Walking into the Bank Street theater I had no idea what to expect; all I knew was that I wasn’t exactly hip hops number one fan, but I tried staying as open minded as I could. My first impression of the place was that it was very nice and cozy. They had what seemed like giant Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, a bar in the corner and tables set up for people to socialize and watch the show in comfort. DJ Rich Medina began playing some songs and a short time later, the show began with the ‘one man’ of the One Man Show, Craig “muMs” Grant, entering the room and getting up on the stage. I was honestly not sure what I was about to see or hear but my fingers were crossed that I wasn’t about to hear Lil Wayne come out of muMs mouth.

muMs was the farthest thing from Lil Wayne. He took us on an emotional rollercoaster of his life and the milestones he passed in order to become an Emcee. He talked about his life in the Bronx, his adolescence experience of having rap battles (and losing them), his father passing away from diabetes and his mother living with Alzheimer’s. The huge range of topics discussed in his poetry made this artwork have the ability to be relatable to everyone. Most of my favorite parts of the performance were parts that I felt like I related to the most, like his life in middle school with every boy having a nickname after their first names (Mikey Nice) and puffing up their chest to prove that they were ‘men’. Didn’t everyone who went to middle school have that experience? I was also touched by the stories of his mom and dad, and how tragic the diseases they had were and how muMs dealt with them. His life story can appeal to any community because within each community is someone who went to middle school with silly boys, who had a loved one with a tragic disease, who had a dream and who had fears.

My favorite part of the whole thing however was the chemistry between Rich and muMs. They do the same thing every night, but their looks at each other and smiles make it seem like it’s the very first time they were up on the stage. I really enjoyed how much I liked the performance, and I think muMs is the farthest thing from a “sucker emcee”.