First thing’s first, I have a new CD out! The Rap Guide to Evolution: Revised is a brand new 14-track album produced by Mr. Simmonds. It started out as a “remix” of the original RGE CD from a few years ago but soon took on a life of its own with all new music, new collaborations, and most of the lyrics re-written (performance, feedback, revision), plus three completely new tracks. We’ve been working on this album all year long and finally finished it last week. Click here to listen to the evolution of the rap guide, and download it Radiohead-style (pay what you like).
The record came out just in time too. Last Sunday was the official launch of the Rap Guide to Evolution off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse, and after the official opening comes the official reviews. (Hold your breath, I did).
The first indications were a little off-putting, with a review from Theatre Mania generally praising the show but complaining that my slogan “Don’t Sleep With Mean People” is “a little too simplistic” (kind of like the Golden Rule?), followed by an utterly ignorant and petty review from Backstage that accused me of being insufficiently brave and claimed that I am “interested less in Darwinian theory than in the newer and murkier fields of evolutionary biology and psychology.” WTF?!
However, Darwinian theory predicts that critics this clueless about Darwinian theory will soon be supplanted by critics with a higher level of Darwinian theoretical fitness, and I was not disappointed. On Tuesday the New York Times published a double feature, with a glowing review in their Theatre section (“brainy and entertaining”) and a feature article in their Science section(“hard to beat”). I am told this is the first time the NY Times has ever profiled a show in both the Science and Theatre sections in the same day, which is consoling since the Science section decided to print the most unflattering photo of me ever taken, hands down.
We also got a nice review in the New York Post (“a total Dar-winner”) and a four-star review from Time Out New York (“Dope, data-filled raps”), as well as reviews and write-ups in Respect Magazine, NYTheatre.com, The Inept Owl, Think Thoughts Do Stuff, and Sci-ence (with an awesome cartoon of me and Jamie).
So what does all of this fanfare mean? It means we’ve had full houses! The last few days the show has been packed, and that makes for happy staff, happy producers, and happy crowds, able to shake the walls with a rousing chorus of “When I say ‘Don’t Sleep With’… you say ‘Mean People!'”
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