Air Date: October 19, 2009

Marcel Agueros & Bobbito Garcia

I Keep Planets in Orbit: Astronomy in Hip Hop

Astronomy references in popular culture abound, but one arena where they aren't commonly discussed is in hip hop. Yet a surprising number of hip-hop artists have made connections to astronomy in their music; often these connections are elliptical, but sometimes they are central to a song or even an album. In keeping with a time-honored hip-hop tradition, we will be doing some sampling--in this case, to provide examples of this unexpected link between astronomy and music. We will also discuss some of the science, or lack thereof, in the astronomy references made by these artists.

Marcel Agüeros is a National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Fellow at Columbia University. Marcel got his PhD at the University of Washington, and his research interests include neutron stars, white dwarfs, and activity in low-mass stars. He's loved hip hop since he first heard Mr Magic's Rap Attack on NYC's WBLS-FM in the mid-1980s. His website is ​http://astro.columbia.edu/~marcel.

Bobbito García is an internationally known DJ and the retired host of the classic DJ Stretch Armstrong Show on WKCR-FM, voted best hip-hop show of all time by The Source Magazine in 1998. Bobbito is also the author of "Where’d You Get Those?: New York City’s Sneaker Culture 1960-1987" and the Editor-in-chief of Bounce Magazine, dedicated to street basketball.