God loves you, even if you're ugly

As a teen I was in a continuous routine of break-up then get back together with my then boyfriend of almost four years. The childish mess of a relationship that I recognize today totally seemed worth the habitual screaming fights and long bouts of sobbing with my head against the bathroom floor. Ridiculous? Yes.

However this introduction into the world of relationships was an absolutely integral building block for the rest of my relationships to follow. The hardest part of this time in my life was how isolated I felt in my grief, especially when the relationship finally ended. I really didn’t have words to describe the heartbreak I thought I was going through.

Then, in comes my introduction to the ingenious, yet heartfelt hip-hop duo, “Atmosphere,” consisting of lyricist, Slug (Sean Dailey) and beat-smith/producer, Ant (Anthony Davis.) With a little help from a well-versed underground hip-hop fan, I got my hands on their album “God Loves Ugly” released in 2002. The album as a whole disregarded most of the expectations I had for hip-hop music at the time. But the one song that stood out, almost begged me to listen and relate to it was their ever-popular and equally loathed, “Fuck You Lucy.” Standing as the fourth song on the album it doesn’t appear to be the intentional highlight.

 Now, this was content that I wouldn’t have ever found somewhere on the radio back in 2005. The lyrics didn’t hone in on the extremities of the actual content, but dove right into the heart of it. Even six years after I first purchased this album and with the residual longings of relationships past, long gone, it still channels that original organic emotion it first delivered. But don’t get me wrong, the exactness and depth of the content is unexpectedly refreshing.

“Fuck you Lucy for leaving me, Fuck you Lucy for not needin’ me. I wanna say fuck you , because I still love you.  No, I'm not OK, and I don't know what to do.” Slug puts himself out on the line as completely vulnerable and as having no control over the situation; not exactly what the average listener would expect to find on a hip-hop album. And if you’re a listener of Atmosphere’s discography, you’ll find Lucy Ford and her emotional path of destruction all over Slug’s lyrics.

Slug is a story-teller; he captures the fact-based personal struggle aspects of life, similarly to old-school fables. In doing this, he tends towards representing a more accessible type of artistic figure. His rhymes are about every day, relatable life situations and personal struggles. When the frivolities of modern, popular hip-hop are stripped away and the talentless drones clad in parachute sized pants and “tall-tees” are replaced with a group having 22 years of experience under their belts, the idea of hip-hop takes on an entirely original meaning.

Now, I’m completely aware that, for the most part most subject matter is not completely imaginative. It’s the mark of a true artist when they can suddenly give new meaning and put precisely the appropriate words to a specific emotion. Like fellow independent hip-hop artist Aesop Rocks says in his song, “Face Melter,”  “I find that interesting style can often out-weigh the subject.” This rings extremely true throughout the entirety of “God Loves Ugly.”

Track 15, “Modern Man’s Hustle” is a beautiful, true-to-life love song. Really, it’s not optimistic, it doesn’t border on dreary; it’s just kind of a ballad exploring the parameters of a modern relationship. It captures the honesty and loyalty one could hopefully expect.

“I said Ill make you smile for the simple fact I’m good at it I’ll make you smile just so I can sit and look at it.” It’s not a man’s play-by-play of his history of hook-ups. He really brings life to the minor details that are so often over-looked.

Ant is the mastermind behind the beats and production. Without his blatantly recognizable 80s infused, often funky and always original production, Atmosphere would not have the following that they do. The two mesh their own understandings of hip-hop and infuse it with their combined mid-west Minneapolis mind-frame. The emotion of Ant’s work continuously melds with the progression of Slug’s lyrics. The entirety of their music captures a complete mood not just one specific element.

Atmosphere represents a style of music that carries the potential of influencing culture towards a more practical mentality. They advocate for loving life, no matter what path you’re on, and staying out of business that’s not your own. Slug and Ant, 22 years after they started this project still have a ridiculously large following in every city and continue to preach positive ideals. “God Loves Ugly” made me realize relationships do not make or break us as people.

Check out "Fuck You Lucy" here

Stupid Student Center

So, the Student Center. Maybe I really shouldn’t even care. Maybe I’m putting too much thought into this ridiculous building, this building that will house the same things we already have here on the SSU campus, but will just cost lots of extra money. Oh yeah, and they will have more shitty quality food choices to help pack on the freshman 15 just that much faster.

This issue is a representation of the bigger problem, just on a smaller scale. There is a lack of emphasis put on the academic part of college. Our ASI feels that effort and time put forth towards improving the social lives of SSU students is more pressing than saving our teachers.

