#have so many thoughts on the previous tag’s subject I wrote a whole essay that I forgot to post

[wibbley-wobble]

Levihan attack on titan number one yaoi ship

[fluidityandgiggles]

Sleep Is For The Weak - Chapter 15

Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 5, Chapter 10, Last Chapter

Writing Masterlist - for previous chapters not otherwise linked, Read on AO3

Notes (I guess): Two months. It took me two months to write this chapter. I... I’m honestly kinda surprised at myself...

Umm... I didn’t intend on writing this chapter so early, it was meant to be dragged on for a while more and has kind of a big time jump in it (for plot reasons, trust me), but I mean... the fuck with it. The world deserves some BAMF Emile, we need some cuddles, and the subject of the first... three fourths of this chapter is one that I went to friends from a discord server with and told them I’m trying to make it really subtle and one of them just went, “This isn’t subtle at all, this shit is jumping off the walls and doing somersaults in front of me.”

So I mean... let’s get this over with! Let’s let the cat halfway out of the bag and have the first Emile-centered chapter of many, many others planned.

Thanks as always go to @whatwashernameagain for KHS and for not geting super extra frustrated with all my weird questions, to @broadwaytheanimatedseries for being my guinea pig most of the time and for the original idea, and to @winglessnymph and @asleepybisexual and @anony-phangirl for sticking with me and my insane ideas from the beginning (and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you shit about this chapter, but y’all knew it was coming).

Tag list (sort of): @bunny222, @ab-artist, @sweet-and-sour-shadowling, @your-username-is-unavailable, @virgilcrofters, @ilovemygaydad, @violetblossem, @maybe-i-like-the-misery, @book-of-charlie, @thatsanswitch, @thatrandomautist

Trigger warning: period appropriate transphobia (the early 00s were not exactly trans-friendly). Not as much in here, actually in this chapter it’s pretty non-existent, but this trigger warning goes in every chapter. This chapter also includes Holocaust mentions, discussion of mental health, and that’s honestly about it I think but please let me know if there’s anything I missed.

—————

Wednesday, March 19th, 2003

"Do you understand why I asked you to come here today?" Gilliam asked, clicking a pen.

Emile was frozen in his seat.

"Umm…" Emile's leg started shaking. "Is it about my last project…? I swear I really did read everything I said I—"

"Look…" Gilliam sighed. "You're a fantastic student. Really, Emile. You are one of my best students. But… I gotta say, you remind me of myself, and not in a good way."

"What do you mean…?"

"Do you mind if we went over your last test?" Emile nodded, feeling the heavy sensation in his stomach get even stronger.

"The last test I took was the implicit…"

"Your last written test," Gilliam clarified. "The one in December." He pulled out a folder labeled and decorated with a mint green marker.

‘Emile Picani - 2002/3'

"Your answers were great," Gilliam said with a sad smile as he pulled out the last test from the back of the folder. "They just didn't fit the questions. Look here, define four of the following five Gestalt Laws of Organization."

"I defined four of the following five Gestalt Laws—"

"You explained them, Emile. Define and explain are two very different instructions. I've been there too, kid. I know it's confusing." Emile wanted to vanish right then and there. It wasn't… he was trying his best! "Also, question eight, part c, why do we dream?" The doctor started underlining the question with his pen, thankfully closed. "Take one of the proposed theories and provide one way in which this may be supported."

"But… but I did—"

"Part d, take the same theory from part c and provide a way in which it might be refuted."

Well… they were going to kick him out, weren't they.

"You're a very smart kid, Emile Picani. I'll bet you so many people told you you have such potential and all that… I know it's very frustrating." Gilliam pushed Emile's glasses up, wiping his eyes from unshed tears in the process. It was… somewhat calming. "Did anyone ever suggest that you might have ADHD?"

Emile shook his head. That possibility… well, he didn't want it to be a possibility! Sure, it wasn't the end of the world if he did, but… his parents didn't have to pay for more adderall than necessary, their neighbors didn't need any more reasons to call his mom a drug addict! And… the counselor at his high school had to be right. He was stupid… wasn't he? Learning disabilities just made you stupid…

He was useless. Regardless of what his professor thought.

"Getting into university at seventeen years old is no easy fit," Gilliam kept rambling. "I remember Walter reading your essay to me—"

"Walter?"

