Name	MC Hawking
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Ken Lawrence
Alias	MC Hawking, The Hawkman
Instrument	Text-to-speech program
Genre	Nerdcore hip hop
Occupation	rapper, songwriter, producer
Label	Brash Music
Associated acts	Dark MatterDJ Doomsday
Url	www.mchawking.com

Ken Lawrence is a nerdcore hip hop artist who purports to be theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking rapping under the name MC Hawking.

MC Hawking gained some popularity on the Internet in the early 2000s. The songs were originally released in MP3 format, but due to the popularity of the website Lawrence was signed to a record deal with Brash Music to release a "greatest hits" album in 2004.

Background

MC Hawking's entire body of work and his rapper persona were created by American web developer Ken Lawrence. His raps are synthesized by the text-to-speech program WillowTalk. 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.

Lyrical content

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."). 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 drug use.

The lyrics display insight into many aspects of current scientific thought, Newton's laws of motion "All My Shootings Be Drivebys", Einstein's theory of relativity "E=MC Hawking", the Big Bang "The Big Bizang", Thermodynamics "Entropy", and quantum physics subjects such as Schrödinger's cat and the wave function collapse "Rock Out With Your Hawk Out".

The creation evolution controversy is also mentioned in "Fuck the Creationists" and "Entropy".

Dark Matter & Greatest hits album

He is also involved with a heavy metal group called Dark Matter — a 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 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, plus new material (four songs and three interludes from a fictional radio interview).

Website

The official MC Hawking website (created and maintained by 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."

Reaction by Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking has said that he is "flattered, as it's a modern-day equivalent to Spitting Image". 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."

Discography

A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking's Greatest Hits (2004)

#"The Hawkman Cometh"

#"The Dozens"

#"Big Bizang"

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

#"Entropy"

#"The Mighty Stephen Hawking"

#"Crazy as Fuck"

#"Bitchslap (With MC Frontalot)"

#"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 Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die?" (Since the release of this track, he did.)

* "Rock Out with Your Hawk Out" (appears on Rhyme Torrents Vol.1 )

* "MC Hawking Holiday"

Appearances

:*"The God Who Wasn't There" - The God Who Wasn't There soundtrack :*"Nerdcore Rising" - MC Frontalot - Nerdcore Rising

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, and any songs not listed in the above discography were never actually recorded.

The Hawkman Cometh EP (1992)

#"The Hawkman Cometh"

#"Big Biz-ang"

#"The Dozens"

Fear of a Black Hole (1994) (originally called A Brief History of Rhyme until Hawking's real album was given that title)

#"Crazy as Fuck"

#"The Mighty Stephen Hawking"

#"Nanomachine"

#"Black Holes"

#"Faster Than Light"

#"Why Won't Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die?"

#"Big Biz-ang (Remix)"

#"Doomsday Device"

#"Cut It Up"

#"Bitch Slap"

#"Entropy"

#"Fucking Shit Up Old-school"

#"F.Y.M."

#"Bring the Noize"

E = MC Hawking (1997)

#"A Brief Dissertation on Gravitational Entropy, Quantum Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle."

#"Fuck the Creationists"

#"Event Horizon"

#"All My Shootin's Be Drive-bys"

#"Space Time"

#"Wrong Again Albert"

#"What We Need More of Is Science"

#"Bitch Slap"

#"F.Y.M.A.S.M.D."

#"Dark Matter"

#"TKO"

#"Paradox"

#"E=MC Hawking"

#"Kick That Shit!"

External links

MC Hawking's official website

Category:Nerdcore hip hop artists Category:Living people

Name	Stephen William Hawking
Caption	Stephen Hawking at NASA, 1980's.
Birth name	Stephen William Hawking
Birth date	January 08, 1942
Birth place	Oxford, England
Residence	England
Nationality	British
Religion	Agnostic
Fields	Applied mathematicsTheoretical physicsCosmology
Workplaces	University of CambridgeCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPerimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Alma mater	University of OxfordUniversity of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor	Dennis Sciama
Academic advisors	Robert Berman
Doctoral students	Bruce AllenRaphael BoussoFay DowkerMalcolm PerryBernard CarrGary GibbonsHarvey ReallDon PageTim PrestidgeRaymond LaflammeJulian Luttrell
Known for	Black holesTheoretical cosmologyQuantum gravityHawking radiation
Influences	Dikran Tahta
Awards
Spouse	Jane Hawking

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) In 1950, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he attended St Albans High School for Girls from 1950 to 1953. (At that time, boys could attend the Girls' school until the age of ten.) When asked later to name a teacher who had inspired him, Hawking named his mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta. Inspired by his mathematics teacher, he originally wanted to study the subject at university. However, Hawking's father wanted him to apply to University College, Oxford, where his father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics fellow at that time, it would not accept applications from students who wished to read that discipline. Hawking therefore applied to read natural sciences, in which he gained a scholarship. Once at University College, Hawking specialised in physics. His interests during this time were in thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in The New York Times Magazine:

Hawking was passing, but his unimpressive study habits He left Oxford for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he engaged in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology.

Career in theoretical physics

Almost as soon as he arrived at Cambridge, he started developing symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, known colloquially in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease), a type of motor neurone disease which would cost him almost all neuromuscular control. During his first two years at Cambridge, he did not distinguish himself, but, after the disease had stabilised and with the help of his doctoral tutor, Dennis William Sciama, he returned to working on his Ph.D.

Hawking was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. Hawking is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

In 1974, he accepted the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to work with his friend, Kip Thorne, who was a faculty member there.

