TIL that Harvard professor Tom Lehrer was asked at the age of 84 by rapper 2 Chainz if he could sample his 60-year old song. Lehrer replied, “I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?”
via ift.tt
the fact that this doesn’t mention that 1. the song is called “the old dope peddler” and that 2. lehrer’s other songs range from delights like “the masochism tango” and “poisoning pigeons in the park” to a catchy theme tune for the myth of Oedipus to celebrations of plagiarism in math academia and a series of jokes about the folk song “Clementine” as written by various classical composers, not to mention The Elements Song, is unforgivable.
lehrer is also a math genius who entered Harvard at 15 and may or may not have invented the jello shot. eventually he got bored of performing music and went back to teaching math. as of May 2021 he’s 93 and still kicking around in California.
As of July, 2025, he has outlived Ozzy Osbourne and is 97 years old.
