Yesterday, Grimes and her Extremely Online boyfriend, Elon Musk, introduced the world to the baby boy that one will day be the King of Mars. In what some took to be a joke, Musk tweeted out that the baby’s name was X Æ A-12, and liked a tweet in which someone posited the A-12 was a reference to the ‘60s-era Lockheed A-12 aircraft built for the CIA. In a tweet on Tuesday evening, Grimes appeared to confirm that the name was real, and that the speculation around the A-12 chunk of it was correct. As for the rest, well, it’s weird.
According to her, “X” refers to “the unknown variable” while “Æ “is “my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)”—her latest album, the excellent Miss Anthropocene, features a song called “4Æm.” As for the A-12, she describes the aircraft as “Great in battle, but non-violent.” She also says, however, that the A-12 was a “precursor to SR-17,” which she calls “our favorite aircraft.”
This, it turns out, is a typo, which is entirely understandable considering she quite literally just pushed out a squealing human from her body. No matter, for Musk was in her mentions in a jiffy to correct the error. “SR-71, but yes,” he wrote before also sharing a photo of the A-12. (The SR-71, also known as the Blackbird, still holds the record for fastest air-breathing manned aircraft; it’s also the name of the band behind the hit song, “Right Now,” as featured in the 2000 Jason Biggs vehicle, Loser.)
Grimes, eyes likely rolling into the back of her head, replied to note that she is “recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, damnit.”
She also took a moment to reply to someone criticizing the child’s name. “I think it sounds like the name of the main character in the story,” she said. “I hope he vibes with that.”
One day they’ll tell us how to properly pronounce it. Or they’ll just tell us that this was all a troll and the kid’s name is “Gordon” or something.
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