“I didn’t want to be a nurse, I wanted to be a rapper.”
-- Craig “muMs” Grant

I should confess my bias: One, I don’t love one-man shows. Two, I have a massive artistic crush on Craig “muMs” Grant. All things considered, Mr. Grant doesn’t disappoint with his new one-man show A Sucker Emcee, a love song to hip-hop, to the Bronx, and to the high and low cypher.

When you walk into Labyrinth’s Bank Street Theater, you will head-bob all the way to your seat, thanks to DJ Rich Medina, the perfect soundtrack, hype-man, and bastion of all that is funky fresh. If Grant is Diana Ross (with a 5 o’clock shadow) then Medina is the quintessential Supreme. The music is a throwback to a time when hip-hop was about skills, not booty.

And Grant is all about skills. He has all the lure of a world wise virtuoso—a gentle bull from the Bronx, he glides through masculine rites of passage, unprecedented success, and a lament to a life full of the oooohs and ahhhhs.

Fear is a warning, he croons -- and we believe him. Grant is at his best when he boogies, when he smiles and snarls through his enthralling language. He is wise to give us a morsel we can relive and savor. At times, though, we are sitting through an education; if you didn’t know Afrika Bambaataa or the Universal Hulu Nation, consider yourself schooled.

This isn’t all homage though. When Grant speaks on his family and his losses, we plunge into unanticipated pain that will stay with you as long as the beats do. Director Jenny Koons is a gift; she keeps the whole affair taut and seductive. Grant is Griot, historian, and shaman. “muMs” proves he is a worthy emcee, affirming that we need emcees as much as we need nurses. Let yourself fall under his spell.

A Sucker Emcee continues its run at the Bank Street Theater through October 5. For more information and tickets, visit https://labtheater.org/