Genius Comes Along
There are some sentences you never dream you're going to write, like this one: "World-class physicist Stephen Hawking uses his computer-generated voice for gangsta rap." And yet, "A Brief History of Rhyme" has made this delusional sentence a side-splitting reality.
The idea was first born on a website launched last September. The website creates a whole mythological story about Hawking turning to gangsta rap after a life-changing Beastie Boys concert. The popularity of the website spawned A Brief History, described as a greatest hits compilation from MC Hawking's previous releases.
This is one of the funniest and best-executed concepts I've ever heard. MC Hawking drops some wicked rhymes about his life of crime and superior intelligence, all in his robotic computerized voice. He takes on everyone from Dr. Dre ("that bitch got no Ph.D.") to MIT students (the victims in "All My Shootings Be Drivebys") to religious zealots ("F**k the Creationists").
MC Hawking's alter-ego, Ken Leavitt-Lawrence, pays homage to several old school acts, including Public Enemy and Naughty by Nature ("You down with entropy? Yeah, you know me!"). The scary thing is, I learned more about quantum physics in just a few listens than I ever did in college.
"A Brief History of Rhyme" is pure genius that goes beyond mere gimmick; the songs actually have some staying power. This is one CD that you want to be able to say you've heard, because it's destined to find its way into the pop culture vernacular. As MC Hawking would say, "For shiznit!"