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MC Hawking

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File:Briefhistoryofrhyme.jpg
Cover of A Brief History of Rhyme (2004)

MC Hawking is the persona of a nerdcore artist who parodies gangster rap and theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking. MC Hawking gained some popularity in the early 2000s, largely due to the availability of his music on the Internet. The music is in the rap style but the lyrics are synthesized by the now defunct commercial text-to-speech program WillowTalk. Originally released in MP3 format, after the popularity of the website MC Hawking got a record deal with Brash Music to release a so-called "greatest hits" album.

Background

MC Hawking's entire body of work and his imaginary rapper personality were created by American web developer Ken Leavitt-Lawrence. The official MC Hawking website (created and maintained by Leavitt-Lawrence) is set to look like a personal fan site for the MC. From the mchawking.com home page: "While there are dozens of other sites on the web devoted to Stephen Hawking's scientific achievements, I am unaware of a single site (aside from this one) devoted to his career as a lyrical terrorist."

The lyrics are a mixture of gangsta rap topics, science topics and Stephen Hawking quotes (such as the famous "When I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my gun."). Stephen Hawking has said that he is "flattered, as it's a modern day equivalent to Spitting Image". [1] Among subjects of MC Hawking songs are various scientific topics, Hawking's professional relationships with MIT rivals, as well as the standard fare of gangsta rap, including street violence and racism.

The beats for MC Hawking are provided by DJ Doomsday. Most of the beats are samples of classic hip hop tracks, or taken from commercial royalty-free loop libraries.

He is also involved with a heavy metal group called Dark Matter--an obvious parody of Ice T's Body Count--with whom he has performed such songs as "Why Won't Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die," "UFT for the MC" (a parody of the Sex Pistols song "Anarchy in the UK") and "The Big Bizang". He is also an occasional Song Fight! participant.

His "greatest hits" album (the only actual album ever recorded) is called A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking's Greatest Hits, a parody of Hawking's book A Brief History of Time. It included many songs that were available on the official website (since removed to increase sales of the album), plus new material (4 songs and 3 interludes from a fictional radio interview).

The lyrics reflect an insight in to many aspects of current scientific thought and a surprising lyrical flow:

  • "Wikipedia calls me a fictional rapper. See how fictional I feel with my foot up your crapper. I'll shoot you in the face, leave you bleeding in the grass. You heard me right, I'm going Cheney on your ass." from "Rock out with your Hawk out"
  • "I explode like a bomb. No one is spared. My power is my mass times the speed of light squared." - From "E = MC Hawking"
  • "Hoes on my tip, 15 bullets in my clip, my hand rests heavy on my pistol grip." - From "E = MC Hawking"
  • "They [the creationists] want to have their bullshit taught in public class. Stephen Jay Gould should put his foot right up their ass." - From "Fuck the Creationists"
  • "Look I ain't Thomas Dolby, science doesn't blind me. Think you're smart? Form a line behind me." - From "What We Need More of is Science"
  • "You ever drop an egg and on the floor you see it break? You go and get a mop so you can clean up your mistake. But did you ever stop to ponder why we know it's true, if you drop a broken egg you will not get an egg that's new?" - From "Entropy"
  • "Creationists always try to use the second law [of thermodynamics] to disprove evolution, but their theory has a flaw: The Earth's not a closed system, it's powered by the sun. So fuck the damn creationists! Doomsday, get my gun." - From "Entropy"

Disography

  • A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking's Greatest Hits
    1. The Hawkman Cometh
    2. The Dozens
    3. Big Bizang
    4. Excerpt From A Radio Interview (Pt. 1)
    5. Entropy
    6. The Mighty Stephen Hawking
    7. Crazy As Fuck
    8. Bitchslap
    9. Excerpt From A Radio Interview (Pt. 2)
    10. Fuck The Creationists
    11. E=MC Hawking
    12. All My Shootings Be Drivebys
    13. UFT For The MC
    14. Excerpt From A Radio Interview (Pt. 3)
    15. What We Need More Of Is Science
    16. GTA3
  • Songs released in MP3 format only

Fictional Disography

As part of the parody, a fictional disography was created on the MC Hawking's Crib Web site. None of these albums were actually created, and any song not feaured on the above discography were never actually recorded.

  • The Hawkman Cometh EP (1992)
    1. The Hawkman Cometh
    2. Big Biz-ang
    3. The Dozens
  • Fear Of A Black Hole (1994)
    1. Crazy as Fuck
    2. The Mighty Stephen Hawking
    3. Nanomachine
    4. Black Holes
    5. Faster Than Light
    6. Why Won't Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die?
    7. Big Biz-ang (Remix)
    8. Doomsday Device
    9. Cut It Up
    10. Bitch Slap
    11. Entropy
    12. Fucking Shit Up Old-school
    13. F.Y.M.
    14. Bring the Noize
  • E = MC Hawking (1997)
    1. A Brief Dissertation on Gravitational Entropy, Quantum Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle.
    2. Fuck the Creationists
    3. Event Horizon
    4. All My Shootin's Be Drive-bys
    5. Space Time
    6. Wrong Again Albert
    7. What We Need More Of Is Science
    8. Bitch Slap
    9. F.Y.M.A.S.M.D.
    10. Dark Matter
    11. TKO
    12. Paradox
    13. E=MC Hawking
    14. Kick That Shit!

Trivia

  • Hawking's fictional second album was originally called A Brief History of Rhyme. Once MC Hawking got a record deal, "A Brief History of Rhyme" was decided to be the name of his first actual CD, and the fictional album was renamed Fear Of A Black Hole.
  • The program used to create the Hawking voice is called WillowTALK, a software program that is no longer available.
  • The song "GTA3", about the video game Grand Theft Auto 3, was originally recorded and available on a PC Gamer magazine demo disc.
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