GZA_lecture

GZA will be the next rapper to deliver a talk at MIT

This week, Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike proved once again that he’s a powerful, outspoken force in hip hop today. Not only did he attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but he gave an inspiring, informative talk at MIT about race relations, Run The Jewels, technology and more. You can check out some of the footage here:


More here,here, here, here and here (my favourite one, where he speaks about Gangsta Boo and the creation of Love Again – more of which you can read about in our interview with RTJ here)

What you might not know is that Mike was there as part of MIT’s ongoing series of hip hop lectures. Young Guru was first, and Lil’ B stopped by to chat about building a personal brand online. Killer Mike visited last week, and Wu-Tang Clan founding member GZA will be the next rapper to take part.

Sam Magee is the manager of student programs at the Arts at MIT office. He explains: “This is really geared toward students to engender a conversation with popular artists who have a certain influence, and who have experience that other visiting artists don’t necessarily have.”

“GZA is coming in to talk specifically about how the arts and the study of physics intertwine,” Magee said.

GZA’s talk will be moderated by Physics professor Christoph Paus. GZA’s latest album was, after all, titled Dark Matter and focuses heavily on subjects surrounding space and time.

This isn’t the first time that GZA has visited MIT for a lecture. Back in 2012 he visited the campus to chat about chess, freestyle rapping, music that influenced him and more.

GZA will be the last rapper to take part until the new academic year begins in September. Magee revealed that organisers have contacted other high profile artists, but has yet to confirm any names.

“Our students are eating it up. They love it,” Magee said.

Here’s GZA’s science-based TED Talk: