#NASADidThat, a rap by Dr. Raven Baxter, makes the case for NASA's science budget
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An antibody rap answers Nicki Minaj's vaccine tweet, and Raven Baxter offers to talk
As a superstar's impotence claim reached about 22 million followers, a doctoral candidate's 60-second immunology rap drew coverage from Yahoo News to Australia
Raven Baxter answered Nicki Minaj's COVID-19 vaccine claim with a rap on the evening of Sept. 13, 2021. Less than an hour after Minaj's tweet, Baxter replied on Twitter with "Antibodyody," her 60-second song about how the immune system learns from a vaccine.
"And we're both rappers lol! Here's a rap I made about the vaccine," she wrote. In another post, she offered Minaj a chat "with a scientist and fan about the vaccine."
Minaj, who had about 22 million followers, had written that a vaccine left her cousin's friend in Trinidad impotent. The post followed her messages about skipping the Met Gala, which required vaccination, Global Voices reported. A USA Today fact check rated the claim "Missing context." A CDC vaccine safety official told the paper there was no evidence linking those symptoms to the vaccine.
Baxter said both sides of the argument deserved a hearing. She understood Minaj's wish to do more research, she told Yahoo News and the public's frustration. "There needs to be room for all of those feelings," she said. "And I don't think it's fair for us to force people to feel a certain way about decisions that they make about their body. So I offered Nicki an opportunity to chat."
On Sept. 14, Western Sydney Local Health District posted a graphic captioned "Things that don't happen after a COVID vaccine." Baxter shared it with a reply. "Or maybe leave the rapping to the scientists who are willing to educate and not alienate people who are still hesitant about the vaccine?" she wrote. Australia's The New Daily printed her response.
Baxter names the antibody classes in the opening seconds of the song. Image: Raven the Science Maven video
"We have to make sure that we get creative with our outreach in informal spaces like the internet and making sure that [everyone] gets the message," she told Yahoo News. Doing your own research is fine, she said, when the sources are authoritative. "When scientists do their research, we analyze our sources as well."
"I'm an educator ... but I'm also a rapper," she said. "Music has always been a means to deliver a message, and it doesn't stop at science."
She also named the stakes. "It's very worrisome that something said in a tweet, with no ill intentions, can impact someone's choice about getting vaccinated," she wrote to USA Today. "These vaccines are scientifically proven to be saving lives every day; the more people who get them, the better it is for all of us."
PR Daily embedded her reply on Sept. 14. Global Voices, Boing Boing and The New Daily followed on Sept. 15. Global Voices, a multilingual community of writers and translators founded in 2004, also ran its story in Malagasy, Spanish and Danish. On Sept. 17, Yahoo News reported that the song had passed more than 4 million views in less than four days. Her first reply has since drawn more than 44,000 likes.
Baxter at the close of the song. Image: Raven the Science Maven video
Baxter, then a doctoral candidate at the University at Buffalo, studied science communication through hip-hop. She first released the song in November 2020.
The video is on YouTube, and her first reply to Minaj remains on X.
