Buzz Aldrin Raps About Space Exploration

Since Buzz Aldrin came back from the Moon, close to forty years ago, he has dabbled in the arts. Buzz Aldrin has been an actor in several TV shows and movies, playing himself. He is the co-author of two novels. Now Buzz Aldrin is a rapper.

Buzz Aldrin has recorded a rap song called "Rocket Experience" in which Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli also appears. Buzz Aldrin's venture into the hitherto unknown world of rap is to raise money for a variety of space related charities.

This writer is not in any way a fan of rap or hip hop. The Entertainment Weekly reviewer suggests that the "Rocket Experience" video, which premiered on Laugh or Die, was what one might expect coming from an old white guy. On the other hand, from a pure musical perspective, our judgment is that Buzz Aldrin did not embarrass himself in his venture into rap. And it is nice to know that there is a rap song out that eschews the usual subjects of busting caps into hos and instead celebrates something as uplifting as space exploration.

Buzz Aldrin's venture into rap music is just the latest of his various post Moon landing ventures, which includes various business enterprises, charities, and drama and literature. Buzz Aldrin is as much in the public view as his ship mate Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, is not.

Buzz Aldrin's most famous dramatic role was of himself on an episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer Simpson flies into space. Buzz Aldrin has also played himself on episodes of Numb3rs and Punky Brewster and the 3D animated children's film Fly Me to the Moon.

Buzz Aldrin has also been depicted in a variety of films and TV shows, most notably Apollo 13 and From Earth to the Moon.

Besides a number of memoirs, Buzz Aldrin is the coauthor with John Barnes of two science fiction novels, Encounter With Tiber and The Return. Buzz Aldrin also produced a computer game in the early 1990s called Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space.

Buzz Aldrin is not the only Apollo moon walker to make his mark in the arts. Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad played himself in the made for TV movies Plymouth, about a lunar settlement, and Stowaway to the Moon. Conrad's shipmate, Alan Bean, has had a successful career as an artist, painting scenes from the Apollo moon landings.

Source: Buzz Aldrin, rapper?!, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Entertainment Weekly, June 23rd, 2009