“’Rap Guide to Climate Change’ is a highly enjoyable theatrical experience which lies well beyond the normal conventions of the theater. Lying somewhere between a play, musical, and a documentary, Baba Brinkman’s latest is a fun, thought-provoking, and highly original performance piece which successfully delivers an important message in an approachable and entertaining way.”
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"'Climate Chaos' is an extensive, sometimes draining, survey of climate change science in a way you may have never seen before. Baba Brinkman is a terrific performer...After a while though, you start to feel like that this all a bit relentless. The projections feel like a live-action version of 'An Inconvenient Truth' and your saturation level for quickly-spewed facts is full. This could really be a series of well-produced YouTube clips that here makes up a sometimes exhausting evening."
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"If there is one word to describe the full impact of this production directed by Darren Lee Cole and Brinkman’s exceptional preparation for the genius of his performance, it is 'electrifying.'…Brinkman is a dynamo of energy himself, a fabulous rapping carbon life form…From beginning to end, this must see production, is mesmerizing. I will probably see it again to solidify for myself the incredible amount of information Brinkman presents seamlessly with wit, irony and fun."
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"This is not preachy; this is theatre – funny, surprising, and smart...This is not an Al Gore climate talk, this is cool climate rap delivered to you by Baba, the epitome of cool nerd...How lucky we are to live in a city that brings artists like Baba Brinkmann to perform and inform. So take a friend who is a skeptic, one who’s not, several who care and several who don’t. Take as many as you can...be prepared for 80 minutes of the concert, the theatre, the church, the uproar."
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"The result is a disorienting self-reflexivity, a mirror aimed at another mirror: a show about the guy who wrote the show, performing the show he wrote. This is confusing, yes, but what it comes down to is a lack of stakes. Climate change is tense, threatening, dramatic; an explanation of climate change is not."
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“Baba Brinkman’s solo 'Rap Guide' shows are an often dazzling mix of smart, informative, inventive and witty...There are 24 raps in all, according to the program, and, as wonderful and/or well-meaning as each is, this winds up being too much to absorb at one sitting…I have faith that Brinkman will do what he can to improve his show, preferably using the same basic principle behind efforts to stem climate-damaging emissions — less is better."
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"It is an intelligent, info-rich show. Brinkman fires data and statistics at his audience in lyrical waves...As a performer he is fluid, self-aware, passionate and engaging. He is also very funny, and while some of the things he discusses are rightfully alarming, there is a lot of wit in his writing too – he leaves his audience with much to think about."
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"Beyond the well-researched and structured script, there is also a freestyle rapping element, where three topics thrown in by audience members are incorporated into a rap. The performer’s energy is remarkable, as he barely stops to draw breath through a full hour of hand-waggling, high-octane performance that will make viewers think about what they can do to help slow down global warming at the same time as mourning the callousness of greedy politicians and voters."
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