Opinion
INAUGURAL OPINIONS FROM COLUMNISTS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009
COMING TUESDAY, JAN. 20
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Dear Free For All, I neglected to get on Facebook for several hours. In that time, two friends spread around a rumor I died... now people are dedicating their statuses to me! It's crazzzzy!
KU people and Larryville residents in general, please do not approach strangers on the street or quad and get personal in a rude way that suggests bigotry: This includes your "lame" attempts to "help."
I forgot how much this class thing sucks!
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
When hitting on girls:
First, be at least somewhat confident. Seriously, rambling about how much you suck and how I must hate you is not a come on. Second, I really am
Will son onee please inform the guy who was just playing piano in the Union that he is not, nor will he ever be, Ben Feld?
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
I just got a pair of pajamas with pockets... which is great because I used to have to hold stuff when I slept.
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
I said BRR! It's cold out here! There must be some snowflakes in the atmosphere!
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
Why are so many Jayhawks, just like Missouri Tigers, self-selfdistant about their ignorance? They have no problem approaching strangers and voicing their unfair assumptions. That's why the rest of the country makes fun of the Midwest.
Don't get personal with people. That's the first rule of etiquette.
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
What is better to do on a three-day weekend than have a road trip down to New Orleans with your five best friends? Nothing.
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
My New Year's resolution is to meet the hot boy from the eighth floor. So far, not so good.
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
My New Year's resolution is to meet a hot boy. Not so good on this front either.
I'm going to Dallas this weekend! WHOO!
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
I'm a hot boy, I don't live on the eighth floor, and my New Year's resolution is to get met!
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
Good to have you back, random and amusing comments on Free For All!
--opinion column that provides you with thoughts straight from the mind of a hip-hop head. I'll be speaking my mind about anything and everything hip-hop, putting you on to new and forgotten artists and letting you know the deal on local ill shows.
MUSIC
BEN COLDHAM
Hip-hop versus rap
PAGE 5A
W that's good, ladies and gents? This is the first installment of the
For now, I would like to begin by addressing an issue that has spurred plenty of debate among heads in the past: the differences, and there are many, between hip-hop and rap music. To those unfamiliar with either hip-hop or rap, the two are typically perceived as being one and the same. Amazon.com, iTunes and most record stores list their version of the genre as "hip-hop/rap," and there are never separate "rap" and "hip-hop" CD sections.
There is no doubt that hip-hop is the father of rap, and as a result everything rap could be considered hip-hop as well. Still, there are major differences between the two styles, not only in practice and influence, and especially with respect to their elements. The difference between rap and hip-hop lies mainly in the distinctive elements comprising each genre. Hip-hop has four essential elements: break dancing, graffiti, emceeing (rapping) and
BEN'S BEATDOWNS
DJ-ing. These elements have been the cornerstones of the hip-hop movement since its inception in the late 1970s, and they are absolutely immovable. They represent an ultimate desire to be creative, showcase one's skills and have a good time, and as a result that message is generally communicated to its audience.
Hot Track to Download:
"The Bronzeman" by
Bronze Nazareth
Classic Cut: "Dead Presidents II" by Jay-Z
Throughout hip-hop's evolution into what it has become today (which will be debated in a future column), it has for the most part stayed true to its original roots. Rap also has identifiable elements that are ever evident in any rap music, but while hip-hop and rap do share common elements in DJ-ing and the obvious emceeing,rap adopted new elements of its own. Crime, violence and extravagance became consistent staples of rap videos as well as rap songs.Rather than emulating elements that revolve around having a good time and showing off talent, rap artists generally strive to intimidate and convey an impression of wealth and success. This has not necessarily been a disservice to
the hip-hop community, as many of the sickest rappers in hip-hop history touch heavily on crime and money. The point is there are two completely different messages being communicated by rap and hip-hop, and as a consequence they are two separate entities.
Now, of course there are known rap artists who produce hip-hop songs and vice-versa; there is frequently significant overlap in the messages communicated through an artist's songs. Then there are the select few artists who transcend all specific classification as either rap or hip-hop, like the Notorious B.I.G., 2pac and Jay-Z. But, for the most part, rap and hip-hop keep to themselves and continue to evolve in their own respective ways. That, my friends, is the difference between rap and hip-hop. Peace.
Coldham is a Chicago senior in journalism and English.