Ok-so maybe ASI President Bridgette Dussan’s explanation of the benefits of constructing this student center does make sense. Yes, costs of materials are at an all time low, so we can secure a lower cost of construction right now and that price will carry over for the entire 30 year pay-back period. Even if costs do go up, we will still get to lock in this price permanently.  But that’s $150 extra dollars per semester per student for a completely unnecessary building.

State universities were originally created with the idea that anyone who wanted to continue their education after high school could have the chance without paying the price of an ivy-league school. Now that costs are generally so high, it’s now not so plausible that “anyone” could afford an education. So why would we purposefully raise tuition costs solely for the purpose of constructing “fun” oriented building? This school is not just full of 18-year-olds searching for a place to congregate and meet new friends.  I’d venture to say that there are a majority of us that care slightly more about the dwindling state of academics. Our teachers are far more valuable than a common place for teenager to eat pizza and gossip.

I understand the money that would go to the student center is not interchangeable with the money allotted to pay teachers’ salaries. Dussan suggested that people shouldn’t be mad that this extra $150 per semester would go to a new Student center and not our teachers. Bull shit. ASI chose to put their effort into creating the Student Center above all else as per Bridgette Dussan herself. They could have used their power and resources in creating a referendum towards pushing for more money for our teachers. But as Dussan said, referendums towards allotting more money for teacher s don’t usually pass, so why put the effort towards it? Uh… because we need our teachers

I’d rather push for keeping our teachers in a good standing and possibly fail, than push for increasing costs for tuition so SSU can have a spot for students to get together and hang out.

It seems an easy feat to go around to sororities and explain all of the positive benefits of this purposed Student Center. I’m sure, based on what I’ve heard from students who have received the “The Student Center is great” spiel, the negatives were not discussed. So by Bridgette saying that the STAR was giving biased negative coverage of the student center is ridiculous. The bias seems to be in her court. We give equal coverage to the best of our ability. We don’t stay up at night pondering ways to sabotage the inner workings of ASI by giving unfair coverage.

And By the way, learn how to read a fucking paper. The first two inside pages are for opinion articles; equal coverage is not required even in prestigious papers. And “Letters to the Editor” is not written by the staff of the STAR. Our fellow students with pressing opinions write this. We run all of the “Letters to the Editor” regardless of whose ideas and opinions they support. It just happens to be that most of the students we hear from absolutely do not support this dumb building.

My potential doesn’t lie in the hands of new Student Center. A new building does not push us closer towards becoming an ivy-league. It ends up pushing further away from the original idea of college, a good education by knowledgeable teachers at an inexpensive price.

Yes- movies make college look like a lot of fun. Mingling with cute co-eds is an exciting aspect of college, but without our amazing teachers, some of which may lose their jobs, we may get a degree, but we’ll lose out on a quality education.

I’ve had five teachers throughout my school career who have changed my life. By encouraging my capacity to think for myself and personally pushing me towards my given-talents these teachers have help build my character. No building has ever, nor will ever give my life the same kind of meaning. It disgusts me that this school would even consider putting effort towards an un-education oriented class while some of our valued teachers aren’t even sure if they’re coming back next semester. How’s that for a slap to the face?

Throwback

I didn’t want to like them.

 Sounding enough like The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin to turn me off, I pretty much gave up on The Black Keys before I ever let myself give into them.

My initial assumptions clouded my judgment. And for the record I am not a classic rock fan. It’s pretty much a foreign subject that I have very little interest in delving into.

But there’s no denying that classic, old-school 1970’s rock is a major source of influence for The Black Keys. And I also can't deny that I totally love it.

Their album, “Brothers,” released in 2010, deviates entirely from the current trend direction of uninspired, uninfluenced, garbage music.

Instead of following modern trends, they take cues from other music genres and incorporate them into their own sound. It gives their final product a familiar feeling which most listeners can relate to, but they most definitely do not Bogart anyone’s style.

Through the 16 songs on the album they channel everything from an alternative, independent sound to classic rock and hip/hop. Generally the lyrics flow uniformly, it’s the instrumental choices that continuously draw parallels to music typically un-found in the main-stream.

Their song, “Howlin’ for you,” is a major 1970’s throwback. The beat-flow and dueling guitars border the style of the Indie band, The Rapture enough to capture some of their fans, but not so much that they come off sounding like a copy-cat band.

“I’m not the One,” is reminiscent of the style of DJ/beat-smith, ANT from the hip/hop group Atmosphere. The instrumentals from this song could have been laid out with other tracks from Atmosphere’s 2008 album, “When Life gives you Lemons, you Paint that Shit Gold.” Again, their sound is similar enough to take notice, but not so much that their originality is lost.