"...oh, right! Professor Freeman." Emile's eyes darkened a bit, as if he already knew what was about to be said. Gilliam just laughed. "Yeah, he immigrated from Germany in the late forties I think… poor guy. Changed his last name and everything! Yeah… so anyway, he read your essay to me. We fought a lot of people to have you accepted! I just… I have to ask you. Have you ever had issues like that in school?"

Emile nodded.

"And not in school?"

"I… I guess, yeah… why?"

Gilliam just pulled a light purple post-it note, scribbled something on it, scribbled the same thing again after opening his pen, and handed it to the very confused Emile.

"I said it before, but this time I mean it even more than last time. Go to the psych clinic. I'll write you a referral if you find it hard to talk to them, just let me know, but in my opinion you really should get evaluated for ADHD."

As Emile got up to leave, he fiddled with the note in his hands. It was… he was…

Was he really going to do that…?

"Austria," he mumbled as he reached the door.

"Excuse me?"

"Dr. Freeman is Austrian, not German. It can be confusing, I know. His family immigrated in 1947. And his last name is Landau. He never changed it, he just goes by Freeman for teaching because nobody liked the ‘Germans' post-Holocaust."

"Did he tell you that…?"

"You said he read you my essay, I thought you guessed already."

He was sure he left Gilliam baffled. But it didn't help the sinking feeling in his stomach any.

————

"I can't have it," Emile mumbled against Remy's chest, the note semi-safely in his pocket. "I don't want to!"

"Emmy, gurl, you realize you're making a huge deal out of nothing, right?" Remy laughed. "It's ADHD. It's not terminal cancer."

That made Emile cry even harder.

"No, no… Emile, it's gonna be alright. I promise. Okay? You trust me?"

"My uncle would be so disappointed," Emile whispered. "He's the reason I'm here! And… and I'm disappointing him so much!"

"You're a legacy, sweets?"

"Kinda… I guess." He sniffled. Remy felt his heart break even more, and for what? A mental disorder, a learning disability, a small neurological difference that only made him (in Remy's opinion) even more awesome? "I don't want him to… to lose his status... especially not because of me! He worked so hard to get a teaching position and I don't want to be his downfall!"

"Who's this uncle, sweetie? If you having ADHD will be his downfall he's probably not such a good—"

"Doctor Landau— Umm, Doctor Freeman. He's my mom's uncle."

Remy was… needless to say he was speechless.

"Which Freeman are we talking about, love?"

"Head of psychology, Doctor Walter Freeman."

...his name is LANDAU?!

"...so after about six months of knowing you, you finally decide to tell me that you're the great-nephew of the head of department?!" Emile giggled against Remy's chest. He couldn't believe it! "Scandalous! Preposterous! Un-be-fucking-lievable! Emile!"

"I swear that's not how I got in," Emile muttered happily. "I wrote an essay, I swear I did!"

"Okay, but still, gurl, that's not a secret! It's too big to be called a secret."

"There's no such a thing as too big a secret," Emile said in a near-perfect imitation of Freeman's accent, and then giggled again. "And besides, it wasn't a secret. You never asked!"

"My love, when I die, I want you to tell my dad that I loved him," Remy said in an overly dramatic tone, pretending to faint right there on the couch. "Give all my possessions to Leah—"

"Stop it, you drama queen!"

"Oh, I'm a queen, alright."

The conversation was interrupted by Katherine doing as Katherine does - which today meant running from her room to the kitchen, grabbing an orange and running right back, as if not to be seen - but as soon as she disappeared, Emile broke into an even bigger giggle fit.

"My aunt would be so disappointed if she knew I was crying over this," he said at last, calming down from his laughing fit. "Caroline is the harsher one of them, and… and she used to visit Evanston every couple months when my mom was in university to help her get through her degree and raise my sister. My mom had my sister really young, you know? She and my dad were nineteen, and… okay, sorry, I'm getting sidetracked…"

"Please keep talking, love," Remy told him gently, with a soft smile and a pat on the head. "I can go make you some more tea if you'd like before we continue?"

"No, that's alright! Maybe later!" The blond almost threw himself off the couch in excitement. "I actually think… I think I should talk to them about this… I mean, Caroline would almost certainly get mad at me for thinking it'll ruin his career, and Walter would help me through the whole diagnosis thing… he did the same with Julie before we knew what she had is narcolepsy, you know? So…"

"So is there really anything to be scared of?"

Emile shook his head. Remy wiped his tear-streaked cheeks with gentle fingers, fixing his glasses right after that.

"I… I'm gonna do it. Okay? I'm gonna do it."

He was so proud of himself. It was so cute.

