Bookings

With in-person events mostly on hold, Baba has pivoted to virtual performances at public and private digital events. An agile writer and freestyle rapper, he often tailors his content to the themes of each gathering, referencing the other speakers and summarizing the themes of the day in a "Rap Up" or custom-written rap song.

Business Events

Baba has performed at Google, IBM, TEDx, Accenture, Alteryx, Tricentis, DLD, BSR, The World Parks Congress, and the COP-21 UN Climate Conference in Paris. His sets combine science-themed rap songs with improvised freestyles incorporating words suggested by the crowd, as well as custom-written “Rap Up” summaries that provide an uplifting conclusion to any event. See below for the full set of custom-content offerings available.

Rap Up

A “Rap Up” is a custom-written song that summarizes an event, performed at the event’s conclusion, an exercise in rapid-fire creativity and a unique comedy experience.

Baba has performed these custom compositions at academic and business conferences around the world, covering topics from technology to neuroscience to wildlife conservation (videos and testimonials below).

A lyrical version of a live sketch artist, Baba celebrates and satirizes in his signature tongue-in-cheek style, name-checking each of the keynote speakers in his rhymes and creating an unforgettable grand finale for everyone in attendance.

Testimonials

“Holy moly, Baba, that was incredible. You freaking rocked it. Ours is a nascent industry, and your voice galvanized us together as a community. It was a perfect synthesis of our day.”

— Tito Jankowski, Co-Founder, Impossible Labs

“If you haven’t had Baba come to your conference to do a rap recap, you’re missing out”

— DJ Patil, Obama Administration Chief Data Scientist

“An awesome performance and a great way to drive home the learning points and keep folks engaged.”

— Karl Wagner, Founder and CEO, Eastern Sky Technologies

“I was amazed by how Baba managed to condense a jargon-heavy day into a rap that was both insightful and entertaining. I had never seen anything like that before, really enjoyed it!”

— Dr. Marcia Goddard, Neuroscientist at &Ranj, Netherlands

Freestyle Sets

Baba Brinkman’s interactive virtual freestyle sets give your audience a live dialogue with an improvising artist in real time, and a chance to witness one of the most entertaining and demanding tasks performed by the human brain. Hilarious rhymes respond in seconds to suggestions posted in a comment thread or chat stream – the more scientifically complex, the more entertaining the challenge!

Live at the Google Quantum Symposium, July 2020

Freestyle Songs

Partially written and partially improvised (can you guess which is which?!), Baba’s signature “Freestyle Songs” elevate freestyle rap by putting it into a new and thought-provoking frame, connecting improvisation with themes from business, science, and technology.

An avid freestyler since 2002, Baba Brinkman has won multiple battles and dropped improv raps on stage in front of thousands of people with Steven Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

“Good Bayesian” at the Stanford BrainMind Summit

More Freestyle Songs

“Can’t Stop” (Neuroscience and Free Will)

“Performance, Feedback, Revision” (Evolution and Design)

“Freedom Ain’t Free” (Climate Change and Regulation)

Custom Rap

Baba frequently produces commissioned rap songs and music videos that synthesize complex ideas into a fun and accessible format tailor-made for social media. He has written and premiered original work for major conferences and events such as Future of Storytelling, Geek Pop, Intelligence Squared, the Society for Applied Microbiology, and the Brisbane Writer’s Festival, and produced a series of rap music videos summarizing major popular science books.

Commissioned Music Videos

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Custom Live Performances

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More Testimonials

“
Kent KildahlRiverdale County School Principle, Bronx NY
“Baba Brinkman is the most literate, most accessible, funniest, and yet most challenging performance artist one can imagine. He is a teacher, someone who raps about Chaucer, Beowulf, Darwin, and modern philosophy and education, but brings it all home for kids and faculty. In NYC, kids are smart and critical. They find Baba to be the best 45 minutes they have ever spent with a performance artist. Smart, literate, creative, captivating.”

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David Sloan WilsonDistinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology, Binghamton University, Author of Evolution for Everyone
“Evolution will never be fully accepted by the general public until it is communicated through the popular media. I have seen Baba Brinkman perform his rap guide to evolution and was impressed both by its entertainment value and its educational value. Baba wasn’t just rapping about evolution in a superficial way, but in a way that made the audience “get” what evolution is and why it matters for their deepest concerns. One hour of Baba is worth a dozen lectures.”

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Rick ZechmanProfessor of Evolutionary Biology Biology Dept Head, California State University, Fresno
“To be certain, Baba Brinkman is on to something – his art provides an extremely smart and entertaining means of engaging the public (and certainly college students) with the science of evolutionary biology, a valuable teaching tool that brings art to science like no other performer I’ve ever experienced.”

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George Li,Vancouver, BC
“I remember you making the Canterbury raps for us at University Hill Secondary in 2005, it was an amazing presentation! It made me more interested in the study of English Literature, it encouraged me to write my own book of poetry, Close or Far, published in 2007. Thank you so much Baba, for igniting the interests of high school students in English Lit in an interactive, engaging, and modern way of presentation through a word play of clever linguistics”

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Adam CasdinEnglish Dept , Horace Mann Secondary School Bronx, New York
“Baba Brinkman is a natural teacher. He is charismatic and has an easy way with students. The question and answer session he led was lively and extended, students were still talking about his visit days afterwards, and my colleagues and I found that our class discussions were decidedly stronger after his performance. Students even asked if we could read more Chaucer”

Bookings

Business Events

Rap Up