I was really looking forward to our lecture this past Thursday night. Dr. Tricia Rose is one of if not THE foremost scholar on hip hop, with her first book dating back to the early 1990s. She was joined on the program by Capri Courtney of Chicago and April Cotton of Little Rock.

Her new book is called "The Hip Hop Wars" and discusses the arguments on both sides for and against hip hop. In a profound analysis, she mentioned that hip hop had become the perfect vehicle for maintaining racial stereotypes. Hip hop after all is the first mainstream Black music form.

Most of the audience didn't understand Soundscan. Dr. Rose explained how this computerized system began to accurately track album sales, and 2 weeks after Soundscan debuted, the gangsta rap group NWA reached the top of the billboard charts. Sounscan also determined, by zip codes, who brought the music, and we know that 70% of the hip hop music is purchased in white suburbs. So this changed how hip hop was marketed.

She talked about the power of stories, and asked what if Lil Wayne turned his gift for the use of metaphor to talk about something. She stated, "The stories we tell ourselves teach us who we are." If the stories we tell didn't matter, she argued, then we wouldn't get so irate about racist images which appear from time to time.

In a very energetic and engaging lecture, Dr. Rose gave us lots of food for thought. I would LOVE to take a class from her- she was excellent.

The Prez