Comments

  2. firemancarl says

    Lets hope this becomes a youtube phenom and millions will watch it…thanks to HOX

  4. says

    You just blew my mind, man.

    Seriously.

    Not counting this, 100% of the rap songs I have ever heard (which is a lot– my brother makes his own rap songs) have been aggravatingly stupid.

    An intelligent rap song… this is a whole new concept for me.

    So, what do they call themselves? The Post-Docs?

  12. says

    I used to deal with my insomnia by figuring out how I’d explain relativity to Newton or Wittgenstein to Socrates. I don’t think I’d get to sleep very soon imagining how Charles Darwin would react to this rap song.

    We live in a science fiction novel, and it’s looking more and more like the author is Kilgore Trout.

  13. says

    Brilliant! I recognize the Stanford campus. I miss being there. Especially now in this deity-awful blizzard aftermath.

  17. says

    Jim Harrison – Darwin would obviously reply in kind, to the popular Victorian hymn tune Abide With Me.

    “Well, bugger me!
    How much all this explains –
    I thought that gemmules
    Flowed along our veins,
    Then they would blend,
    Regressing to the means,
    I never thought of
    Regulating genes.”

    Then he’d put his hat on backwards and do a funky dance. You can see it, can’t you?

  20. Helioprogenus says

    Now that’s creative rapping. Sadly, the people who actually need to hear it will never have a chance because thanks to the superficial music industry, they’re getting lessons on pimping, hustling, generalized misogyny, specialized misogyny, spending your cash quickly, shooting your competitors, loading your glock, etc…

    The rap does certainly have an appeal, even to mainstream culture thanks to the simple but awesome bassline. Speaking of which, after I get done with work, I’m heading home to try and play that beat.

  21. Sclerophanax says

    I like the lyrics a lot, I just wish their rap music had more… music in it, rather than just a repetitive beat. Although I’m not well versed in musical terminology enough to tell if adding music to rap music would turn it into hip hop or something like that.

  22. Peter Ashby says

    Personally I think old Charles would like the Python’s little ditty:

    All things dull and ugly,
    All creatures short and squat,
    All things rude and nasty,
    The Lord God made the lot.
    Each little snake that poisons,
    Each little wasp that stings,
    He made their brutish venom.
    He made their horrid wings.

    All things sick and cancerous,
    All evil great and small,
    All things foul and dangerous,
    The Lord God made them all.

    Each nasty little hornet,
    Each beastly little squid–
    Who made the spikey urchin?
    Who made the sharks? He did!

    All things scabbed and ulcerous,
    All pox both great and small,
    Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
    The Lord God made them all.

    Amen.

  26. says

    I loved Miss Prism’s poem, but it wasn’t the content of the rap that I thought would blow Charlie’s mind.

    Come to think of it. You’d have a harder time explaining the new science to Darwin’s granddad, but I reckon old Erasmus would have had less trouble getting down with the style, considering “Loves of the Plants” and his other literary efforts.

  31. Julian says

    The Science Pundit: This is filled with win.

    More generally, for all those here tired of the path commercial rap has taken, try looking up Blackalicious; its a good place to start when looking for rap and hip hop that doesn’t engage in the sort of nihilism which most of it takes part in these days.

  32. Steve says

    Hilarious. Wish this had happened when I was at Stanford.
    Given all the religious creationists, it’s ironic that most of this was shot in front of the Memorial Church!

  34. says

    I understand that they’ll be special guest artists at the Buckaroo Banzai/Hong Kong Cavaliers & MC Hawking/Dark Matter “Monsters of Science” concert tour dates in California.

  38. says

    Fresh. Is that what the kids say? Fresh? Seriously creative and comparable to The Narwhal Song only as a Trabant is comparable to a Bugatti Veyron because they both have four wheels. If you like your rap and you like it smart, download some Greydon Square on iTunes.

  41. Larry says

    #10 Jeff: HOLY CRAP!!! Those guys are at Stanford! Why haven’t I heard of this?!?!

    Actually, Standford has been around for quite a while Jeff. All you need to do is look at the bottom of the Pac12 football standings and there they are! ;)

    Stanford ’77 alum.

  42. annas says

    @The Science Pundit – thanks for the link. Who knew science could be so much fun?
    (We all did, right.)

  44. protocol says

    yea for my alma mater (though all the while I was there I wished I was at berkeley.

