Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8th, 1942 in Oxford, England. At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford where he majored in physics. After three years he was awarded a first class honors degree in Natural Science. In 1963, at 21, Stephen was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (a neuromuscular disease that progressively weakens muscle control) doctors predicted an early death for him. Stephen, however, had other ideas. Refusing to allow his disease to get the better of him, Stephen went on to Cambridge where he gained a Ph.D in Cosmology. Since 1979 Stephen has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a chair that was held in 1663 by Isaac Newton.

Throughout these remarkable achievements the disease continued to ravage Stephen’s body, though not his mind. Confined to a wheel chair Stephen completely lost the use of his vocal chords in an operation to assist his breathing in 1985. Since then he has communicated with the help of a computer. A speech synthesizer “speaks” for him after he punches in what he wants to say. Stephens only major complaint with this system: it makes him sound like an American.

In 1988, an event happened that changed Stephen’s life profoundly. The Beastie Boys played a concert at the colleges Student Center. Stephen was blown away. He was utterly captivated by the pounding rhythms and twisting rhymes. Over the next several weeks he became obsessed with rap music and immersed himself deeply into its culture. He soon realized that he favored the harder-edge music produced by bands like NWA and the Ghetto Boyz. Stephen had found a new passion to rival theoretical astrophysics: gangsta rap.

“It’s raunchy, hilarious and amazingly well executed.”

– Los Angeles Times

“Hip-hop Hawking? You better believe it. It’s hard to decide whether the parody is downright brilliant or borderline offensive, but it certainly made us laugh.”

– Salon

“I’m flattered in an odd sort of way.”

– Dr. Stephen Hawking

A Brief History of Rhyme promo clip: Check Hawking’s promo clip for the new record. Word.