Why did Tom Lehrer write to 2 Chainz? What we know as satirical music icon dies at 97

Tom Lehrer, the singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, died on Saturday, July 26, 2025, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as reported by AP News. The news of his passing was shared by his friend David Herder.

Lehrer, who gained fame in the 1950s and '60s for his razor-sharp and witty songs, such as Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, National Brotherhood Week, and The Old Dope Peddler, had written a letter to rapper 2 Chainz.

The rapper had sampled Lehrer’s 1953 parody song The Old Dope Peddler on his 2012 album Based on a T.R.U. Story. According to News Break, Leher reportedly wrote:

''I’m flattered and slightly confused, but mostly flattered.''

Lehrer granted permission with his trademark sarcastic humor in the handwritten letter, allowing 2 Chainz to sample his song.

More about the satirical icon, Tom Lehrer

Tom was a musical satirist and a Harvard prodigy. He used dark humor, irony, and clever wordplay to mock social norms, politics, and religion. In the 1960's he also taught mathematics in the political science department at MIT. He later joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he taught introductory mathematics courses, along with musical theater.

In the 1950's Tom had given his first public concert as a graduate student. Throughout his musical career, some of his most popular and famous songs included The Elements, a fast-paced list of the periodic table, sung to a Gilbert & Sullivan tune, The Vatican Rag, a satire on Catholic rituals, Send the Marines, jab at American military interventionism, and We Will All Go Together When We Go, a song on nuclear destruction.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2000, Tom shared about how he writes his songs, as per Politico. He said:

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''When I got a funny idea for a song, I wrote it. And if I didn’t, I didn’t. I wasn’t like a real writer who would sit down and put a piece of paper in the typewriter. And when I quit writing, I just quit. ... It wasn’t like I had writer’s block.''

Lehrer's cause of death is not known. He was 97 at the time of his death.

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