Most noticeable are the similarities between The Black Keys and The Beatles. The instrumentals from The Black Keys’ song, “Unknown Brother,” could be easily found somewhere on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Upbeat, but thick, almost hollow sounding instruments unite these two bands through a variation of songs.

Their use of language is something else to be admired. There are only so many interesting, relatable subjects that a band can touch on though their lyrics and unfortunately, it’s all been done. But The Black Keys look at familiar situations through a new set of looking specs.  Subjects like love, death and jealousy have been beaten to the ground before, but their off-beat perspective and word choices create a new, previously undiscovered texture. They ask you to make inferences in order to understand the depth of their stories.

The true art factor of this band exists through their alternative perspectives. Instead of giving the listener the whole and exact story, they leave up to the imaginations of their audience.

“The look of the cake, it ain’t always the taste, my ex girl she had such a beautiful face” from the song “Next Girl” essentially explains that judging a book by its cover is often a regrettable decision.  But instead of using the old cliché, they employ language that requires the listener to pay attention because on the surface, the lyrics may not make complete sense. Their music doesn’t come off boring, or incite that “I think I’ve heard something just like this before” response.

I didn’t want to like The Black Keys because I thought they were going to be another band trying to bring back the classic rock 1970s style because they couldn’t create and refine one of their own. In actuality, their style takes cues from music before it became an art for the talentless. They channel some of the successful aspects of well-known bands, and then fill in the blanks with their own stories and structure. As much as I wanted to hate them, I’m even more stoked off of their originality.

Limited Exceptions

The Grammy’s are making leaps and bounds in recognizing alternative bands as worthy of “Album of the Year.” Last year “King’s of Leon,” a band previously unrecognized by the main-stream media won the sought-after Grammy for “Album of the Year.” This year Indie band, Arcade Fire shocked the crowd by taking the coveted prize for their album, “The Suburbs.” However, these bands have to work harder and wait longer than pop acts for the prestigious award.

            Where as industry new comers like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift receive nominations after releasing just one or two albums, other, less popular bands have a harder time gaining their deserved recognition.

            Without big production companies and constant radio rotation these lesser-known bands aren’t recognized as worthy Grammy contenders.

            Arcade Fire, a seemingly unknown band took the cake this year for their third full-length album, “The Suburbs.” The album which channels personal responsibility and introspective disappointments was pretty far off from the easy listening and adolescent feelings of Lady Gaga’s, “The Fame Monster” or Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” which were both nominated. Though both of these ladies albums sold more copies in the US than Arcade Fire, their popularity didn’t lend to recognition for “best” anything as far as the Grammys were concerned.

The NARAS or, The National Academy of Recording and Sciences vote on who wins each award given. This group, comprised of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals are the authority on determining what is talent, versus what is simply just popular.

Though Lady Gaga’s Album sold the most albums in 2010, upwards of 5.8 million, it doesn’t prove that the NARAS thought it was the best.

She didn’t release her first album until just over two years ago, but because of her physical appeal and instant notoriety, her album “Fame Monster” gained her a nomination for “Best Album of the Year.”

Because of her vast popularity, not her talent, she was considered a front-runner to win the award. When un-known Arcade Fire won, viewers across America were asking, “Who is this band?” and “how did they win?”

Arcade Fire has been around for 10 years; they’ve been featured in commercials, television shows and even the trailer for “Where the Wild Things Are,” but rarely do the public associate their music with their name and faces. They’ve been a voice for a generation desperate to go back to a time where personal insight and a sense of community count for more than fleeting relationships and teenage angst. Their music gained them recognition ranging from a nomination for ”Best Alternative Music Album” to winning “Best International Group” and “Best International Album” from the BRIT Awards.

Now they’ve won a Grammy; a widely recognized symbol of great musical ability. Even though they’re not necessarily selling the most albums, they are selling the best album.

Hopefully the public will begin to recognize what is constantly on rotation over the airwaves isn’t the best and it’s certainly not all that is available. Digging a little further into indie culture can be a worthwhile venture. These experts who are the authority on talented musicians picked this “un-known” band over the more popular ones because the album spoke for its self. There were no gimmicks, no fads, just unparalleled talent.

Though they may have had to work harder by sticking to an independent label which provides far less advertisement and waiting longer for their recognition than other nominees they did prove themselves as worthy and talented musicians.

Maybe this trend towards recognition of alternative artists will lead to a greater thirst from the public for creative music with previously untouched viewpoints.