LETTERS continued views and concerns. So let us know what you think. We can only act for you when we know what you want. So write down what you have to say and drop it off at the Barn care of Paula MacFadyen or Patricia Embleton by Feb.15

Thanks for your time,

Patricia Embleton

Can’t beat the rap Dear X-Press,

So Mr. Ferguson thinks rap is creatively “brain-dead”? How much of it has he listened to? Does he have any foundation for this statement other than the predictable knee-jerk reactions he copied out of his “How to be politically correct manual”?

_ The one star you granted the devilishly clever new album from Snoop Doggy Dogg (Gee, | didn’t laugh at all when | said that, maybe those of us with open minds don’t use grade seven tricks like usingsomeone’s name against them) just demonstrates to me that your music knowledge and journalism should not be’ focused on rap or anything of the sort. Did you enter the listening experience with an open mind? | would doubt it. Did you listen to the album extensively? I'd bet against it. He has not only written a bad article, he has written a misinformed bad article. | find it amusing that you cover your ass by taking the oft-heard, “I hate it but I'll defend it” line. More disappointing is the pathetic scenario of an impressionable young child listening to the music. Hey, Kirby, are you now the moral judge of what should be listened to? Are you afraid that a child might have the sense. to know what is real, what is created and where art has its place in life?

Alas, this brings me to my most important point. The way the writer attacks rap music strikes me not only as foolish but as inherently racist. How can Mr. Ferguson ask for compassion in music that depicts a land without compassion? How can you ask for conscience from people who grew up knowing only the survival tactics that

one must learn to live in a ghetto? I’m sorry the sounds offended his ears. Maybe he should pull his opera and his Hendrix from his collection too. They might cause him to go and kill women. Music is the cancer eating away at us, right? Well, rap music anyway.

Has it ever struck you the reason anybody cares about this is because the majority of rap’s audience is white? We, asa society, have pushed the panic button because our children are being spoken to by young black males. It’s scary when truth comes in violence and misogyny. But it comes nonetheless. Allow rap its place to breathe not because you are a civil libertarian but because it has something fresh and original to say.

As for Mr. Ferguson, | am sorry to say that a reviewer with such good judgement on most topics must close his eyes and take the party line on this issue. Why is this man reviewing rap albums? Why don’t you have someone who has an interest in it reviewing it? | too disliked Ice Cube’s album, but because | was bored, not offended.

Ice Cube and Mr. Ferguson have committed the same sin, the sin of being uninteresting. As for Snoop Doggy Dogg, his greatest sin is not conforming to a style of music that fits the boundaries of most people’s tastes. He should be celebrated and congratulated for making something new out of the same, tired Parliament beats. He is an innovator and an original. Something so rare in a

homogenized world we should allow

him space to grow out of his immature misogyny. This is his first album. On the great Jimi Hendrix's first album the song “Hey Joe” appears with lines like “Hey Joe/l heard you shot your old lady down.” Offensive? No way. It is a story. It is an image. The album “Doggystyle” has humour about itself. Snoop Doggy Dogg refers to himself

being killed and finding God, he calls

himselfa “conceited bastard.” The fact of the matter is that he pulls the rug out from under himself in an effort to make the album a complete work. | can’t remember the last time | heard an opera where a woman was not killed. Is that offensive? No, of course not, it’s art. It gets to be rude and socially

unacceptable to make a point. Obviously a point ignored by your article. The lines you quote from Snoop that begin, “When | met youlast night...” are in fact not uttered by Snoop, but by another person. Please listen to the album before you decide to write on it. Too many people will read your review and allow themselves to inherit your biases.

Calling these people idiots strikes meas the final nail in your firmly closed mind. Have you listened to “The Chronic’? Have you listened to “Straight Outta Compton”? If youhad, you might see that Dre and Snoop have infact revitalized the rap industry. The sound is incredible and the words are important. The song “L’il Ghetto Boy” from “The Chronic” is as startling, prophetic and sad as anything released in the last year.

| have one more question for Mr. Ferguson, did you listen? Did you really listen? Those who offer up their opinion based on preconceived notions and take the easy way out of a diverse, complicated subject are the ones deserving of scorn. Ignorance is not bliss. It is just ignorance.

Yours Truly,

A Kent-James Bruyneel

P.S. Perhaps Mr. Ferguson should check

out the following five albums. The

brain-dead have never been so eloquent.

1. Digable Planets-Reachin’

2. De La Soul-Buhloone Mind State 3. Naughty By Nature-19 Naughty Ill 4. The Pharcyde-Bizarre Ride Il the Pharcyde

5. Wu-Tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang

(36 Chambers)

Born free Dear Editor,

The biology students on this campus

are being cruel to harmless little creatures. They are trapping, murdering, and creating monstrosities

inthe name of education! This violence

against our fellow creatures of this earth must stop! Students, rise up, and SET THE FRUIT FLIES FREE!

A concerned student.

[ 2! sppnestfebruary first 19edpage 14 |

Mike Cassie

Campus Comment "What Stresses you Out?”

“Life in general."

Anne-Marie Archibald

2nd year Music

"Trying to accomplish many, many things ina little time frame."

Pearl Weeks 5th year Arts

"Putting up with drunk friends."

3rd year Engineering

"Men who think that i you do something nic it means something else."

Trish Daley Ist year Business

"Nothing stresses m out, I'm always happy.

Garry MacDonald 4th year Physics/Engineering