ABOUT US
WHO IS LISTENUP!
Our Mission:
ListenUP! is an edutainment company on a mission to increase every student’s access to relatable and relevant STEM learning tools. It was a no-brainer to use hip hop as a method to achieve this goal. We pride ourselves in creating music and workbooks that both motivate and educate, activating your students’ natural curiosity and creative thinking skills.
Our Vision:
At ListenUp!, we envision a future where every student has the opportunity to explore and excel in STEM education and STEM careers. Our aim is to ignite their passion for science and technology by using the power of Hip Hop to engage and inspire. By nurturing their natural curiosity and creative thinking skills, we hope to empower youth to enrich their lives, make informed life choices, and positively impact their communities.
Meet our founder
After experiencing challenges in school, our founder, Dajae Williams, was determined to find solutions to her learning struggles. Through the years, she noticed what helped most were her hip hop jingles about concepts and equations. She could be seen singing silently in her head as she answered test questions throughout high school and college.
As she was preparing to graduate college, she thought to herself “music has helped me get this far, why not try to make a full song?” And with the help of Missouri S&T and her college classmates, Dajae created her first full educational song and music video about the Quadratic Formula.
After getting a little buzz and a lot of positive feedback, Dajae started dreaming about a REAL company that focused on creating this type of music. Time went on and this idea was shelved while Dajae dove head first into her career as a NASA engineer. What she realized there was that she needed to start remembering unit conversions to speed up her workflow in the lab, So of course, she turned to music. She began writing a song to help her remember unit conversions. This became the second full song and music video, which went viral in 2020, gaining nearly 260k views on YouTube.
At that point, there was no turning back for Dajae and she became known as the Rapping Rocket Scientist. In 2021, she left NASA to take on educational music full time. The music has since been published in reputable science textbooks and is now ready to be released to the world.
Our students were born ready to take on the challenge and excitement of STEM! It is time we make space for them to thrive. Check out Lab Raps Mixtape Vol. 1, if you are ready to transform your student’s learning experience.