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Bleekindigo
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 205
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 03:27 pm: | 
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Professor Greg Thomas thought he had the best-kept secret on campus.
After nearly a full semester of teaching the ETS course "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B@#$H 101 - The Life & Times of Lil' Kim," Thomas somehow managed to lure hip-hop diva Lil' Kim into visiting Syracuse University yesterday to witness firsthand the course dedicated to her efforts. The course, in its first semester at SU, focuses on Kim's rap lyrics, videos and other works of art and relates them to the larger themes of race, matriarch and patriarch, and sexual empowerment.
To his credit, Thomas did his part. He told no one - not even his own students, who were told to prepare the projects they had been working on for a presentation that would be shown to a mysterious "guest speaker" - that Kim was going to be coming to SU for the first time since she performed alongside rapper Fabolous at the Greek Unity Festival in April 2003.
What Thomas had never considered, though, was the power of Kim's publicist. While Thomas remained tight-lipped, the diva's management team did not; on Tuesday, the Associated Press ran a story previewing Kim's trip to Syracuse.
Thomas, meanwhile, was under the belief that the visit was going to remain a secret, without much hoopla from the media. Then, he checked his e-mail.
"I got an e-mail from one of the kids in the class that said, 'Your little surprise is all over the Internet, homie,'" Thomas said.
So when Kim finally made it to Schine Underground yesterday, it came as no surprise to Thomas - nor the Internet-savvy members of his class - that she entered with an entourage of reporters following her coattails.
Kim, used to the spotlight, didn't let it affect her pride in having an entire collegiate-level course dedicated to her works.
"This is going to be a class you are never going to forget," Kim said as she sat down at a table in front of the wide-eyed students and fans. "Having this class is very important. It's going to go down in history."
After a brief welcoming, Thomas asked his students to present the projects they had been working on for the past few weeks, each offering a somewhat different stance on the belief that Lil' Kim's works offer more than meets the eye: A student video showed the misconceptions students have on campus for Kim's lyrics, a collage poster showed the different historical influences of Kim's looks, and poems showed their gratitude to Kim's lyrics for opening their eyes to a new world.
A five-page essay by Diana Hazel, a senior computer graphics major, gushed over Kim's ability to stay strong in the face of the media who constantly try to chop her down and criticize her overt sexuality and candor. Once Hazel finished reading - and the crowd finished applauding - Kim gushed right back.
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Bleekindigo
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Bleekindigo
Post Number: 206
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 03:28 pm: |
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"Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B@#$H 101"
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!
Bleek- |
Brelei715
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Brelei715
Post Number: 114
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 04:10 pm: |
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NOW YOU KNOW THAT IS BULL-ISH. THEY COULD HAVE COME WITH SOMETHING BETTER THAN THAT. I MEAN WHY HER FIRST....WHY NOT LATIFAH, LYTE OR EVEN SALT N PEPPA...ANYWAY I CAN SAY THAT WHOEVER WROTE THAT ARTICLE MOST DEFINATELY WROTE IT IN A WAY WHERE THE CLASS SEEMS INTERESTING AND NOT SO 'DUMB' AS WE THINK {ALTHOUGH I THINK IT'S A BUNCH OF CRAP}
AND I AM AN ALL TIME {MINUS HER NEW LOOK, HER LOOK-A LIKE-A MESS....LOL}LITTLE KIM FAN AND LOVE HER LYRICS BUT I KNOW THERE IS A TIME AND A PLACE FOR THEM AND I DEFINATELY KNOW DARN WELL THAT I WOULD NEVER PAY FOR MY KIDS TO STUDY THEM!!! |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2071
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 06:15 am: |
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Bleek,
Boy! I used to think that to be a professor, one had to be kinda smart. But this Thomas dude must be dumb (or maybe insincere) if he SERIOUSLY thought a publicity ho' like lil' Kim wouldn't use his @$$ to promote her aging rap career.
But what I am most surprise by is that Syracuse, a school that is reputed to have one of the nation's best communications curriculum, would permit a semester-long exposition on who can only at best be considered a mediocre rapper. (Is this an example of the 'darkside' of Affirmative Action and multiculturalism?)
