Thursday, May 05, 2005
Gangstas in College
So Snoop Dogg and The Game are performing at my school tomorrow... What do you think? What do I think? I don't know.
My school has this major tradition of throwing this wild party to mark the last day of classes. Forget that technically this is the last day of classes. Most of them get cancelled, and the few that don't probably don't rank high on attendance.
So a few thousand students along with a few more thousand guests hit the huge slope on campus. Years ago it used to be just to get drunk and party and go crazy. A couple of close calls with unconscious drunk students and the raising of the legal drinking age to 21 made the administration reconsider its hands-off policy. Now they try to take students' minds off the alcohol and nuttiness a bit by bringing big name performers to campus to entertain us in other ways. They also sell the alcohol now, gate off the slope, and think up other ways to seize more control.
But back to the music. Last year they brought Kanye West came to campus. I was there in the first few lines watching Kanye tear it up on stage. It was my first "real" concert by a big-time performer (yes, I'm a late bloomer). Something about it was kind of exciting, some celebrity scintillation, the excitement from the crowd, feeling the base vibrations reverbrate through my body...
It was nice, but as I stood there squished between crazy dancing students who smelled like alcohol and pot, something felt a bit weird. I mean, do you remember the name of the album Kanye was promoting last year? "The College Dropout." Yeah, so we're all paying over 40K per year and ripping our asses to go to college, and then our school brings a guy promoting "The College Dropout," to entertain with lyrics like, "I fucked the teacher." Uhm...
And this year it's Snoop and The Game. Yeah it's cool that even college can be down with the happening stuff, but... but, but, but... Something just seems wrong about this picture. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I heard we're paying anywhere from 30K to 100K for these acts--(our tuition dollars hard at work). Or maybe it's because some of the lyrics they rap and some of the things they stand for completely contradict some of the lessons, morals, and values a higher education tries to instill in us (oh snap, he's pulling out the morals and values card!).
But I don't want to be the sour apple. There's something cool about this, too. Last year I saw Kanye, and unless I'm totally out of it, this year I'll be out there watching and listening to Snoop and The Game live. I won't even deny it, I might even enjoy some of their music. So I'm not all protesting about this one. It just leaves me wondering, are these the kind of experiences I came to college for? Are these the kinds of experiences I want college to provide me? Should Snoop and The Game be pimping big G's out of universities' piggy banks?
If it's exciting in a good or bad way, or if I get any marvelous insights, or if I'm otherwise in the mood to write I'll be sure to update.
My school has this major tradition of throwing this wild party to mark the last day of classes. Forget that technically this is the last day of classes. Most of them get cancelled, and the few that don't probably don't rank high on attendance.
So a few thousand students along with a few more thousand guests hit the huge slope on campus. Years ago it used to be just to get drunk and party and go crazy. A couple of close calls with unconscious drunk students and the raising of the legal drinking age to 21 made the administration reconsider its hands-off policy. Now they try to take students' minds off the alcohol and nuttiness a bit by bringing big name performers to campus to entertain us in other ways. They also sell the alcohol now, gate off the slope, and think up other ways to seize more control.
But back to the music. Last year they brought Kanye West came to campus. I was there in the first few lines watching Kanye tear it up on stage. It was my first "real" concert by a big-time performer (yes, I'm a late bloomer). Something about it was kind of exciting, some celebrity scintillation, the excitement from the crowd, feeling the base vibrations reverbrate through my body...
It was nice, but as I stood there squished between crazy dancing students who smelled like alcohol and pot, something felt a bit weird. I mean, do you remember the name of the album Kanye was promoting last year? "The College Dropout." Yeah, so we're all paying over 40K per year and ripping our asses to go to college, and then our school brings a guy promoting "The College Dropout," to entertain with lyrics like, "I fucked the teacher." Uhm...
And this year it's Snoop and The Game. Yeah it's cool that even college can be down with the happening stuff, but... but, but, but... Something just seems wrong about this picture. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I heard we're paying anywhere from 30K to 100K for these acts--(our tuition dollars hard at work). Or maybe it's because some of the lyrics they rap and some of the things they stand for completely contradict some of the lessons, morals, and values a higher education tries to instill in us (oh snap, he's pulling out the morals and values card!).
But I don't want to be the sour apple. There's something cool about this, too. Last year I saw Kanye, and unless I'm totally out of it, this year I'll be out there watching and listening to Snoop and The Game live. I won't even deny it, I might even enjoy some of their music. So I'm not all protesting about this one. It just leaves me wondering, are these the kind of experiences I came to college for? Are these the kinds of experiences I want college to provide me? Should Snoop and The Game be pimping big G's out of universities' piggy banks?
If it's exciting in a good or bad way, or if I get any marvelous insights, or if I'm otherwise in the mood to write I'll be sure to update.
