The Nas Weekly

April 19, 2013

Mykki Blanco

The black and white flyers advertising Mykki Blanco’s performance are simple. “MYKKI BLANCO,” they announce in bold capitals, along with the time and location: April 4, 2013 / Terrace Club.

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Poetry As Rap

The world of contemporary poetry has a startling new voice—and it is one that sounds a lot like an MC. This voice is that of Michael Robbins, who had his first poem chosen by Paul Muldoon to be published in the New Yorker just last year, and who this past year published his first collection of poems, Alien Vs. Predator.

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The G.O.O.D KIDD

Lord forgive me things I don’t understand. I don’t get Kendrick Lamar. I like to pretend I do. I guess what I don’t understand is my relationship with his music, and what I imagine is his relationship with me as his listener, and, most importantly, his relationship with himself.

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Across the Pond

During the Grammy Awards this year, international artists Adele, Gotye, Mumford and Sons and Paul McCartney won some of the most prestigious awards. In fact, Adele’s 21 was the best selling album of 2012 and Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know” was the year’s most popular single.

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Wrapped & Rapt

In middle school and high school, I was a wrapper. I wrapped every morning Monday through Friday of the academic year, as well as the occasional Sunday or summer day when possessed by the wrap spirit. I wrapped quietly and meticulously, with focus, usually one among an extended posse but sometimes solo. I haven’t wrapped since July, but I’m confident that I could pick it up again if I wanted to. I came of age as a wrapper, and I remain surrounded by the wrap’s ebon tendrils.

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What Yeezy Taught Me

I was wearing fresh white high-top Converse sneakers, untouched by the inevitability of unclean, unsacred journeys to come. A slight gap between the crisp canvas shoe and the hem of my tight, black, and somewhat shiny floral trousers exposed a thin dimension of my pasty leg. Tucked in to my pants, which I’d purchased in “the city,” infinitely adding to their fashionable credibility in the suburban, small-town view of my image, was a comfortable white, cotton t-shirt.

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Mischief Keef

Chief Keef is an 18 year old (though his age often contested) rapper from Chicago. He is best known for his songs “I Don’t Like”—with the notorious refrain “that’s that shit I don’t like”—and “Love Sosa”; these two songs respectively have 25 and 30 million views on YouTube; many of his other songs, like “3Hunna” and “Bang,” have millions of views as well.

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Fuckin’ Problems

In the middle of the night, Drake released a yearning slow-jam called “Girls Love Beyoncé.” It plods forward, and Drake sings unsteadily over a codeine-soaked sample of the Destiny’s Child classic “Say My Name.” He laments what fame has done to his love life and ability to connect with women, so the subject matter doesn’t veer far away from Drake’s usual meditations on his fame-induced trust issues.

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Tyler, the Creator

I got 99 problems, and all of ’em’s being happy,” bursts out Tyler Okonma—better known by his stage name Tyler, the Creator—on “Pigs,” one of the many disturbing looks inside the mind of this 22 year-old rapper on his new album Wolf. The pop-culture riff with a demented personal twist is Tyler’s signature move, and one that somehow keeps the listeners coming back for more.

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Azealia Banks

Azealia Banks might just be the long awaited solution, or revolution, concerning misogyny in rap. The opening line of her hit, “212,” “Hey, I can be the answer,” is perhaps her subtle recognition of her position at the helm of constructive feminism in hip-hop. For years women have been voicing their frustration with the portrayal of females in hip-hop, and rightly so.

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Bubble Rap

As I walked back from precept on Wednesday something about the sickening humidity reminded me of a song my sister and I shared last July. And though I knew the two-day heat-wave to be cruel and short-lived, still I was lulled into summertime nostalgia by the eighty-degree April breeze.

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Campus Map of Rap

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127 Unclaimed Rap Names

The Crying Game DJ Yung Educated But Unemployed Lil Drummer Boy Sofresh n’ Soclean Dion Adonis Morissette D(ean)J Rapelye Rudeboy Giuliani Duncan Hoy-Z Lil Peni$ Lil Italy Lil Lion Man Lil Caesars Pizza Kings ?uest Missy Eliot Linton Missy Michelle … Read More

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Verbatim

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Overheard in Whitman

KA senior: Is there an LGBT publication on campus? Like, a gay issues publication? ‘Cause for a long time that’s what I thought the Nassau Weekly was.

Overheard over text message

Future RCA: I can get all my zees to live in one room, and we can occupy [redacted] and party. If my zees complain, I’ll hide cocaine in their one room and call P-safe.

Overheard in Frist

Gay man: The ideal girl is a pretty girl with the personality of an ugly girl.

Overheard at the CJL

Freshman girl, to Ivy sophomore: Why did you join Ivy?
Ivy sophomore, incredulously, to Ivy senior: She just asked me why I joined Ivy.

Overheard in Rocky

Prefrosh: He’s black, he’s a national merit scholar, and he’s 6’5” and yoked, like a car hit him and it got dented. He also writes like super sensitive poetry, and his name’s Descartes.

Overheard in REL 222

Professor: Emerson understood thought, like ejaculate, to solidify after exposure.

Overheard in Frist

Sophomore girl: I just saw a girl wearing bows on her shirt, shoes, rings, and hair.
Sophomore Pi Phi: She must be a Theta.

Overheard at a Pregame

Freshman, to prefrosh: Guys, you need to leave, if you get caught you could lose your places.
4 prefrosh nod and prepare to leave
Rebellious prefrosh: I’m willing to take the risk.

Overheard on Twitter

Whitman College Council: Hey Whitman! Tomorrow’s kinda special - every Whale can bring one NON-Whitmanite friend! See you and your +1 tomorrow night!

Overheard at Wawa

Cannon member, to exiting strangers: Goodnight, ladies! And gentleMAN!

Overheard at Nass open house

Prefrosh: Hi, I’m Aaron.
Nass freshman: You paused. Is it, like, a longer name?
Prefrosh: No, it’s a stutter.

Overheard outside Cuyler

Theta senior: I was really into him until he came to my room wearing a Hollister polo and cargo shorts. Dealbreaker!

Overheard on Prospect Avenue

Dude, contemplatively: I like Cannon. It has a cannon.

Overheard at Terrace

Corporate tool, on phone: I mean, learning is learning. You can’t let the technological bullshit get in the way of that. (pause as his interlocutor talks) All right, bye mom.

Overheard on a resume

PDP sophomore: Member, Princeton Tower Club (selective social eating club)