Is the Earth flat? Rapper B.o.B seems to think so

Nick Stines
News Editor

      According to the famous philosopher Aristotle, pre-Socratic philosophers Thales, Leucippus, and Democritus were the first to believe that Earth was flat. The flat Earth theory was first proven false by Pythagoras; Plato and Aristotle agreed that Earth is round.
      This has obviously been unspoken for a long time, but rapper and free-thinker B.o.B believes otherwise. He released the song, “Flatline,” a rap about how Earth is definitely flat, and the government and world power elites are hiding it from us and censoring B.o.B on Twitter. Scientist Neil Tyson explains that Earth is not a sphere, but a spheroid, which is much different than a regular sphere. “So it’s not actually a sphere, it’s an… it’s oblate; it’s officially an oblate spheroid. That’s what we call it. But not only that, it’s slightly wider below the equator than above the equator,” says Tyson. Essentially, Tyson is saying Earth is the shape of a pear, not flat as B.o.B interpreted Tyson’s words to have said.

---

     B.o.B made the song due to some Twitter beef between B.o.B and Tyson. B.o.B believes the government is paying Tyson a lot of money to say that the earth is round as Tyson says B.o.B is “five centuries regressed in reasoning,” as stated by Tyson in a Tweet at B.o.B. The rapper also mentioned David Irving, a well-known Holocaust denier.
     ​B.o.B has made a dent in pop culture, attempting to exploit his activism in scientific belief systems, and people on social media are interested in what the rapper has to say while Tyson clearly does not believe Earth is flat. Some people also believe he is pulling a Shia Labeouf: doing something insane to gain media attention due to lack thereof.