Snoop Dogg describes Buzz Aldrin's rapping skills as 'hot'
It was probably one small step for Snoop Dogg but it was one giant leap for Buzz Aldrin when he teamed up with the hip-hop artist to record a rap single.
The white-haired astronaut, 79, has accomplished what he claims is his second great mission — becoming a rap star — with a track commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing next month.
The single, Rocket Experience, and accompanying video feature the second man on the Moon nodding his head and gyrating in time to the beat as he leans into a microphone to deliver lines such as: “I’m the spaceman, I’m the rocket man, it’s time to venture far, let’s take a trip to Mars, our destiny is to the stars.”
Snoop Dogg, who helped to make the track with the producer Quincy Jones and fellow rap stars Talib Kweli and Soulja Boy, is shown in the video commending Aldrin — who adopted the rap pseudonym Doc Rendezvous — on his vocal skills. “That’s hot right there, man. That’s gangsta,” he says.
The video switches between shots of Aldrin rapping — wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Buzz Aldrin, Rocket Hero” — and archive film of the Apollo 11 launch, his and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon and recordings of crackly radio exchanges between the astronauts and mission control.
Rocket Experience was instigated by Aldrin as part of his mission to reignite public interest in the US space programme and teach younger generations about space exploration.
“Young people have lost any interest in space that isn’t in a video game or a movie house. Many don’t really know that Man has stood on the Moon,” he said. “But these incredible rappers speak to the new generations and know how to reach them. The Americans who will take Man to Mars are already born and they don’t even know that space is Man’s fate.”
Proceeds from the song and video sales will go to Aldrin’s non-profit foundation, ShareSpace , which supports space education and advocacy programmes carried out by the National Space Society, the Planetary Society and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
It was released on the internet comedy website Funny or Die and is accompanied by a second behind-the-scenes video, which features Aldrin and the rappers giving tongue-in-cheek interviews about the venture.
“I have only two passions: space exploration and hip-hop,” Aldrin jests, after Jones, who won a Grammy Award, tells the camera: “My man Buzz, my brother, he had a great groove going on.”
While Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, has maintained a low public profile, Aldrin has continued to dream up new ways of promoting space exploration.
He maintains a website and has joined Twitter under the name therealBuzz, which he has used to post promotional messages about his rap track and biography.
In Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon he recounts how after being elevated to the status of global hero in 1969 he struggled with depression and alcoholism for years.
In 2002 he became a folk hero when he punched a heckler in the jaw in California for accusing him of faking the Moon landing.
In his new video he is shown offering Snoop Dogg some tips on his pugilistic skills: “Say you know Snoop, you’ve gotta do a little more work on your left jab there, dude,” he advises.
Moon music
— For the soundtrack to the Apollo 11 Moon mission, Neil Armstrong chose Music Out of the Moon, a 1940s avant-garde album by Samuel Hoffman that features the theremin, an electronic instrument
— The BBC’s coverage of the Moon landing included the television programme But What if it’s Made of Green Cheese, for which Pink Floyd performed a still-unreleased track that was known as Moonhead
— The video for the 1979 track by the Police, Walking on the Moon, was recorded in the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Sting said the original title was the rather less catchy Walking Round The Room
— Max-Q are an all-astronaut rock band based in Houston, Texas, that play rock’n’roll covers. Members of the band have performed on shuttles in orbit
— The single Man on the Moon by the band R. E. M. is thought to be a reference to the conspiracy theory that the Moon landings were faked
— On February 4 last year Nasa broadcast Across the Universe by the Beatles into space
Source: Times database
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