more a fad than, say, rockabilly. And Mr. B's new video is the ultimate proof of that. It alone would be enough to make him an artist worth sitting up from one's Chesterfield and take notice of. And as Mr. B is the hardest working man in chap-hop, he will just keep getting better.
By the way, the video reminds Lord Bassington-Bassington that it's high time to get a pocket watch to go with his three-piece tweeds. More about that later.
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