Welcome to Know Your History, your monthly dose of hip-hop knowledge. I’m your host Chase March and we have a great show for you today.

Normally, what I do on this program is build the show around a specific theme that is important to hip-hop culture. I do a lot of research, find songs that fit the topic, and combine all of that into a thirty minute documentary.

Today’s show is going to be a little different. We are going to combine science and hip-hop. Now, I know that doesn’t sound novel. Rappers often claim to drop science on their records, which of course is just slang meaning that they are going to try to educate you with their rhyme. When rappers drop science, they aren’t always discussing scientific principles.

Today, I am going to hand the reigns over to Baba Brinkman and he is going to be dropping actual science for the rest of the program. I will be airing his TED talk entitled, The Rap Guide to Evolution.

If you are not familiar with TED talks, you are in for a treat. TED started out as a conference back in 1984 where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, hence the name TED. Since then, it has grown to become a global phenomenon.

Basically the idea is that speakers are given less than 20 minutes to deliver a presentation on a topic. The goal is simply to educate and entertain.

On their website, they say, “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we’re building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world’s most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”

That’s very similar to my goal for this monthly documentary series.

Creative Commons licensing allows us to air this talk on the program today as long as it isn’t edited or altered. So, without further ado, here is The Rap Guide to Evolution by Baba Brinkman from TEDxSMU.

Stream the show with the player below or download the podcast for free.

Enjoy!