Rap Battles: "It's important to have fun at the Fringe"

There are going to be some fun concept shows at the Fringe, and one of the most exciting is the debut of Comedy Rap Battles happening in Bannermans'. Run by Ro Campbell, it’s based on the Comedian V Rappers battles organised by Glasgow’s only comedian/rapper/wrestler, The Wee Man.

“I did it in Glasgow,” says Campbell, “and I said to The Wee Man afterwards that maybe we don’t even need the rappers, because without meaning any disrespect, the comedians shit all over the rappers. If you look at rap battles online, you’ll see rappers tend to do a lot of homophobic or misogynistic stuff, and comedians don’t need that.  When Bruce Morton was doing his, he was using all these big words and the rapper was like ‘I don’t even know what he’s calling me.’”

So Campbell and The Wee Man have joined forces to make this happen at the Fringe and some of the lineups are pretty mouth-watering, including Simon Munnery vs Phil Kay and Brendon Burns vs John Robertson. “I actually asked people who they wanted to battle,” said Campbell, “and they mostly picked their friends, so they should have some excellent dirt on them.

“Well, The Fringe can get a little stale sometimes and can feel like hard work for comedians. This is a chance for people to get away from all that and do something that’s just a lot of fun. It’s really important to try and have some fun at the Fringe.”

It sounds promising. Although if it takes off, isn’t there a chance that Scottish comedy will be gripped by an east coast/west coast gang war?

“Yeah, it might happen,” says Campbell, “but at least if it does, it’s only an hour’s drive.”