On this date in 1974, Paul Nathaniel Barman (stage name MC Paul Barman) was born in Ridgewood, N.J. He graduated from Brown University in 1997 with a B.A. in visual art. Barman is a hip-hop artist who raps about humorous and academic subjects. He began rapping in 1996 and released his first single, “Postgraduate Work,” in 1998.
Barman is culturally Jewish but does not believe in God. His albums as of this writing are “It’s Very Stimulating” (an EP, 2000), “Paullelujah!” (2002), “Full Buck Moon Kaboom” (2008), “Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud” (2009), “Blue Moon Kaboom” (2017), “Echo Chamber” (2018) and “A Year of Octobers” (2021).
In a newspaper profile headlined “Listening to Paul Barman will make you smarter than listening to Mozart” (Seattle Times, Dec. 3, 2009), the writer described him as “the only person in the world who’ll rap stuff like ‘God enjoyed the schadenfreude.’ ”
A 2003 Harvard Crimson profile offers a good look at Barman’s talent and modus operandi. In a review of Barman titled “James Joyce for Rap Nerds” in 2010, Ben Westhoff wrote: “It seemed fair to assume the guy was still obsessed with T&A, but ‘Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud’ is a mature magnum opus, a startlingly sober, not-at-all-horny work focused on education, politics, and word tricks.” (Washington City Paper, Jan. 1, 2010, includes graphic content)
