After fifty-five off-Broadway performances in New York since March 1st, Baba Brinkman took a short break over the past few weeks. He was not leaning back, no, not all. And now Rap Guide to Consciousness continues off-Broadway for another five weeks of fun, music, and education.

Sci Foo Camp

Baba attended the legendary Sci Foo Camp at Google in California. The organizers curated a group of 350 scientists and scientific innovators, and one science rapper, to discuss the present and future of human problem-solving acuity.

The highlights? Talking with geneticist George Church about the possibility of consciousness in the organoid brains his lab is growing in vitro (probably soon), and philosophize with Larry Page about whether Google’s AI systems will ever be conscious (he doesn’t think it’s a coherent question).

Freestyle rap workshop @ Google

Brinkman also had a blast teaching his first-ever freestyle rap workshop to a group of scientists and computer programmers at Google. The challenge was to teach total rap novices in just a one-hour session to perform. The enthusiasm and spirit of play took hold, and the results were hilarious and impressive.

Until you’ve seen a senior particle physicist going head to head in an 8-Mile-style battle with a stem cell biologist over a G-Unit instrumental, both for their first time ever, you haven’t fully explored the limits of hip-hop’s potential.

The show must go on…

“Overwhelming audience enthusiasm” has led The SoHo Playhouse to announce yet another five-week extension for Baba Brinkman’s brain science opus. The show will run until August 12. You can get more information as well as tickets directly from the venue. It might very well be the last extension, so you better go and see this one-of-a-kind show this time!

 

Editor’s note: This is an edited excerpt of Baba’s recent newsletter. If you would like to be informed first-hand, you can join the list on his homepage.