On Friday 13 March, London based hip hop artist, and star of BBC Introducing Alex Nimier- perhaps better known as Antix- visited Shiplake College to run a combined Music and English workshop for Mrs Eleanor Hallam’s Year 9 English class. Having been included in the MTV Brand New 2014 shortlist, and culminated over a million YouTube views since his 2010 debut, the rapper was on hand to deliver a workshop. The session was focused on the power of music and, in particular, rap, to express emotion.
Having met Antix at Hideaway Festival last summer, Mrs Hallam felt that inviting him to the College would be a fantastic way to engage younger pupils. Using music to communicate feelings and experiences was inspired; an up to the moment way of giving poetry a new lease of life. The boys found it highly stimulating. Avoiding bravado and materialism that is prevalent in modern raps, Antix’s tagline is ‘a man with a message’, and it is this that he was keen to portray to the class.
Antix started by sitting everybody down and performing a couple of his own rhymes. The profound emotion within them was clear, and the boys were soon set to work creating their own pieces to put to music. Antix kept the backing track playing to create a buzzing atmosphere, and help with a sense of rhythm, and chatted to each pupil about possible experiences that could be played upon for the poem; it could have been anything from the first day at school to going on holiday! On only one thing was he adamant; the piece had to explore how the situation made them feel, rather than just what happened.
It was then time for members of the class to perform their work. Unperturbed by nerves, the boys stood up to the microphone. Mrs Hallam was hugely impressed by the effort and enthusiasm shown; she commented that ‘the students really engaged with Alex and expressed emotion in a mature way. Whereas poetry might have fallen on deaf ears, making it contemporary with music had the greatest effect.’ Antix went on to add that it ‘was a great joy to see these young men getting up and expressing themselves […] a great day.’
Amongst the pupils, there is now ambition to use the new recording studio in the John Turner Building to record their music, with the help of Antix!
To view more photos from the event, please click here.
