Today’s best hits don’t include the lyrical flow of Jay-Z combined with the medieval tales of Geoffrey Chaucer or Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest, but that’s what Canadian rapper and playwright Baba Brinkman does every day.

On April 24, Brinkman will perform for UT students in the UC Auditorium from 7:30-9 p.m.

Ever since studying English literature in college, Brinkman’s goal has been to connect the dots between hip-hop and Shakespeare, rap and evolution.

“I think a lot of people have expectations about what rap is about,” Brinkman said. “A lot of that comes from Top 40 hip-hop or mainstream hip-hop. I’ve always looked at rap as a medium. A medium is capable of containing any message.”

For the next four weeks, Brinkman will be sitting under the tutelage of professors at UT who study science. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, UT offers a singer-songwriter grant that allows people like Brinkman to interact with professors and researchers to explore opportunities.

These networking opportunities provide new information for Brinkman to use as ingredients to mix into his career and make his work accessible to the public.

Darren Ellis, junior in history, said he thought the idea of a different approach to rap could be something students would enjoy. Brinkman’s performance caught Ellis’ attention.

“I would find it very interesting, I would want to hear it,” Ellis said. “I think people could be successful rapping about other things than the stereotypical stuff. I know of a couple rappers who just rap about political and cultural issues. They aren’t extremely successful like Jay-Z, but they do well for themselves.”

Brinkman decided early on that his background did not fit the stereotypical subject matter that hip-hop was about. He enjoyed hip-hop, but he wanted to record material on subjects he cared about.

“Their subject matter is about a lifestyle that I never really experienced,” Brinkman said. “What I knew about was science and literature and philosophy. I was an academic and good at school and really liked it.”

Brinkman said that sometimes science and philosophy can spark tensions of controversy, and controversy means interest.

“I think evolution and Darwin are a great source to provoke that outrage and response,” Brinkman said. “Whether people agree with what I say or not, I hope they will at least respect me for doing something bold and challenging.”

Brinkman said that before every show he tells himself he’s going to have skeptics in the crowd, and it’s his job to convert them.

Because Brinkman’s style of hip-hop is not very familiar to most, people are unsure what to think when they hear about the show. He himself calls it “morbid curiosity.”

“I do something that no one else really does,” he said. “People that hear about it have this weird sense of ‘I don’t know what that’s like because its so different. It’s either going to be awesome or really horrible and I can’t decide which it’s going to be so I have to go find out.’”

In a niche market, Brinkman is unsure whether this new mix of style and subject will take off, but he compares it to one of his main topics: evolution.

“As soon as there is a new mutation, either that new mutation will die out because it doesn’t work, and doesn’t get healthy to survive or reproduce,” he said, “or, if there’s a new mutation that works really well, it starts to get a response and thrive and be successful. And that mutation will get copied.”

While Brinkman has won a few major awards at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, he still thinks he’s got work to do.

“I don’t consider myself to have made it until I can decide to chill on the beach for the rest of my life where I can decide if I want to rap or want to live the good life,” Brinkman said.

Catherine Crawley, communications coordinator at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis in Knoxville, said she is looking forward to Brinkman’s performance.

“We’re excited to have the talents of Baba Brinkman at NIMBioS and look forward to the songs he will create while he’s here,” Crawley said.