Personal life

Hawking revealed that he did not see much point in obtaining a doctorate if he were to die soon. Hawking later said that the real turning point was his 1965 marriage to Jane Wilde, a language student. After gaining his Ph.D. at Trinity Hall, Stephen became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College.

Jane Hawking (née Wilde), Hawking's first wife, cared for him until 1991 when the couple separated, reportedly because of the pressures of fame and his increasing disability. They had three children: Robert (b. 1967), Lucy (b. 1969), and Timothy (b. 1979). Hawking then married his nurse, Elaine Mason (who was previously married to David Mason, the designer of the first version of Hawking's talking computer), in 1995. In October 2006, Hawking filed for divorce from his second wife amid claims by former nurses that she had abused him.

In 1999, Jane Hawking published a memoir, Music to Move the Stars, detailing her own long-term relationship with a family friend whom she later married. Hawking's daughter, Lucy, is a novelist. Their oldest son, Robert, emigrated to the United States, married, and has one child, George Edward Hawking. Reportedly, Hawking and his first family were reconciled in 2007.

Hawking was asked about his IQ in a 2004 newspaper interview, and replied, "I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."

Religious views

In his early work, Hawking spoke of "God" in a metaphorical sense, such as in A Brief History of Time: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God." In the same book he suggested the existence of God was unnecessary to explain the origin of the universe. His 2010 book The Grand Design and interviews with the Telegraph and the Channel 4 documentary Genius of Britain, clarify that he does "not believe in a personal God". Hawking writes, "The question is: is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can't understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second." He adds, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing."

His ex-wife, Jane said during their divorce proceedings that he was an atheist. Hawking has stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and he believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws." Hawking compared religion and science in 2010, saying: "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority [imposed dogma, faith], [as opposed to] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."

Selected publications

Technical

Singularities in Collapsing Stars and Expanding Universes with Dennis William Sciama, 1969 Comments on Astrophysics and Space Physics Vol 1 #1

The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with George Ellis, 1973 ISBN 0521099064

The Nature of Space and Time with Roger Penrose, foreword by Michael Atiyah, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-691-05084-8

The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind, (with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Roger Penrose), Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-56330-5 (hardback), ISBN 0-521-65538-2 (paperback), Canto edition: ISBN 0-521-78572-3

Information Loss in Black Holes, Cambridge University Press, 2005

God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History, Running Press, 2005 ISBN 0762419229

Popular

A Brief History of Time, (Bantam Press 1988) ISBN 055305340X

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, (Bantam Books 1993) ISBN 0553374117

The Universe in a Nutshell, (Bantam Press 2001) ISBN 055380202X

On The Shoulders of Giants. The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy, (Running Press 2002) ISBN 076241698X

A Briefer History of Time, coauthored with Leonard Mlodinow, (Bantam Books 2005) ISBN 0553804367

The Grand Design, coauthored with Leonard Mlodinow, (Bantam Press 2010) ISBN 0553805371

Footnote: On Hawking's website, he denounces the unauthorised publication of The Theory of Everything and asks consumers to be aware that he was not involved in its creation.

Children's fiction

These are co-written with his daughter Lucy.

George's Secret Key to the Universe, (Random House, 2007) ISBN 9780385612708

George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, (Simon & Schuster, 2009) ISBN 9781416986713

Films and series

A Brief History of Time (1991)

Stephen Hawking's Universe (1997)

Horizon: The Hawking Paradox (2005)

Masters of Science Fiction (2007)

Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe (2008)

Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking (2010) A list of Hawking's publications through the year 2002 is available on his website.

See also

Basic concepts of quantum mechanics

George Ellis

Gravitational singularity

Many-worlds interpretation, or flexiverse

Stephen Hawking in popular culture

Susskind–Hawking battle

Sydney Selwyn, another distinguished British scientist who suffered from a progressively debilitating illness

References

Further reading

A layman's guide to Stephen Hawking.

Ferguson, Kitty (1991). Stephen Hawking: Quest For A Theory of Everything. Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-553-29895-X.

. Highly influential in the field. . A much cited centennial survey.

Pickover, Clifford, Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them, Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0195336115

External links

Stephen Hawking's web site

Stephen Hawking's page on Academia.edu

TED profile Talks: 2008: Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe

Video: Stephen Hawking – discussion of two views of the universe

Videos: Stephen Hawking's concept of God, The role of God within the no boundary cosmology and Imaginary time

The Life of Stephen Hawking - slideshow by The First Post

;Dated

Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God

Public Lectures, including debate with Roger Penrose 1996-2006

Hawking celebrates own brief history, 7 January 2002, BBC

"Leaping the Abyss", interview in Reason by Gregory Benford 2002-04-01

2002-03-24

, 22 July 2004, BBC">Black holes turned "inside out", 22 July 2004, BBC

Return of the time lord, Interview about "A Brief History of Time", 27 September 2005, The Guardian.

Stephen Hawking touches on God and science – Physicist says Pope John Paul told scientists not to study universe's origins msnbc. com 15 June 2006

Transcript of Stephen Hawking's lecture "The Origin Of The Universe" in the Hebrew University In Jerusalem, 14 December 2006

Press Release from the Catholic League on misquote of Pope by Hawking 2006-06-16

BBC interview 2008-12-05

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Name	Carl Sagan
Birth date	November 09, 1934
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Residence	United States
Name	Sagan, Carl
Alternative names	Sagan, Carl Edward
Short description	Astronomy and planetary science
Date of birth	November 09, 1934
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York
Date of death	December 20, 1996
Place of death	Seattle, Washington

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