As a child, Joy France was so shy that she walked to school with her hands over her eyes, believing no one would see she was there. Now 66, she is an international battle rapper who raps in front of huge crowds. “I think I’m the oldest battle rapper in the world,” she says. She has battle rapped – a form in which rappers insult each other and make boasts – in England and Ireland, in the Don’t Flop league (one of the UK’s biggest leagues). In the process, she has become “the exact opposite of what I was”.
France made her debut in 2018 at a club in Coventry – “stepping into a world that I was terrified of,” she says, so nervous that she came out in a rash. Before the battle – recorded by Northern Heart Films for a short documentary – France contacted her opponent and urged: “Do whatever you would do for any other contestant.” He obliged, rapping a joke about her genitals.
Usually, when she arrives at the door to perform, the security guard will say, ‘Sorry love, you’ve come to the wrong place. There’s going to be lots of swearing. I say: ‘Yes, it’s going to be me doing the swearing.’”
It might not be everyone’s definition of invigorating, but: “There’s nothing going to make me cringe or cower,” she says. She loves “the variety of people. It’s massively neurodiverse. It’s a very welcoming scene, a beautiful world of mainly young men who are there for each other.” She already had friends – Sue who enjoys cruises and Eric who plays golf. Through rapping, she has made new friends: Maddo, Bacon, Rapthor and Skully The Mad Hat. “Lovely, unusual friendships.”
France spent her career teaching at a primary school, specialising in special needs, and later in pupil referral units. By her mid 50s, she was a single parent with an adult son and a reliable job. “There was nothing wrong with my life, but it was predictable.”
So she made a decision to “shake up life by following coincidences” to see where that led. Some of the “coincidences” she experienced produced bizarre outcomes. Cabbages were mentioned twice in one day, so France joined an event with a Chinese artist that entailed attaching a lead to a cabbage and taking it for a walk. Another time, coincidence led her to a poetry workshop in Wigan, where she lives. The workshop led to spoken word nights at a local pub. France stood at the back listening and watching for nearly a year, before she felt ready to perform herself. Then she became a regular, her confidence grew and she eventually won a poetry slam. “It’s usually younger people and not many women. I was breaking barriers. I found my voice.”
In 2014, France took early retirement to explore her creativity. She did a turn at the Isle of Wight festival and another at the Edinburgh fringe (where this week she performs a show entitled From Retirement to Battle Rap).
“I was just about to get sensible, start doing supply work,” she says, “when I got an offer to be creative-in-residence at Afflecks independent emporium in Manchester.”
At Afflecks, an indoor market of independent shops, France was given a room. She put a sign above the door that said: “Not a shop. The only rule was to be nice. Come in and create, but no money’s going to be spent. I let it grow organically. We had open mics, workshops. Bands would form.”
One day, a couple of teenagers dropped by. One read France a poem he had written, and she reciprocated with her own. “The boys laughed and said: ‘That’s rap. You should do battle rap!’”
They didn’t know that on France’s 60th birthday, a few months earlier, she had pledged to try 60 new things before the year was out and to follow up every suggestion. She had already held an owl, gone fishing and learned a new Latin phrase. Now battle rap was added to the list.
She did a “mini rap battle” outside Afflecks. “But I knew I hadn’t done it for real. I’d not changed anyone’s views about a short fat woman with grey hair. I wanted to see if I could do it for real.”
For years, she says, “I kept myself away from doing things I wanted to do. I’m past that now.” She has discovered “how to embrace life” and whatever happens, “I will be able to think that I enjoyed the world – and hopefully made the world a better place by interacting with people.” Next year, she plans to battle rap in New York.
• Joy Uncensored by Northern Heart films is available at www.joyuncensored.co.uk
Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?
