--- title: Elon Musk Has Apparently Released a Harambe Hip-hop Single description: The tech billionaire tweeted out a link to a song on Soundcloud entitled "RIP Harambe," which he appears to have made himself canonical: https://time.com/5561790/elon-musk-hip-hop-single-harambe/ author: Alejandro de la Garza article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-31T21:34:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:48.235Z og:title: Elon Musk Has Apparently Released a Hip-Hop Single — And It's About Harambe the Gorilla og:description: The song is called "RIP Harambe" og:url: https://time.com/5561790/elon-musk-hip-hop-single-harambe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2037800534bbc2c/6989478e97cdff54906b7956/elon-musk-harambe.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-AUTO-TESLA-MODEL Y og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elon Musk Has Apparently Released a Hip-Hop Single — And It's About Harambe the Gorilla twitter:description: The song is called "RIP Harambe" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2037800534bbc2c/6989478e97cdff54906b7956/elon-musk-harambe.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Elon Musk Has Apparently Released a Hip-Hop Single — And It's About Harambe the Gorilla > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Elon Musk’s 2018 [Watch (HLS stream): Elon Musk’s 2018](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RwAa0O1g.m3u8) (3:26)  _Published 2018-08-22. A look back at Tesla and Elon Musk’s volatile year_  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Mar 31, 2019 9:34 PM UTC  Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California on March 14, 2019. Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California on March 14, 2019. Frederic J. Brown—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Mar 31, 2019 9:34 PM UTC What might compel a billionaire tech entrepreneur to record a song referencing a nearly 3-year-old meme about a dead gorilla? Hard to say, really. Though in 2019, it’s somehow not entirely surprising. That seems to be exactly what happened on March 30, when Elon Musk [tweeted out a link](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1111916290375974917) to a song on Soundcloud entitled “RIP Harambe.” The song had apparently been recorded and uploaded by Musk himself. The single apparently references a dated [internet meme](http://time.com/4461256/harambe-gorilla-memes/) revolving around the [death of Harambe](http://time.com/4352001/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-killed-harambe-boy-toddler/), a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, which was killed in May 2016 after a 4-year-old boy fell into the gorilla’s enclosure. The song features a digitally-modified voice and references the death of the gorilla in its lyrics: “RIP Harambe, sipping on some Bombay, we on our way to heaven, amen, amen.” Musk tweeted the song link along with image of an album cover featuring a gorilla. Shortly afterwards, he tweeted, “I’m disappointed that my record label failed.” Musk’s Twitter use has recently landed him in legal trouble, after the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a judge to hold the billionaire in [contempt of court](http://time.com/5538240/elon-musk-contempt-sec/) in February for violating a settlement requiring him to get Tesla’s approval before communicating material information to investors. In a Feb. 19 tweet, Musk said the company would make about half a million cars in 2019, before posting a few hours later that they would deliver only about 400,000. Those tweets came less than five months after Musk [settled claims](http://www.thedrive.com/news/24254/federal-judge-approves-elon-musks-sec-settlement) that he had misled Tesla investors with tweets about taking the company private. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5561790/elon-musk-hip-hop-single-harambe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5561790/elon-musk-hip-hop-single-harambe/"},"headline":"Elon Musk Has Apparently Released a Hip-Hop Single — And It's About Harambe the Gorilla","datePublished":"2019-03-31T21:34:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:48.235Z","description":"The song is called \"RIP Harambe\"","url":"https://time.com/5561790/elon-musk-hip-hop-single-harambe/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2037800534bbc2c/6989478e97cdff54906b7956/elon-musk-harambe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alejandro de la Garza","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2037800534bbc2c/6989478e97cdff54906b7956/elon-musk-harambe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-AUTO-TESLA-MODEL Y","caption":"US-AUTO-TESLA-MODEL Y","creditText":"Frederic J. 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