Yo’ rap is dench*, Judi
*Street slang for ‘nice’ or ‘brilliant’, invented by rapper Lethal Bizzle
AS a classically trained actress, Dame Judi Dench is more used to reciting Shakepeare’s verse than rapping.
But at the age of 82 she formed an unlikely – and hilarious – partnership with top London grime artist Lethal Bizzle. Dame Judi and Bizzle are connected by the word “dench”, first coined by the rap star, 32, as slang for “nice” or “brilliant”. And as they met for the first time in an online video, the national treasure puts on a “Stay Dench” cap from Bizzle’s fashion range before spitting some rhymes. When he runs through a sequence of lyrics to memorise, the Oscar-winning actress asks: “Have you got a fortnight?”
Dame Judi – who played MI6 boss M in seven James Bond films – is then asked to repeat, “Anywhere I go, gang rollin’” but replies: “What does that mean?”
The Philomena and Shakespeare in Love star appears to grow in confidence after the rapper informs her: “That means anywhere I go my friends are coming with me.” Then there is more confusion when he asks her to say, “Big, big batty on the left.” “Baddie?” she asks, chuckling.
Game for a laugh, Dame Judi raps parts of Bizzle’s Celebrate before taking on hit single Pow, with: “Pow, yeah, I’m Ju to the D! Pow.” Bizzle declares: “You smashed it.”
Laughing afterwards in the footage from LADbible, Dame Judi exclaims: “I love it!”
Watch the video at mirror.co.uk