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Beats And Geeks: Who Knew Bill Nye And Tyler, The Creator Had So Much In Common?

Bill Nye (left) and Tyler, the Creator collaborate for the sake of science.
Courtesy of Netflix, courtesy of the artist
Bill Nye (left) and Tyler, the Creator collaborate for the sake of science.

What's weirder? A hip-hop loving Bill Nye the Science Guy, or a science-loving Tyler, the Creator?

Twenty-five years after the guy in the lab coat and the bow-tie made science cool with his Saturday morning PBS show, Nye is returning to save the world. And the new theme song for his Netflix show, literally called Bill Nye Saves the World, is produced by none other than former Odd Future frontman Tyler, the Creator, rap's freakiest geek and a self-professed longtime fan. "That show got kids to not hate science class," he tells Nye in a promo clip of the two together (below). "That full-on worked."

Tyler's production pays homage to Nye's original theme song, which was notably hip considering the content. "Yeah the first one is really sick," Tyler says. "I love the fast-pacedness of it. You take out that snare, it could be a house song."

For the new version, Tyler amps up the bass and seasons it with his own call-and-response, blasting out "Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!" followed by "saves the wooorld." Nerdy enough, but it still meets Nye's cool barometer: "He's the man," Nye says before hugging it out with Tyler. "He got the beat. He understood the beat."

Bill Nye Saves the World premieres April 21 on Netflix.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rodney Carmichael is NPR Music's hip-hop staff writer. An Atlanta-bred cultural critic, he helped document the city's rise as rap's reigning capital for a decade while serving on staff as music editor, culture writer and senior writer for the defunct alt-weekly Creative Loafing.