—————

Friday, March 21st, 2003; 15:43 p.m.

"Doctor," the resident student-psychiatrist (Thelma Grinberg, an overly boring MS student Emile already knew) called as she stretched her hand to shake his uncle's hand. "That's a surprise."

"Since Emile is still a minor, I had to accompany him," he explained sharply. "Neither of his parents could come here today."

"Caroline could've come too," Emile mumbled.

"Your aunt has a busy schedule today, Emile."

"You do too…"

Thelma seemed incredibly confused, but kept going anyway. And it took her longer than was probably necessary to get through all the questions.

Emile hated people like that. (And so did his uncle.)

He was dropped off at his dorm before his uncle had to leave, and that probably spooked Remy more than it should have. The kind "Mr. Harris, nice to see you" didn't help any.

"How did it go?" Remy asked, looking almost straight at Emile.

"Quite well, I would say." The smile looked incredibly weird on the older man's face. "Call your mother for me. Tell her everything that happened today, ja?" Emile nodded eagerly. "Thank you, Emile."

"I didn't ask—"

And with a strict "I expect to see you at my office on Monday, Mr. Harris", the professor left the dorm building, leaving behind a happy blond and his flustered best friend.

"...what was that?!"

"I have to go there again a couple days before spring break for another test, and then after Passover for a TOVA," Emile explained, rather excitedly. "You know what a TOVA is, don't y—"

"It's that test where you click a button according to instructions, I know. Mueller explained it to everyone three days ago, Emmy."

"Oh right! And… and I guess that after those tests I'll know if I have anything!"

After a long moment of awkward silence, Emile tapped Remy's shoulder again. "Care to come over for the holidays? You didn't for Hanukkah and now my parents really want you to! I mean… I do too, but my parents haven't really met you yet and they think you're pretty cool and—"

"Sure, I'll come."

Emile had to do a bit of a double take. "Seriously? Remy, I don't think you understand what you're signing up for here, it's all my cousins from three different countries, most of them don't speak English, my grandparents, uncle Walter and aunt Caroline, maybe even mom's cousins if they'd be so grateful as to—"

"No, I get it, sweetie. I have, like, twenty cousins on Linda's side alone, more or less. I'll be fine. Don't worry about it."

Remy may have known before that he'll do anything to see Emile smile, but… he's never realized it until now. Probably? Maybe? But as Emile started bouncing happily and jumped in to hug him, Remy finally accepted the reality.

Coming over to Emile's during spring break was no trouble, but… in the long run, he would do anything to see him smile.

—————

Wednesday, April 16th, 2003

This was… definitely not spring break anymore. Remy was pretty sure that the higher ups in administration would rip him a new nonexistent one when they found out why he took a week's vacation in the middle of the spring semester…

Then again, so did a lot of the other students, and some of the staff. So maybe he was exaggerating…?

Eh. Finals start the week after that and end in May. He can allow himself a week off.

And yet he still had no idea how he ended up like this, watching Prince of Egypt with his best friend and said friend's three-year old niece at nine in the morning, as said friend's mom was overworking herself in the kitchen trying to make space and food for over thirty people…

Oh, and there was a dog too. She was currently playing with a squeaky toy, but she was there.

He only processed that this is the situation he's in once Emile started trying to get his niece singing. He had no idea what was going on on screen, but… something was.

"Mom, where's everyone?" Emile called to the kitchen after failing - for the hundredth time - to engage Analiese.

"Where could everyone possibly be, Emile?"

"Walter and Caroline are in town for the things you forgot to buy, grandma and grandpa are probably at their connection…" he started mumbling, counting on his fingers in an odd fashion. "I don't know!"

"You just said so yourself," Remy laughed quietly, grabbing Emile's hands gently. "Let's go over this again. Walter and Caroline are in town, your grandparents are at their connection…"

"Yeah, I know that," he groaned, slightly frustrated. "I just… everyone… here. That's what… that's what I'm confused about. Where's everyone here."

"...where everyone is seated?" Emile nodded. "Oh gurl… do you wanna make place holders, organize the seating, do you want to…"

"I just want to make sure nobody wants to sit on both my sides. One is okay, but you have to sit on my other side and I'm worried about that."

Oh…

"Well, we're gonna make sure that nobody takes my seat, okay?" Remy asked, kissing Emile's cheek afterwards.

"I sit with Emile!" Analiese declared, her attention now directed at the boys. Emile started laughing and leaned over to pinch her chubby cheek.

