"Alchemist Flavor" is a song by American rapper Lupe Fiasco and MIT List Visual Arts Center, released from their joint musical art project Ghotiing MIT: Public Art (2025). It was written and recorded during Winter 2024. Fiasco was inspired by Jaume Plensa's Alchemist, a commissioned stainless steel sculpture that lies between Massachusetts Avenue and the Stratton Student Center.
Cultural references[]
- Frankenstein is an 1818 Gothic novel by Mary Shelley. It narrates the story of a scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who creates an unnamed sapient creature.
- Good Will Hunting is a 1997 film directed by Gus Van Sant. It narrates the story of janitor Will Hunting, who is a self-taught math genius discovered by a professor at MIT.
- The Matrix is a 1999 film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality created by intelligent machines.
Lyrics[]
[Intro]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[Verse 1]
Yeah, uh
Alphanumeric, step inside and wear it
Have a bypass, take a photograph, share it
Dominates the premises, pis and infinity's
Located centrally
Sitting outside the Student Center gripping knees
Entity, faceless, naked, hence the pose
Math minus clothes, exposed
Composition held together by the hose
Construction-wise tied together by the boats
That's how Frankenstein feel, scoped out of steel
2010 was the year of the build
Taking a seat, all covered in Greek
All white like it's all covered in bleach
Personification, coefficients, a wave function
In a space right next to the place to have lunch in
Wasn't around for a Good Will Hunting
Mathematic man, just cannonball, jump in
[Interlude]
To perform a cannonball, stand at the edge of a pool with your arms at your sides. Jump forward and tuck your knees tightly to your chest, wrapping your arms around them to form a compact ball. Aim to land in the water with your body curled up, maximizing the splash by keeping your form tight. Timing and a confident jump are key for the best effect.
[Verse 2]
Uh, position fetal
What does it all equal?
Some of our fears caged where calculus keeps you
Precision prison, if it had a door on it
Three dimensions of detention just to put some more on it
Overlooking Mass Avenue, traffic only passing through
Static amongst the rap, what if fabric was mathematical?
Or skin was equationlike, look like what The Matrix might
All empty inside but a hide of notation types
Anniversary gift to the stu
Anonymous-commissioned, we'll never get to the truth
The benches are made from pieces of the dome
So if you sit upon that mean you sitting on a roof
Yeah
[Outro]
What you gettin' from the coup?