Rap goes back to basics by John Amorose staff writer Rap music was a pretty radical no tion in the early Eighties. Rock mu sic, as defined by MTV, was some thing made by and for white people. African-Americans' biggest musical icons were Michael Jackson and Prince; hardly around-the-way-guys, for their appeal was their larger-than life persona that each possessed. The life stories of the children of America's urban cities simply were not showing up on the radar screens of the day's popular culture. Indeed, except as they figured in late-night TV news reports of inner-city murder and mayhem, these kids were largely in visible to the rest of the world. Far away from the mainstream, a handful of youth from the Bronx and Harlem were cooking up something that had nothing to do with Bruce 4 1Pfr Frederic, the pirate apprentice, played by Michael Lechner, is about to have his way with the Major-General's daughters, played by (left to right) Dawn Mitchell, Tricia Michel, Jennifer Jacob, Amanda Pieper, and Gretchen Foust. The spring musical will be presented in the Reed Commons on March 25 through March 29. Tickets go on sale after spring Break. ACROSS 1 Paint layers 6 Workplace honcho 10 Open a bit 14 Bucolic 15 Asian sea 16 Knight's aide 17 Pygmy antelope 18 Walloping wind 19 Faultless 20 Poet like David, e.g. 22 Alerted 24 Consummation 25 United Arab 27 Small sofas 31 Opposed to: pref. 32 Pub offering 33 Adage 35 Highlander 39 Drinking vessel 41 Go on snow 42 Alabama town in '6os headlines 43 Lawman Wyatt 44 " Dallas" 46 Hearing organ 47 Man or Wight, e.g. 49 Sky Harbor or Dulles 51 Biting midges 55 Disfigure 56 Banished 57 Interruptions 62 Actor Auberjonois 63 Fed. agent 65 Shaq or Tatum 66 Color changer 67 Merit 68 V-formation flyers 69 Stitches 70 Spots 71 Tacked on DOWN 1 Rider's whip 2 "Yours, Mine, and ~ 3 Operatic highlight 4 Writers' block? 5 Being slender 6 Purses 7 Pontificate Springsteen or Bill Cosby and every thing to do with the lives that they were living. In tiny night-clubs, in youth centers, in skating rinks and on park playgrounds, pioneering deejays like Africa Banbaataa and Grandmas ter Flash—having rejected the gooey sentimentality of rock and the robot sterility of disco, not to mention such pop amenities as melody and most instrumentation other than drums— were stitching together a new music, based on funk and hard-rock beats and incorporating only the most exciting patches of a given record. The early MC's were even more radical, abandoning the traditional singing in favor of rapping. "The Fu rious Five," "The Funky Four plus One", and "The Treacherous Three" rejected the standard in favor of brand-new narratives about their lives and their dreams, written in their own 8 Erie Canal mule 9 Turning on a pivot 10 Evaluate 11 Pleasure trip 12 Think alike 13 Orchestra section 21 Notion 23 Well-honed skill 26 City in the Philippines 27 Wise guy 28 Fitzgerald of scat 29 Sorrowful dror 30 Method 34 Eisenhower's nickname 36 Nile queen , briefly 37 Persian poet, ___ Khayyam 38 Floozy 40 Haranguers 42 _ Springs, NY 44 Oozy sediments 45 Capital of Peru 48 Visualize 50 Lopped off branches 51 Geeks 52 Type of daisy 53 Tendon 54 Portion words. There wasn't an East Coast/ who really had no reason sampling West Coast rivalry, there weren't ri- this song. The lyrics are far too fast ots at concerts, and MC's didn't brag and nearly intelligible at times, doing about their lavish lifestyles. It was one of the greatest rap songs from the rhymes and beats, and that's it. greatest rap act a great injustice. But Far away from the mainstream, a handful of youth from the Bronx and Harlem were cooking up something that had nothing to do with Bruce Springsteen or Bill Cosby and everything to do with the lives that they were living. "ln tha Beginning...there was rap" is a tribute to these early pioneers of Hip Hop by the biggest names in the industry today. The opening track, "Run D.M.C's" classic Sucker M.C.'s, is sped up and revamped by "The Wu Tang Clan," 