Cornell Blogger: Enough of This Hippity Hop Balderdash
At least one Cornell student has had his share of angry black people and their musics. In response to rapper T.I.’s behavior at the school’s Slope Day ’07, Cornell Daily Sun blogger Jared Kraminitz reasons that an entire genre should be avoided in selecting Slope Day ’08′s performers:
Rap is out, I think, for fairly obvious reasons. For one, the biggest names (Jigga, ‘Ye, Fiddy – can you tell I’m down with the street?) are pricey. Also, much as I love a little Biggie bumpin’ in the car, live concerts aren’t conducive to rap; the music overwhelms the vocals and then there’s the risk you’ll be verbally abused by the artist or be forced to listen to the sounds of fake gunshots for five minutes.
Tell it like it is, Jared! On top of that, who knows which rapper is even performing when all of those people look the same?
Kraminitz suggests Cornell needs “a group that can manage to play loud but still sound good… something that rocks.” Only one band matches his specific criterium, indie rockers the Hold Steady. Kraminitz praises them for their “rough-and-tumble, Bruce Springsteen-on-steroids sound.”
I’ve seen both the Hold Steady and “‘Ye” live and the former was much, much more dangerous. A lot of beer, a lot of white trash. I’d much rather take the Hold Steady “bumpin’ in my car” and the cruel underworld of major corporate CEO “Jigga” in concert. I wouldn’t throw water bottles at either.
–JIM NEWELL
