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Schneier on SecurityA blog covering security and security technology. « Stealing Cars with Laptops | Main | Friday Squid Blogging: Greenpeace Wants Videos of Giant Squid » May 5, 2006Cryptography RapThe rapper MC Plus+ has written a song about cryptography, "Alice and Bob." It mentions DES, AES, Blowfish, RSA, SHA-1, and more. And me! EDITED TO ADD (5/8): An article about "geeksta rap." Posted on May 5, 2006 at 12:47 PM • 44 Comments To receive these entries once a month by e-mail, sign up for the Crypto-Gram Newsletter. Rapping, giant squid... Do the benefits of reading this blog never end?!?!?! Thanks, Bruce! Posted by: probitas at May 5, 2006 1:12 PM Did someone mention "rapping, giant squid"? I would certainly pay to see that! ;-) ~EdT. Posted by: Ed T. at May 5, 2006 1:15 PM Here's the bit where Bruce is mentioned: DES is wrong if you listen to NIS From: www.mackmo.com/nick/blog/java/2005/7/26/CS-Gangsta-Rap.txt Posted by: Tammy at May 5, 2006 1:33 PM This seems to be the artists official site: http://www.mcplusplus.com/. Posted by: Wes at May 5, 2006 1:34 PM That is outstanding! I hope it doesn't get slashdotted, though.... Posted by: Craig at May 5, 2006 1:37 PM Not quite as pollished as Kate Bush's song about Pi, but my, what a lot of algorithms! I'll never think of SHA1 in the same light again. And Ron Rivest gets a mention too. Bless. Posted by: Kev at May 5, 2006 1:37 PM @Pat Cahalan Are you using Quicktime on a Mac? The song seem to skip every few seconds... Posted by: Tim at May 5, 2006 1:41 PM This is really really good! In the same line, and for those with a more math inclined approach to crypto: Posted by: Ale at May 5, 2006 1:42 PM I just downloaded it to my desktop and played it here. Well done, I'd say. Posted by: Pat Cahalan at May 5, 2006 1:45 PM "Are you using Quicktime on a Mac? The song seem to skip every few seconds" Same here, with Safari. Firefox seems to have no playback problems, though. Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2006 1:46 PM @ Anonymous re: response > Your mom circulates like a public key, "Yo mamma" digs in geek crypto rap? What's next, a face off with nerf guns out in the playground? Posted by: Pat Cahalan at May 5, 2006 1:48 PM Trivia point: I'm pretty certain the "password confirmed" voice at the end was ripped from Babylon 5. Which is also cool. Posted by: Paul Johnson at May 5, 2006 1:48 PM I don't know what is worse: A rap song about crypto or the fact that he seems to know more about cryptosystems than most IT managers...... Posted by: arl at May 5, 2006 1:51 PM That is the nerdiest thing I have ever heard. No wonder people make fun of us..... Posted by: Darrel at May 5, 2006 2:06 PM No other nerd rapper has kicked it harder since Lamar Latrell. Posted by: Kevin S. at May 5, 2006 2:39 PM The posted version of the lyrics is missing some words. I think it's: But Blowfish is still the fastest in the land Posted by: mud and flame at May 5, 2006 2:51 PM I wonder if there will be also a salsa version starring Alicia and Roberto... Posted by: Kerub at May 5, 2006 2:55 PM "I wonder if there will be also a salsa version starring Alicia and Roberto..." Only if it passes ITAR regs.... Posted by: 1915bond at May 5, 2006 3:17 PM As a fan of rap, that was terrible. As a fan of cryptography, it was wonderful. So conflicted... Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2006 3:19 PM >"Yo mamma" digs in geek crypto rap? What's next, a face off with nerf guns out in the >playground? No, nerf drive bys. Posted by: Lobster at May 5, 2006 3:27 PM From http://www.mackmo.com/nick/blog/java/2005/7/26/... DES is wrong if you listen to NIS ========================== Posted by: aikimark at May 5, 2006 5:44 PM valerie wilson is doing a book about the cia. the reports are it's a $2.5 million deal. Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2006 9:26 PM The real question is, what does this song say when played in reverse? BTW, if you like geeky music about blowfish, you may want to check out the various OpenBSD tunes: http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html Of course, for that old school flava, there's always The UPS Song (lyrics: http://cafe.colorado.edu/~tromey/ups-words.html, Posted by: Chris Walsh at May 5, 2006 9:37 PM Reminds me of the sort of thing Bill Nye the Science Guy would have as a segway. Maybe you could do a show called Bruce Schneier the Crypto Guy? Posted by: Davi Ottenheimer at May 5, 2006 10:24 PM Whoops. Make that "segue". Posted by: Davi Ottenheimer at May 5, 2006 10:26 PM Bruce, this'll be great for your street cred. :^) Congratulations. Posted by: antibozo at May 6, 2006 12:17 AM I make the beats for MC Plus+. Mad love to all the real CS gangstas. A few key points on the lyrics: "DES is wrong if you listen to NIST" Look for the new MC Plus+ album "Chip Hop" in a month or two. And for all you hip hop heads out there, we're trying to bring mad flavor on this next joint. Good ears on the cat that caught the B5 sample. Posted by: Lord Illingworth at May 6, 2006 12:43 AM This is so wrong I can hardly start to explain why. I think I'll listen to "Algorythum" now.. Posted by: nihilistic at May 6, 2006 3:19 AM street cred Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2006 7:29 AM What I meant was, could someone find ALL the lyrics to the FULL song, not just those 8 or so lines. Thanks Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2006 8:08 AM > No other nerd rapper has kicked it harder... If you like nerd rap, you might like http://www.mchawking.com/ To hear the MP3's, click on Multimedia tab. My favorite is "Entropy". The lyrics are not for sensitive ears, but the whole gangsta physicist idea is just hardcore funny. Posted by: Alan Porter at May 6, 2006 4:00 PM Woohoo! Bruce is famos now... pop that champaign alrighty! :D :P ;) Posted by: Anonymous Coward at May 6, 2006 6:13 PM Computer songs and poems Monzy did two songs too: « The producer asked me how my music combined the elements of computer science and gangsta rap, and I said “well, for example, in the music world when someone is ‘unsigned’ it means they haven’t signed a contract with a record label. But in computer science an unsigned integer is one that’s always interpreted as positive; the most significant bit is used to double the positive range instead of specifying the sign.��? “That’s a little complicated,��? she said, “do you have a simpler example?��? “OK,��? I said, “uh, in computer science, ‘linear probing’ is a technique for resolving collisions in hash tables, but clearly in this context it’s referring to sex.��? “I don’t get it,��? she said. “Well, a hash table is this data structure with efficient…��? “No, I mean I don’t get how linear probing refers to sex.��? » Posted by: Krunch at May 7, 2006 4:29 AM When you get invited to the PB Mansion don't forget all us little people. :-D Posted by: AG at May 8, 2006 8:58 AM Correction: I believe it should be "DES is wrong if you listen to NIST" I wonder if there's a version with the s-word bleeped out? I'd be able to send it to people at work ... Posted by: GM at May 8, 2006 8:58 AM Oh my....this guy has really, really, bad rythmn. But it is funny. Geek Gansta Rap. What next? This has got to be like one of the smallest niche markets I've heard of yet..... Posted by: DragonHunter at May 8, 2006 9:52 AM The band Digital Underground had a song, "Underwater Rimes" off the "Sex Packets" album that featured M.C. Blowfish as the lead rapper. I think that would have been a nice starting point for the joke. :-) Posted by: Old DU Fan at May 8, 2006 12:34 PM First, there actually *is* a clean version of Alice and Bob. Is that someone that people would like available? Second, for those who wanted all the lyrics. (Lyrics for the other songs are all printed inside the jacket of the album, should you care to purchase it.) Alice and Bob Alice is sending her message to Bob Work tries to deposit a check of your salary
DES is wrong if you listen to NIST But Blowfish is still the fastest in the land (Chorus) Random numbers ain’t easy to produce If we could factor large composites in poly time (Chorus) Posted by: Lord Illingworth at May 12, 2006 12:58 PM Subscribe to comments on this entry Post a comment
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