Thursday, August 31 Class, The Irony of Rap Songs

Today was an interesting day at class. Besides it being extremely boring, there were some funny moments. In Veena Kukreja’s class she gave a lecture about colonization, so the first thing she said was “Colonization comes from the word ‘colony’, meaning where people live”. Then she said Nepal and Bhutan weren’t colonized because they have “nothing to offer”. She pronounced the year 1605 as sixteen hundred five. Seriously though, how do MA Political Science students not know the basics about Indian colonization that even I know? Moving on, Shanta Verma was late and let us out 25 minutes late, and NO ONE left early. She also yelled at the students in the front row: “I have told you since the first day that I need the fans, so move the desks for me, do you have a problem?” Then she fielded a question, “That is not relevant to this discussion. I don’t want to waste my time while you just pull questions out of the air”. And she apparently hates China and the USA, and considers it "bullshit" if we discount their role in India's defense strategy. During class, fireworks were going off for student elections, in which they give out posters with color portraits of themselves, it’s great. I was listening to some old school rap songs, and realized just how outdated and ridiculous they were. Don’t get me wrong; I love bad rap music, but honestly it’s pretty funny. The list of coveted items includes: Super Nintendo (While I agree it’s the best gaming system, I saw it at a neighborhood garage sale amongst a bunch of used stuff for $20), credit cards (I get credit cards as junk mail…starting at age 16), pagers (needless to say the most worthless invention in the history of the wireless communications industry), mobile phones (I’m guessing 95% of the aged 15-35 population has a cell phone), grills (I think Paul Wall just needed braces and a boon for his jewelry business, so he made up an entire subculture based on the ugliest piece of jewelry since the chastity belt…how else could a fat white Texas man have a number-one rap song in America, oh yeah because believe it or not America is STILL racist), 20” rims (no one brags about 20” rims anymore, now 24” is the rage, and next it’s going to just be “Monster Truck”), Walkman (I’m listening to your song in on an IPOD), Jaguar (Congratulations, your car breaks down every other week), Roca Wear (Who besides Jay-Z actually wears that?). It’s a safe bet to just stay with the following classic rap accessories, these things never get old: Benjamins (unless the value of the US Dollar continues its abysmal downward spiral), hoes (ok I like dark girls, seriously they’re hot), 40’s (all you need is 2 bottles for $2, and it’s a sure ticket to intoxication), fried chicken (you’re thinking only black people like fried chicken…who doesn't like fried chicken...fried chicken is GOOD), diamonds (always a girl’s best friend), marijuana, plastic bags (for distribution of marijuana), Swishers (for rolling of marijuana), pipes (for smoking of marijuana), lighters (for lighting of marijuana), and cocaine. After lunch of a bowl of rice and parantha I packed my stuff and headed off to catch my night plane to Calcutta.