But it doesn't surprise me at all that Thomas' students would fawn over the Queen B*+$#. After all, this is a generation of music fans who continue to adore an artist is also famous for having p@$$ed on a 14 on video.
Brelei,
You know those more talented sistahs were not picked because they don't look as good as Kim does in a blond wig and a G-string bikini. I wager the Professor has a lifesize poster of a crotch-grabbin' Queen B' on his ceiling. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1805
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 12:41 pm: |
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All hype aside, I think that Rap artists and their lyrics are a phenomenon that should be studied and analysed, but in college Sociology courses rather than ones in Communication. This genre of music, which is a throwback to African griots, and which has spawned its own culture and created a lucrative industry, has had an enormous amount of influence on all areas of society. I, myself, am fascinated with the "complex simplicity" of Rap rhyming and the way these lyrics with their hypnotic beat permeate the brains of young people. Nowadays, everybody under the age of 18 can rap. It just comes natural to them, like say, - the way that all Hawaiians, from the time they can walk, know how to do their traditional Hula dance. Rap is powerful. Too bad it can't be harnessed and channelled into more positive pursuits. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2079
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 08:07 pm: |
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Cynique,
When-oh-when will your (otherwise bright) mind divine that Rap/Hip-Hop are but the latest artistic manifestation of what we ALL are (and are not)? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1806
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 08:55 pm: |
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Why am I not permitted to wish that a powerful force could be used for good? Is Rap above criticism??? |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2082
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 11:58 pm: |
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Cynique,
First, I disagree with your generally pessimistic view of hip-hop. But we've been there before. So, for now at least, I'll leave that alone.
However, I think it bears noting here that we view hip-hop to be fundamentally different things.
You appear to view hip-hop to be some separate entity that can be wielded as one chooses. I, however, view it to be a manifestation or mirror of who/what we already are.
Thus, I find it 'odd' that you would wish that someone could use as it as "a powerful force could be used for good." I, instead think that when WE are "good", so too then will be hip-hop. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1808
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:09 am: |
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I am not talking about hip-hop. I'm talking about rap music; its uniqueness and its artistry and its impact on society. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2084
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:29 am: |
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Cynique,
Rap is the primary voice of hip-hop. So how can you speak of one in absentia of the other? It's like wishing the devil would "say something nice".
And there's a MYRIAD (I know how much you like that word.  ) young brothahs/sistahs who deal out positive messages. And some of them are every bit as talented/charismatic as Snoop Dog and Nelly.
But the record producers/distributors are convinced that it is easier to make money off the thug stuff because you've got all these bored/disillusioned White suburbanites who are fantasizing about being Black bad@$$e$.
And until THAT issue is addressed, we will continue to witness a gross exaggeration of what is really only a part of what hip-hop is all about. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1809
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:41 am: |
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You guys are always quick to inform me that hip hop is more than just Rap music. Lauren Hill and Mary J Blighe are both hip-hop queens and neither of them are rappers. I can make the separation. I am not hip-hop, but rap music is my guilty pleasure. I've also been told that there are people who consider themselves hip-hop but that they prefer jazz to rap. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2087
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:55 am: |
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Cynique,
I said Rap is the "primary" voice of hip-hop. Not its ONLY voice (And, actually, Hill is herself a better than average rapper.).
But hip-hop existed LONG before h/h singers such a Blige came along. But there was and is no hip-hop without rap. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1810
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 01:11 am: |
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So if you abolished rap music, the hip hop culture would disappear?? This argument could go on and on. Whatever. I still stick with my original contention that rap is powerful entity and that it should be harnessed for good. It's like fire. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2089
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 01:25 am: |
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Cynique,
Yes. I believe if rap were abolished hip-hop would effectively become defunct. Yes. There would be some remnances left of it. But it wouldn't still be hip-hop. It would AT BEST be about as relevant to true hip-hop as the sacchrine Kenny G is to authentic jazz. |
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