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Gandalf a-go-go
By: Nigel Robinson
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen
Lord of the Rings star and gay rights campaigner, Sir Ian McKellen, has recorded a rap version of a Shakespearean sonnet.
The acclaimed actor recorded Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 to a rap beat when he visited City Gateway Centre, a youth centre in the East End of London.
The sonnet which begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” was recorded by Sir Ian and then mixed with electronic music and additional rapping from some of the youth centre’s members.
The Shakespearean actor told the Daily Telegraph that blending two art forms separated by four hundred years came naturally to him. “Shakespeare is all based on beats, rhythms and rhymes, all things that rappers deal with,” he said.
