Ken Lawrence is a

nerdcore Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 200 ...

rapper who purports to be the late theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

Stephen Hawking rapping under the name MC Hawking. MC Hawking rose to popularity on the Internet in the early 2000s. The songs were originally released in

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

format, but due to the popularity of the website Lawrence was signed to a record deal with Brash Music to release a "

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

" album in 2004.

Background

MC Hawking's entire body of work and his rapper persona were created by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

web developer Ken Lawrence. Lawrence earned a degree in music composition from

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...

. His

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

s are synthesized by the

text-to-speech Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ...

program WillowTalk. The beats for MC Hawking are provided by DJ Doomsday (another alter-ego of Ken Lawrence). The beats are a combination of samples of classic hip hop tracks, commercial royalty-free loop libraries, live performances, and midi compositions.

Lyrical content

The lyrics are a mixture of gangsta rap topics, science topics and Stephen Hawking quotations (such as the famous "When I hear of

Schrödinger's cat In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment that illustrates a paradox of quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead, while it is unobserved in ...

, I reach for my gun", which became "Every time I think of them my trigger finger itches", referring to

creationists Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation.#Gunn 2004, Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' say ...

). Among subjects of MC Hawking songs are various scientific topics and Hawking's professional relationships with

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

rivals, as well as the standard fare of gangsta rap, including street

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

and drug use. The lyrics display insight into many aspects of current scientific thought,

Newton's laws of motion Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows: # A body remains at rest, or in moti ...

("All My Shootings Be Drivebys"), Einstein's

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

("E=MC Hawking"), the

Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

("The Big Bizang"),

Thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...

("Entropy"), and quantum physics subjects such as

and the

wave function collapse In quantum mechanics, wave function collapse occurs when a wave function—initially in a quantum superposition, superposition of several eigenstates—reduces to a single eigenstate due to interaction with the external world. This interaction is ...

("Rock Out With Your Hawk Out"). The

creation evolution controversy Recurring cultural, political, and theological rejection of evolution by religious groups (sometimes termed the creation–evolution controversy, the creation vs. evolution debate or the origins debate) exists regarding the origins of the Eart ...

is also mentioned in "Fuck the

Creationists Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation.#Gunn 2004, Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' say ...

" and "Entropy".

Dark Matter and greatest hits album

He is also involved with a heavy metal group called Dark Matter — a parody of Ice-T's "

Body Count A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate. Often used in reference to military combat, the term can also r ...

" — with whom he has performed such songs as "Why Won't

Jesse Helms Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ...

Just Hurry Up and Die", " UFT for the MC" (a parody of the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

song "

Anarchy in the UK "Anarchy in the U.K." is a song by English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's debut single on 26 November 1976 and was later featured on their album ''Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols''. "Anarchy in th ...

"), and "The Big Bizang". He is also an occasional

Song Fight! Song Fight! is a weekly online songwriting and recording competition in which amateur artists are openly invited to participate. Traditionally, a title and deadline are posted each week for which participants write, record, and submit a song in MP ...

participant. His "greatest hits" album is called ''A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking's Greatest Hits'', a parody of Hawking's book ''

A Brief History of Time ''A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes'' is a book on theoretical cosmology by English physicist Stephen Hawking. It was first published in 1988. Hawking wrote the book for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics. I ...

''. It included many songs that were available on the official website, plus new material (four songs and three interludes from a fictional radio interview).

Reaction by Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking said in 2000 that he was "flattered, as it's a modern-day equivalent to ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ov ...

''". On the inside cover of ''A Brief History of Rhyme'', Lawrence thanks Stephen Hawking "for taking this joke in the spirit that it was intended."

MC Hawking's Podcore Nerdcast

In 2013, Lawrence, along with longtime collaborators Len Pal and the voice actor Dave B. Mitchell, launched ''MC Hawking's Podcore Nerdcast'', a podcast in which the hosts discuss movies, games, books, and music (and particularly nerdcore hip hop). as well as interviews with nerdcore musicians including

MC Frontalot Damian Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. Hess began releasing music as MC Frontalot in 1999. His first successes came through Song Fight!, an online songwriting and ...

MC Lars Andrew Robert Nielsen (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as MC Lars, is an American record producer, rapper, cartoonist, podcaster and educator. Lars is one of the self-proclaimed originators of "lit-hop", and is the founder and CEO of ...

Random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no :wikt:order, order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Ind ...

, and Atheist (Scott Knopf). In June 2014, Cassie joined the cast to fill in for Mitchell (due to scheduling conflicts). Regular features include ''Will It Suck'', in which the hosts discuss upcoming films and predict opening weekend box office and

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

results, ''Dino News'', in which Cassie brings the latest news about dinosaurs, ''Nerds Need to Know'', which highlights books, movies, or television shows relevant to

nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...

culture, and ''Everybody Wants to Rule the World'', in which the hosts debate potential new laws or decrees that could make the world a better place. Episodes occasionally also feature new MC Hawking tracks.

Upcoming second album

His second album, ''The Hawkman Returneth'', is due for release in 2018. It will feature the track ''Fear of a Black Hole'', which was first performed in 2016 in front of the real Stephen Hawking and others including

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

and

Brian May Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Fredd ...

Discography

*''A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking's Greatest Hits'' (2004) *#"The Hawkman Cometh" *#"

The Dozens The Dozens is a game played between two contestants in which the participants insult each other until one of them gives up. Common in African-American communities, the Dozens is almost exclusively played in front of an audience, who encourage the ...

" *#"Big Bizang" *#"Excerpt from a Radio Interview (Pt. 1)" *#"

Entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...

" *#"The Mighty Stephen Hawking" *#"Crazy as Fuck" *#"Bitchslap (With

)" *#"Excerpt from a Radio Interview (Pt. 2)" *#"Fuck the Creationists" *#"E=MC Hawking" *#"All My Shootings Be Drivebys" *#" UFT For The MC" *#"Excerpt from a Radio Interview (Pt. 3)" *#"What We Need More of is Science" *#" GTA3" *Songs released in MP3 format only ** "Led Zeppelin Medley" (no longer available) ** "QuakeMaster" ** "Why Won't

Just Hurry Up and Die?" ** "Rock Out with Your Hawk Out" ** "MC Hawking Holiday" ** "How I Roll" *Appearances :*"Nerdcore Rising" -

- ''

Nerdcore Rising ''Nerdcore Rising'' is the official debut album by nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot. The album was first released on August 27, 2005 at the Penny Arcade Expo. It consists of 16 tracks; six new tracks and ten "classic megahits" that Frontalot had p ...

Fictional discography

As part of the parody, a fictional discography was created on the MC Hawking's Crib website. None of these albums were actually created. *''The Hawkman Cometh EP'' (1994) *'' ear of a Black Hole' (1996) (originally called ''A Brief History of Rhyme'' until Hawking's real album was given that title) *''E = MC Hawking'' (1999)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawking, MC Nerdcore artists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Cultural depictions of Stephen Hawking Hampshire College alumni