ISAMBARD Kingdom Brunel is widely regarded as the father of modern engineering, and the owner of a sick name that goes unnecessarily hard.
But did you know that the icon’s title was in fact chosen by him in order to establish a persona with undeniable street credentials?
Brunel, then known as Barry McCrea, knew that to make it in the dog-eat-dog world of civil engineering, he needed a level of presence the Royal Society could not ignore.
A letter from the engineer to fiancée Mary Horsley in 1832 said: “I pray you, do not get it twisted. Isambard Kingdom Brunel is merely who I am to my fans.
“But the railroaders, the shipbuilders, the bridgemakers would not appreciate plain Barry. For them I put on my stovepipe hat, light my cigar and don my sobriquiet. Then and only then will they put respect on the name of the Notorious IKB.
“There is serious heat on me. Robert Stephenson thinks he can come for the king with his ‘London & Birmingham Railway’, but he’s a nobody. What kind of a name is ‘Robert Stephenson’? Zero swag.
“The Great Western Railway is no more or less than a diss track to my haters, who you know to be considerable. Each one of my broad, 7ft ¼in gauges is a shot fired to these men, and no cap. By the end of my career, I will have created Swindon.”
150 years later, Brunel’s letters made a big impression on rappers trying to make it in equally tough circumstances. To put it simply, game recognised game.
And thus, like their mentor, hip hop stars adopted names like Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ghostface Killer, Ski Mask the Slump God, MF Doom and Schoolboy Q in honour of their hero.
Next week: to 1984, when a distraught Michael Jordan realises his talent for basketball condemns him never to realise his dream of designing shoes.
