Back on the Job
Duo returns with another helping of hip-hop musical

Nothing is sacred in the eyes of hip-hop.

Everything and anything in its path--jazz, funk, rock, soul, dialogue from kung-fu flicks, cop-car sirens, and even the sound of exotic instruments like the Indian surbahar--is sampled to give the music added bounce and bite.

Considering its global appeal and the fact that it counts among its fans those who don't belong in its demographic, it shouldn't come as a surprise that hip-hop's influence is now seen and heard outside of mainstream radio and underground clubs.

To date, we've witnessed:
- A hip-hop opera (hip-hopera?), a take of William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet called Rome and Jules, by Philly-based choreographer Rennie Harris.
- A play, The Bomb-itty Of Errors, billed as an "ad-rap-tation" of Comedy Of Errors performed by four final-year students at New York's Tisch School of the Arts.
- And a musical, JOB: The Hip-Hop Musical, based on the Old Testament story of Job. Conceptualized by Montreal-based friends Eli Batalion and Jerome Saibil, JOB: The Hip-Hop Musical has received rave reviews from critics and audiences across North America.

Batalion and Saibil, both 23, are back in town with JOB: The Hip-Hop Saga, which combines JOB: The Hip-Hop Musical with its sequel, JOB II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence.

Set in a New York-based rap label, the first ended with one of the artists, MC Cain, shooting another, MC Abel, in the head. The follow-up has been described as "MC Abel's existential quest for fulfillment in a godless world, and MC Cain's attempt to destroy him."

Given that the two diehard hip-hop fans have post-secondary degrees in philosophy, I asked if their interest in the subject helped inspire the sequel.

"Oh, big time, yeah!" Saibil says. "In JOB II, Abel is kidnapped by a guy named Fred, who represents Friedrich Nietzsche. He wants Abel to overcome commercial-style rapping and become an uber-rapper, where every single rhyme is packed with meaning so if he ever meets the demon of eternal recurrence, which is the hypothetical demon that Nietzsche talked about, and is asked to repeat his rhymes for eternity, he'd be happy to do so."

And how does this relate to hip-hop, you're wondering?

" 'God is dead,' is what Nietzsche said, and for Christians that meant the authority who dictated how we have a system of ethics and values is no longer an auhority. He also made them ask, 'How do we continue to have that system without the concept of God?'

"What Nietzsche tried to do was convince people that we don't need God to have that system, that we can create it on our own.

"In the play, Fred's telling Abel that he doesn't need to rely on CEOs and record labels to tell him what is and isn't a good rhyme or beat or flow," Saibil says. "He needs to not rely on labels, that in fact labels are to hip-hop what God is to morality."

Saibil is adamant that there won't be a third sequel to this hugely successful play.

"Definitely not!" he says. "Our next project is a rock opera. Musically, it's gonna be Frank Zappa meets Rush meets Stephen Sondheim."

JOB: The Hip-Hop Saga runs at the Tarragon Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Ave., Nov. 18 to Dec. 14, Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2:30pm. Tickets are $24/$18 for students and seniors. For more information, call 416-531-1827.

— Errol Nazareth