  45. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    Interesting little rap. Even scientists can have fun out of the lab.

  47. SquidBrandon says

    Um…but I was told by very important people who talk to gOd, that fruit fly research is a waste of taxpayer money. So, Hox genes and other development-related regulatory genes in model organisms are consequentially unimportant. Right?

  50. arachnophilia says

    i don’t think i’ve had enough biology classes to get these jokes.

    however, this is still somehow LESS nerdy than the star trek rap.

  52. SeeMoreGlass says

    You may have just saved my midterm tomorrow – thank you so much. I always knew web surfing was useful! *back to studying Cactus and Ran-GEF and things*

  53. Goldenmane says

    Seems to me that there’s a growing tendency for science to push further into popular culture in an overt manner.

    I can only say: this is a Good Thing.

  54. RamziD says

    Nice song!

    If you liked that, you might enjoy the rapping of Greydon Square… an atheist rapper from Phoenix, AZ… enjoy!

  56. RamziD says

    Okay, sorry, but this is the last one:

    I’m so happy that a message of rationality and secularism is even being delivered through pop media…

  57. scott says

    What would Hoekstra and Coyne have to say about their overt gene-regulation bias?

    What about protein evolution??!!?? ;-)

  58. gribley says

    Awesome, although it made me cringe a little. I’m impressed about the HOX bits, especially.

    But yo, firemancarl, Kobra, and especially Mud Rake — this hating on rap is totally unwarranted — you folks sound as closed-minded as any creationist. I bet none of you have spent, say, even 3 minutes in total investigating the genre. There is a lot of shit rap out there, just as there’s a lot of crappy pop music, but to decry rap because you didn’t like the few seconds you heard while switching stations is as pathetic as dissing all of rock music because of Britney.

    If you make a claim as dumb as Mud Rake’s, I expect you to be able to back it up with names of songs and a little musical and lyrical analysis. Hell, the Stanford rap wasn’t particularly clever or lyrically interesting compared even to mainstream rap. There is a lot of tremendously intelligent, thoughtful rap out there. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that rap has been *at least* as productive, innovative, and interesting a musical form over the last 20 years as any you can name. Just because you don’t know anything about it doesn’t give you the right to put it down.

    whew. Sorry for the tangent. But I hate that any mention of rap on a public forum brings this uninformed crap out of the woodwork.

  60. Brodach says

    Great links from everyone: thanks all! I second the recommendation of Blackalicious for those looking for intelligent rap.

  61. says

    Genes are regulated for sure –lest that leg grow where it ought not!

    “fearfully and wonderfully made” –“and through Him was not anything made that was made.”

  63. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    Barb the Bimbo Blathering. Nothing cogent, just manure. Move along folks, hold your nose to avoid the smell.

  64. says

    Just so you know, the music is not their own, so don’t blame them. They took the music and the flow from an old Jay-Z song, “Money ain’t a thing.” From probably before any of you had heard of Jay-Z, he wasn’t big at that point in time. Nice rap though, I think I learned a little bit and it made me laugh.

  65. says

    If you guys like more nerdcore rap. Here is some Unix rap, Kill Dash Nine by Monzy. Also performed at Stanford. What is with Stanford and nerd rap?

  66. HeWhoYouDespise says

    But who regulates the regulating genes? good old non-genetic, cytoplasmic architectural and physical factors, that’s who.
    Cool rap, though. I will have to diss them with my own anti-homuncular rap: “epigenesis is crucial for development”

  68. says

    Yeah… Blackalicious – Alphabet Aerobics & Chemical Calisthenics! If you’re not digging the beginning, skip to 2:10.

  71. Maria says

    This is awful as far as music goes, but fun and informative. I have to say something to all the people who are incredibly condescending towards hip hop in general, assuming that all hip hop artists are illiterate and idiotic: most are not, and some are introspective and very intelligent. Please get off your high horse and sit down and listen to some intelligent hip hop artists, because they are out there.

  72. Sili says

    Those preferring Tom Lehrer seem to miss the point. How many people in his day (yes, I know he’s not dead yet) were upset that he lampooned the works of Gilbert ‘n’ Sullivan?

    “I’d rather hear the real Major General’s patter song.”

    I say this as a fan of Lehrer: Grow the fuck up.

    And thus I’ve ruined the comment I wanted to make:

    Are we not men?

    We are devo.

    E-E. V. O.

    Evo devo.