Lil B delivers freestyle lecture at MIT
Christian L. Welch—The Tech
Lil B delivers freestyle lecture at MIT
Last Friday, recognized rapper Lil B visited MIT to give a lecture that touched on identification, feminism, race, and even included an impromptu freestyle rap. Known for his social media presence that helped propel his fame, Lil B announced the lecture through a tweet two and half weeks in advance. The lecture was sponsored by the MIT Black Students’ Union and held in room 32-123 of the Stata Center.
During his lecture, Lil B made a call for positivity in the workforce with “Less opinion, more perspective.” The rapper announced that he was developing an app for a vegan company named “Follow Your Heart” and underscored the distinct presence of technology in our lives through services such as Google and Uber. Audience questions addressed race relations, Ferguson, and the influence of media, to which Lil B replied with personal anecdotes and calls to working together.
“I feel like black people and women deal with the same type of propaganda,” said Lil B in a lecture transcript available online. “You see images on TV, things being promoted. Sex sells, but that’s a quick sell. What do you feel in your heart?”
This was the first time Lil B had delivered a lecture at a university since a controversial talk at NYU in 2012.
—William A. Rodríguez Jiménez