Brighton poet and rapper Eben Roddis teaches some of the Stay Up Late crew how to rap

Young local poet and rapper, the local legend that is Eben Roddis, offered to put on some spoken word workshops for us here at Stay Up Late. The challenge was this – could we use the power of rap and poetry to get across the No Bedtimes message? And what could Eben teach us?

Eben had a small group of us: Jason, Chris, Rohan and David along with myself. Firstly, he got us talking about what were the upsides of having an active social life. Then he got us talking about what were the downsides of not having one. He then talked a bit about rhyming and finding words that rhyme with one another (although he stressed that not everything needed to rhyme if you didn’t want it to!) Then he threw us in at the deep end. He got us all suggesting ideas for a simple rhyme that captured the Stay Up Late message. That would be the chorus. Then he got us all to write our own individual verses. Then a quick practice and we would all perform together and get everyone in the office to come up and watch. And we did all this in an hour!

This is what we came up with:

If I go to bed then I’d miss my social life
Miss my friends, miss my family, miss my wife
When I leave the house I’m part of the community
There’s so much to do, so much opportunity

Coming to Brighton, knowing no-one
Away from my old life
Alone and nervous and frightened
New home, new people, new surroundings
Away from family, nothing to do, no friends, no social life
Til I found Gig Buddies
Making new buddies, Kate and Kittie
Taking my nerves away and feeling wanted and helping find my feet
Years go by and I’m as happy as I could ever be
All I can say is thank you and love you

If I go to bed then I’d miss my social life
Miss my friends, miss my family, miss my wife
When I leave the house I’m part of the community
There’s so much to do, so much opportunity

So much to do so many opportunities
Like meeting friends and seeing famous people
Rather than being bored and told what to do and missing out
I would rather be out partying at Latitude
Than hanging about and having a bad attitude
Plus shifts to pay the bills

If I go to bed then I’d miss my social life
Miss my friends, miss my family, miss my wife
When I leave the house I’m part of the community
There’s so much to do, so much opportunity

I will go out with my girl and have beer to drink
I will use my rapping skills to win a battle
If I stayed at home I’d be bored as fuck
I don’t wanna be no lone duck
I don’t want to miss out seeing my girl
As I like her here with me

If I go to bed then I’d miss my social life
Miss my friends, miss my family, miss my wife
When I leave the house I’m part of the community
There’s so much to do, so much opportunity

Eben has kindly arranged to do four more sessions for us and we’re meeting up weekly each Thursday afternoon during May. Watch this space to see how we get on!

Darren Johnson