Sketchy Characters

"A live rap, art and music show that has never been seen before,” is how artist Claire Nakazawa describes the rollercoaster improvisational ride that is Sketch The Rhyme.

The brainchild of Big Village Records MC, label manager and creative director Rapaport, the genre-bending show was developed through the 2008 Underbelly Festival at Carriageworks. The show is a collaboration between visual artists, freestyle MCs and improvising musicians and each show is different, keeping the performers on their toes.

After featuring at the Edinburgh, Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festivals, Woodford Folk Festival, the Sydney Comedy Festival Great Debate and at the Spiegeltent, Sketch The Rhyme are heading to one of their coolest tour destinations yet: the fifth Perisher Snowy Mountains of Music festival to welcome in the snow season is an exciting tour destination for the crew. “I hope it snows!” Nakazawa says, thrilled to have the opportunity to “meet other artists and musicians and to be in such a different and fun environment on tour,” at Australia's only music festival in the snow.

Each performance is structured around five or six games that are played throughout the night. “We have dead Celebrity Heads; Mr Squiggle, a guessing game where the MCs have to guess what we're drawing; Story Time, which includes a pre-prepared animation by one of the artists; and we just added a new one called Last Man Standing where the rappers battle each other in a syllable battle rap until they make a mistake or they can't do it anymore.”

Although some of the games require a little pre-preparation (for example, the visual artists choosing themes) for the most part each show is improvised and therefore entirely new and different. Nakazawa admits, “At first, it was totally intimidating… Never knowing what's going to come out of your pen.” But it's this unpredictability that has kept the concept fresh for so many years, and it's the “magic moments within the show where you see creation happening, where everything falls into place perfectly” that make it all worthwhile.

The core members of the group fluctuate – with eight members originally, there are now 15 members and guest performers such as Urthboy and Dialectrix. “Anyone can jump up and have a go – anyone can play with us. Members of the community can jump up and have a go, and there is a wider community of artists who come and join us sometimes.”

The show's nature has evolved since its beginning, and the group is looking to branch out further, with plans for a regular night in The Basement, a niche type of gameshow and the pilot for a TV series. Every member of the group is active in their own personal projects and despite going on tour so soon, Nakazawa has an exhibition launching just before the festival in Camperdown.

Nakazawa studied painting at the University of New South Wales School of Fine Art. “Some of the musicians are trained at the conservatorium – they're brilliant, professional musicians,” she says. The core crew are a “highly skilled bunch of people... most of us are university trained. Some of us aren't – the rappers are all self-taught – but everyone has their own unique style.” Despite their different backgrounds and mediums, Nakazawa says, “e all bring something else to each other's art – we complement each other.”