How hip-hop helps us understand science

In the early 1990s, a scandal rocked evolutionary biology: scientists discovered that songbirds -- once thought to be strictly monogamous -- engaged in what's politely called "extra-pair copulation." In this unforgettable biology lesson on animal infidelity, TED Fellow Danielle N. Lee shows how she uses hip-hop to teach science, leading the crowd in an updated version of Naughty by Nature's hit "O.P.P."

How y'all doing?

Good.

I came here to give you a science lesson

about animal mating systems

and why defining monogamy
has been a challenge for scientists.

But you won't need a textbook
or to download an online lecture.

All you'll simply need to do
is revisit the song "OPP"

by Naughty by Nature.

(Laughter)

It was released in 1991.

Now, "OPP" is a call-and-response song.

So throughout the talk,
I'm going to put lyrics up on the screen,

and I'm going to recite some

and I'm going to prompt you

when it's your turn
to do the response, OK?

(Cheers)

Now, I know some people
in this audience know this song,

so I need you to lead the way
with the tempo and the rhythm,

if that's alright, OK?

Right, y'all ready?

You down with OPP?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

DNL: You down with OPP?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

DNL: You down with OPP?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

DNL: That was perfect.

Thank you.

"OPP, how can I explain it?

I'll take it frame by frame it.

To have y'all jumping shout and singing it

O is for other, P is for people.
scratch your temple.

The last P, well, that's not that simple."

Now, in the song, the MC hints
that it's a five-letter word,

but to keep it rated PG,

he simply refers to it as "property."

(Laughter)

The song is about cheating
on your significant other.

Now, around the time that this song
was in heavy rotation,

biologists were in deep discussion
about whether bird species,

notably songbirds and waterfowl
were actually monogamous or not.

See, for decades,
generations of science students

were taught that well over 90 percent
of the bird species were monogamous.

A male and female
mating faithfully for life.

That was until the late 1980s,

when a new laboratory technique
came on the scene,

which could copy DNA
from a small tissue or fluid sample

and decode the genetics of individuals.

Now, before that technique,

we were never ever certain about,

100 percent, who the parents
of baby birds were.

All we had were our field notes.

And we would know
which adults lived in a nest

and which ones fed the baby birds.

Well, come to find out,
study after study kept coming in

and we found so much
evidence of infidelity --

(Laughter)

among bird species,

particularly these songbirds

that we thought
were the pinnacle of monogamy.

It would have made Maury Povich
jealous for the ratings.

(Laughter)

It rocked biology and ornithology so hard,

we had to modify and expand
the entire definition of monogamy.

Now, it was so bad
that this was the headline

of the "New York Times" science section,

August, 1990.

"Mating for Life?
It's not for the Birds or the Bees."

(Laughter)

We had to come up with new definitions.

The situation where an individual
would change partners,

either between breeding seasons

or just simply because
they didn't like their partner anymore?

We now call this "serial monogamy."

(Laughter)

I didn't know it was
going to be this funny.

(Laughter)

The situation where we know
the male and female pair together

and all the babies
belong to both partners?

We call that "genetic monogamy."

And we now recognize
that it only holds true

for about 14 percent
of the songbird species,

which we were very certain
were truly monogamous.

And with this reclassification,

we realized that in a lot
of those field observations

where we saw a male and female
sharing a nest,

comaintaining a territory,
even provisioning offspring together,

often included a few baby birds
that did not belong to the male partner.

We call this "social monogamy."

(Laughter)

And the mechanism responsible?

Extra-pair copulation.

"It's OPP, time for other people's
what you get it

there's no room for relationship,
there's just room to ..."

Audience: "Hit it!"

"How many brothers out there
know just what I'm getting at?

Who thinks it's wrong because I was
splitting and cohitting that.

Well if you do, that's OPP"

Actually, that's EPC

Which is the abbreviation
for extra-pair copulation.

(Laughter)

Now, we define extra-pair copulation
as the mating outside of a pair bond.

And just like we were
discovering via science,

it can lead to babies
that don't belong to the male partner.

Alright?

Now, I first learned
about EPCs years later,

after all the science news broke
while I was in graduate school.

And as we were taking a class,

talking about current discoveries
and mating systems,

this topic comes up.

And as my professor's
going through the definition

and recounting all
the dramatic turns of events

that lead to these new revelations,

I'm sitting in class and a familiar song
starts bopping in my head.

I'm like, "You down with OPP?

Yeah, you know me!"

(Laughter)

I mean, that's exactly
what that song was about:

EPCs.

And what I recognized

is that this gives us an opportunity
to revisit this song.

Let's switch the lyrics up.

So say EPC.

Audience: EPC.

DNL: Say it, EPC!

Audience: EPC!

"I like to say it with pride

now, when you do it, do it well,
and make sure that it counts.

You're not down with a discount."

You down with EPC?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

Now, I had always been
playing songs in my head

while I was in science class,

kind of tapping into this index
of pop culture and hip-hop songs.

But when I would share my analogies
with my science professors,

all of whom were older white men,

I often got blank and confused
stares as responses.

(Laughter)

But when I would share this
with people from communities like mine,

or other colleagues --
so, diverse communities --

this hip-hop science remix was a hit.

That's because I was either talking
to people who looked and sounded like me,

or at the very least, you know,
listened to some of the same songs.

We were sharing a common cultural lexicon.

And with that lexicon, I was able
to bring new science terms to them,

and together, we were sharing a new
comprehension of science for the culture.

Now, hip-hop song references

are a really good tool for teaching
content to students from hip-hop culture

or urban communities.

And I use it intentionally
to connect to those students,

tapping into vocabulary
that they already know

and systems that they already comprehend.

And what it does in that process
is it ratifies them, us, our culture

as knowledge purveyors.

I use hip-hop to frame
and communicate science

because I'm intentionally communicating
science to broader audiences

that public science outreach
has traditionally overlooked.

And in the process,

I am affirming the genius

that thrives in the young minds of people
from every hood everywhere.

So let me ask you one last time,

you down with EPC?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

DNL: You down with EPC?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

DNL: You down with EPC?

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

DNL: Who's down with EPC?

Audience: All the homies!

Thank you.

(Applause and cheers)