58 Rustic hotels 59 Potential plant 60 Good life 61 Winter transportation 64 West of Hollywood Features the album only improves from here. F—k the Police, originally recorded by "N.W.A." was masterfully redone by "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony." Bone dropped their signature harmony as pect and turned to rough, hard-core rhymes and slammin' beats; emulat- The pirates of Penzance gather for a rousing tast to their king. In the front row, left to right, are Joe Gross, Aaron Horneman, and Torn Burger, In the back row (left to right) are Michael Lechner, Jonelle Wilson, R.J. Frelin, (the pirate king), and Leo Hanley. The spring musical will be presented in the Reed Commons on March 25 through March 29. Tickets go on sale after spring Break. ~,. ..... .:....„,:.:. r ...... ~...0: -41\'',1-010‘,.16.-.....,„.,:, .40,.........„.,,), v........„7, ...„,.:: ~... ~.... :1 . I.ok, . 4 t I .... . .. : _; ~.... . N . .. '.: : 'Ek:' ..., -..-,« . * ' < 4.E ' J'e' ..« . 1 E E ~_. 4 4 . ...,. Jar: 4 ... ' .6 ;,... •• „..m. i ( 41 ' ~,, ... 4 5, •., - . . , „ ..„, , - . q „ .*..k..': . , * . : 0 ~ L I! . , .......... . ... ... Come day wifh all +he (vest toys. Dais Mining Toys ••••••••• 1 a .l 5 N . . . . . . . Senor Toys When you work at State Farm Information Technologies. you work with some of the most powerful computer systems known to man. Advanced servers and intranet applications. Innovative middleware and databases. Development took that push the limits And for those who prefer retro toys, we still have mainframes to keep you busy well beyond Y2K. State Farm Insurance Companies • Home Offices . Bloomington. Illinois Thursday, March 5, 1998 The Behrend College Collegian - page 7 ing their mentor, the late, great Eazy- E's raw, reckless attitude. Recent Grammy Award winner Sean "Puffy" Combs does a 90's ver sion of L L Cool J's classic Big Ole Butt. Some die-hard L L fans could be angered by Puffy's new, more sexually explicit lyrics, but the times have changed, and artists can get away with things like that now. All in all, Puffy kept the same tight beats and, coupled with a cameo by Lil' Cease, made the track almost as good as the original (almost'l. The most hype track by far is Rapper's Delight, remixed, but kept real by Erick Sermon, Kieth Murray, and Redman. The lyrics are kept vir tually identical to the original, and Grandmaster Flash's beats are forever present in the background, further immortalizing the classic cut. In the spirit of such eternal cover anthems like Purple Haze and Anar chy in the U.K., Rapper's Delight is what put "The Sugar Hill Gang" on the map, and propelled rap music out of the ghetto and into limelight. Cover versions only let it evolve and adapt, allowing future generations to "throw their hands up in the air and party hard like they just don't care." Other noteworthy songs include "The Roots" version of The Show, the mainly instrumental party-track by "Dougie Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew," featuring Rahzel, the Godfa ther of Noyze, reintroducing the world to the art of the human lindrom. Also featured are Coolio doing Jimmy Spicer's Money (Dollar Bill, Y'all), and Mack 10's gritty remix of N.W.A.'s controversial track Dopeman. The album, as a whole, bridges the generational gap. It allows young people new to the hip hop scene to hear rap's roots. And vise-versa, it allows all those o.G.'s to hear the old school redone by today's best. On my classes-I'd-skip-to-go-see them-scale, this compilation of the hip-hop future is a no-brainer five out of a possible five. The torch has been passed and the new bearers are ready to carry on to the next millennium. L .tom Web Desitn kV .... 1 St* lam Information Technelofies Interested ,n an IT career at State farrW Visa us at www statetarrn.conVcareersm Please refer ots code TOYS/CS when e•m>,iling or fixing your resume. HRSF@STATEFARM COM or FAX 309•763.x 31 An Eoual Coocnunity Employer
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