Gazans overlooked in current border conflict
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two issues are underreported on the current Israel- Gaza conflict: how Israel
voked the cause fire and how we tacitly support Israel's atrocities. The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967, and when Israel withdrew in 2005, the economic blockade remained; control of the airspace, waters, imports and exports and the flux of people still lay in Israel hands. The blockade's severity has been increasing — with United States support — since Hamas' electoral victory in 2006. The conditions were such that in January 2008 the United Nations Human Rights Council decried Israel's "collective punishment of the Palestinian civilians" leading to "disastrous humanitarian and environmental consequences."
violated the cease-fire and how we tacitly support Israel's atroite
Ending the blockade, and the cessation of rocket fire, were the goals of the June 2008 cease-fire. Israeli government numbers show a decrease in rocket fire from 359 rockets in May and June to 19 during the next four months. The daily truckloads of goods into Gaza increased to 90 from
At the time of this writing, 971 Gazans and 13 Israelis had been killed, with large civilian casualties. The actions of Hamas and Israel are atrocious and should be irrevocably denounced. But the condemnations should not come in the current disproportional fashion that gives less value to the lives of Gazans, nor should we forget Israel's obligations under the cease-fire and the egregious conditions in which Gazans have been forced to live.
70, but remained shy of the 550 truckloads seen two years previously. The cease-fire deteriorated, and the rocket fire resumed, when Israel made an operation into Gaza, in November, killing five.
However, the primary concern for us is that the Gazans are being killed with American warplanes and other armaments. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, "Israel has been the largest annual recipient of U.S. aid" since 1976, but in recent years all economic aid has been replaced with military aid.
We are morally responsible for the consequences of our actions.
Kenny is a Leavenworth senior in civil and environmental engineering.
LAWRENCE
KU campus and the city need to connect
On Nov. 4,2008,students cried out,by way of greeting,"Have you
voted yet?" The answer was rarely anything but yes. The spirit was exuberant; students compared their "I voted" stickers and discussed the latest on the election. It was a monumental shift in awareness — more people voted than ever. According to CNN.com, 1,185,520 people voted in Kansas, and 19 percent were college-aed.
But I was left wondering about the nature of those college-aged voters. How many knew what they were voting for? How many, sucked in by the media swarm around the election, just voted to be "cool?" Did they have any real awareness of the state and local issues, and their importance and impact?
I began to survey my friends. After high-fiving them for voting, I would ask them who they had voted for in the local and state elections — the space in the ballot after the bubbles for Barack Obama and John McCain. Many students I spoke to had left the spaces blank. If they had voted, most had voted along party lines, recognizing none of the actual candidates. Most student voters seemed to miss the real connection between what happens in the community and what happens in their lives. For example, the amount of funding the University receives is dictated by those we vote into state office. These Kansas and Lawrence issues affect students as directly as any presidential election.
I have seen this lack of aware ness of life off the hill. I once
spoke to a geography professor who assigned his students to draw maps of Lawrence. Underclassmen included campus, the dorms, Target and Walmart. A few car-owners added downtown. The maps drawn by upperclassmen included off-campus bars. Most maps contained little more than that. In short, KU students live in a bubble.
There is so much more to the map of Lawrence. Issues that affect the city affect students too. My perspective of the interrelation between campus and community is due to the many years I spent as a Lawrencian before I ventured up the hill. When I joined the University community, I retained my connections to the valley below. Many faculty members share this awareness, as they work at the University but live and raise families in the Lawrence community. Most students, however, remain oblivious.
Mount Oread and Lawrence proper are interdependent. Students should be aware of both the issues that Lawrence faces and the wealth of opportunities that it provides. Our hill could not stand tall without a firm community base below.
Daldorph is a Lawrence junior in journalism and French.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
As I see people walking down the streets, plugged in to their mp3 players, I wonder myself if they've ever thought about the song's message, whether the song was delivering a message that was subliminal and not easily caught by the human ear or if it was obvious. As a student born in Brazil and raised in Paraguay, consideration of songs' messages comes often to my mind. Like other countries, Brazil and Paraguay went through years of dictatorship, establishing a democratic country only relatively recently.
Uncensored music can't be taken for granted
If one knows anything about dictatorship it is that one of the first rules established by the dictator is to end the freedom of expression. Such banishment has great impact on both artists and listeners alike. An artist can use music as a gateway to express his or her feelings about the oppression of living under dictatorship.
But artists under dictatorships in Brazil and Paraguay didn't have much choice, because if their songs directly criticized the government in any way, shape or form, they would be sentenced to prison or death. Some artists like Brazilians Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso (who are both still alive) were seen as a threat to the Brazilian military government in the 1960s. The government held them for nine months before they were told to leave their country and seek refuge elsewhere.
Artists later figured out a way to express their opinions in such a way that the government wouldn't be able to chase them down. They used hidden and subtle messages in their music, so that listeners would still get the message and the music they wanted, but the message was concealed from the government so it wouldn't take action on the artist.
It is important for people to remember that repressive governments are still present in the world. The musicians and citizens of countries like North Korea and Cuba still lack of the privilege of expressing themselves. So, the next time you listen to a song, think about those who can't experience the joy it brings or the message it reveals. Realize that something that seems so simple, like meaningful music, can be a dream to thousands of other people.
— Marcela Teixeira is a sophomore from Brazil.
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