"We will read together, and sing together, and if mom complains we're gonna tell her off, right Ana?"

The toddler nodded, extremely determined, and Remy felt his heart melt all over again.

This was too good to be true, and not even seeing his most feared professor walk through the door and sit down next to them in the living room could shake this feeling. For once, Remy wasn't scared of this man. Through some odd change of fate, or something like that.

"So this is your first time doing such a thing?" Doctor La— Doctor Freeman asked, smiling gently as Analiese bounced in his lap and rambled about everything she's done this week. "Participating in Passover?"

"Yes, sir."

"He's my uncle now, not our professor," Emile laughed, squeezing Remy's hand. "You don't have to be so scared of him."

It didn't work as instantly as he wanted it to, but as the night went on, Remy actually… found that he wasn't that scared of him anymore.

As he said, this was too good to be true. And nothing could ever seem to be able to shake this good feeling.

[smwriteportfolio-blog]

Inquiry-Based Research Essay: Hip-Hop Evolution

Sean McRoberts WRIT1133 Professor Taczak June 5, 2018 Introduction Hip-hop culture began in the 1970’s and has sustained a level of relevance and popularity over decades. Beginning with DJ Kool Herc, the culture has remained a staple of both a staple of the music world and in popular culture, living on today through musicians like Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. However, the culture as a part of society has not remained stagnant, and has transitioned through several unique phases in terms of music, social relevancy and motivation. The early phase of hip-hop was comprised of DJ’s, emcee’s, graffiti influences, and b-boys. These early characteristics of the culture have changed over time into a new brand of hip-hop, focusing on social commentary, political influences and a re-branded style of rap music. In this essay, the question of “How has rap culture evolved over the past 20 years to become what it is today”? will be answered. To do this, the fluid evolution of hip-hop as a culture and rap music as a popular musical genre will be discussed, and will attempt to dive deeper into the reasons and influences that have caused this drastic evolution. The first and most prevalent aspect of hip-hop culture was that of motivation. In the subject of rap music and hip hop, motivation can be viewed in several different ways. There are the motivations for the pioneers of hip hop to begin creating the culture from the ground up, and also the motivations of artists and rappers throughout hip-hop’s lifespan to create the music that they have produced, and are still producing today. The first source that motivation came up in was in Emmett Price’s Hip Hop Culture, where he said, “Artists were simply motivated to articulate their despair and celebrate their self-determination through the foundational elements of DJing, graffiti tagging, b-boying/girling, MCing, and later beat-boxing and producing” (Price, 45). This statement allows readers of the research to identify some of the main reasons people wanted to produce this new culture, a yearning to express themselves and tell about their struggle. Artists also had similar motivations, the motivation that drives them to create music. Noah Karvelis says in his article that, “this circular path of musical travel is typically designed with the goal of allowing for dancing, singing, intricate rhythms, or the layering of all three” (Karvelis, 13). Artists are motivated to make music so that people can enjoy themselves, dance and sing, and like the original motives, express themselves in ways that they normally cannot without rap music. This idea is contradicted by one of the most prominent rappers in modern hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar, and in a quote from an article by Dorian Lynskey, Lamar says, “There’s actually some real shit going on out there that people can relate to more than any singalong I can bring to the table” (Lynskey, 4). To Lamar, his motives for making music are not solely to make listeners sing along, but to be conscious of real issues in the world that affect the majority of people. This disagreement on motives to create rap music is perfectly related to my research question, as it allows me to view rap from two different spaces in time, and that there are in fact different motivations in these two spaces. Influence, like motivation, has played a crucial role in the development of hip-hop, and give small distinctions as to why the culture has changed so much over the years. First, Becky Blanchard states that, “Violence in rap, and in other forms of self-expression, is the manifestation of a feeling of hopelessness and discontent in America’s working class” (Blanchard, 4) which both identifies the influence of violence of the culture of rap and the subject matter of lyrics, and the discontent in America’s working class. These two issues at the time were big influences on the culture and key concepts in the subject matter of rap for years to come. Another source that picks out a key influence on hip-hop is from an article by Siobhan Brooks and Thomas Conroy, where they identify punk rock as an influencer, saying that “each developed an influence on an ever-increasing set of practitioners and audiences” (Brooks, Conroy, 5). Punk rock had a big influence of the development of hip hop because they both emerged out of New York at about the same time.  