Rapping the Classics

German rapper Doppel U is giving new meaning to the term "old-school."

To people in the know, it describes early New York hip hop. But Doppel U knows a good rhyme when he sees one, and he doesn't care if it was penned by Grandmaster Flash or…Goethe.

"Do not tarry/water carry/let it flow abundantly/and prepare a bath for me!" might not pack the same kind of punch as "Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge/I'm trying not to lose my head/Uh huh ha ha ha/It's like a jungle sometimes/It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under" -- but Germany's 18th century poets actually have quite a lot in common with today's disaffected urban minorities.

Goethe might have written "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" some 200 years before Grandmaster Flash set the US alight with "The Message." But according to German rapper Doppel U, the Sturm und Drang generation were basically latter-day rappers. Young, rebellious and gifted, their ability to reel off lines that scan perfectly could certainly teach the likes of Mos Def a thing or two. If Goethe had ever faced-off with Eminem in an "8-Mile"-style slam, then Goethe would probably have won.

Zeitgeist

Doppel U is actually Christian Weirich, a 23-year-old German hip hop artist who's worked with rap luminaries from the Wu Tang Clan's RZA to German rapper Spax. He first realized Goethe and Schiller deserved some respect when he was approached about adapting the classics to mark Schiller Year in 2004.

Initially skeptical, he was soon convinced that the German poet knew at least as much about poverty and prejudice as 50 Cent.

"Schiller was a killer," he's been known to say.

Since then, he's released a CD of Schiller's verse set to rap rhythms, called "Zeitgeist," and initiated an educational project aimed at getting school kids into the classics with the help of hip hop.

He's now the official face of the project "Young Writers and Thinkers" and regularly gives workshops in schools. He's even developed a teaching aid in the form of an interactive audio CD.

Reaching the teenagers

It's certainly one way of making German literature more accessible. When Doppel U wants to help bored teenagers get a handle on Goethe's "Found," he tells them it's all about impressing girls.

"In the shade I saw/A little flower standing/Like stars glittering/Like beautiful little eyes./I wanted to pick it/ When it said delicately: Should I just to wilt be picked?" goes the poem.

"Goethe wrote it for a woman who didn't want to have a one-night stand with him," Doppel U said. "So he wrote this in order to persuade her."