Violence, punk rock, and the “discontent” of the American working class were all influences over the entire culture of hip hop at its beginnings, but there are also some more recent influences. In Lynskey’s article on Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize, he gives the example of “Geraldo Rivera on Fox News making the absurd claim that ‘hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years’” (Lynskey, 3). Lamar has been such a successful artist that he now has the moral responsibility to discuss and oppose these negative influences in his music. Lamar was definitely influenced by what Gerald Rivera said, because he actively used and discussed the quote in one of his songs, DNA. Along with the negative influences that affect hip hop, Blanchard says that, “rap’s potential for political advocacy stems from the function of its predecessors…” (Blanchard, 2), leading the readers to believe that rap has been influenced by both itself, as it takes from aspects of hip-hop in the past, and political issues. Hip-hop has become one of the most identifiable genres of music in today’s rotation and that is because of its extremely unique identity. In the Netflix series The Get Down, hip-hop was characterized primarily by graffiti culture, b-boys and girls, and the Black community in 1970’s New York (Luhrmann, Guirgis). A quote from Emmett Price’s book compliments this very well, where states that the question of “Who is hip-hop?” (Price, 46) was very common at the start of hip-hop. These both touch on the identity (or lack of identity) built up at the conception of hip-hop, which is where the majority of its identity comes from. In Internet banging: New Trends in social media, gang violence, masculinity and hip-hop, the authors use quotes from Bakari Kitwana, who states that “urban Americans born between the years of 1965 and 1985… he terms this generation the Hip-Hop Generation” (Patton, Eschmann, Butler, A57). This only reinforces the idea that the pioneers of hip-hop were the ones who solidified the identity of the culture for years to come. Also in this source, they characterize “hip-hop identity as the rebellious, assertive voice of predominantly urban youth, males in particular… hip hop identity has rejected the values and norms of the mainstream, while embracing and substituting oppositional values…” (Patton, Eschmann, Butler, A57), further defining hip-hop identity as rebellious and rejecting the mainstream culture. As I have discussed before, much of the influence for hip-hop came from punk rock music at the same time, Brooks and Conroy also say that “What punk and hip-hop mostly share is an attitude, one of detachment, and of some degree of opposition to mainstream, polite, co-opted society” (Brooks, Conroy, 5) which only adds to the rebellious identity of hip-hop. This collection of previous research is very helpful to my own research as when I do my primary research, I can now compare the identity of early hip-hop to what people believe it has become lately. Turning to hip-hop today, the major changes have led to new applications of rap music and the culture as a whole. The dominant application of hip-hop music today has been in education, and I have found two different examples of this. Noah Karvelis is a teacher who has begun to use rap music as a learning experience, saying that he was “quick to notice the interest that many students have in hip-hop and the rich educational opportunities that lie in it” (Karvelis, 13). One of the opportunities that lies within the use of rap music in the classroom is that students “…are extremely excited that something very musically and culturally relevant to them is being used in their classroom” (Karvelis, 14). Rap music has evolved into something that is more than just music but can be used as an educational tool also because of the conscious lyrics and social issues that are addressed. Along with teachers, “counselors and counselor educators were initial forerunners in the Hip-hop therapy movement. More than 30 years ago, Lee and Lindsey endorsed the use of rap music during group counseling with Black elementary school students” (Washington, 5). In this quote from Ahmed Washington, it is evident that rap has more applications that it once did, and because of its connection both emotionally and realistically to the Black community, it can be used as a tool in counselling. Not only is rap music now used in education, but in different ways of entertainment as well. Lin Manuel Miranda, a well-known composer and performer, wrote the musical Hamilton, but instead of implementing normal show-tunes, he wrote a rap show. In an article by Rebecca Mead, she says that “it was, he thought, a hip-hop story, an immigrants story” (Mead, 2). Hip-hop has shown the world, through musicals or education practices, that it has evolved into something totally new, while still drawing from its origins like immigration or social motivations. Although hip-hop has become something entirely new, and could be seen as a beneficial turn for the culture, it is still being scrutinized by the public as being violent and a bad influence. The connotation that it has with crime and gang violence seems to be concrete in the make-up of hip-hop, but has grown many different branches that touch many different parts of our society. The rap “boy band” BROCKHAMPTON advocates for gay acceptance, Kendrick Lamar addresses the similarities between gangs and the political system of America, and Logic begins to bring suicide and mental health into the rap discussion. However, before the discussion of what rap has become today can be brought up, the details for why it has become what it has must be addressed. Methods The public has played a very distinct role in the development of hip-hop, it seems appropriate to use them as the subjects to help dissect how hip-hop has evolved. To do this, I used a mixed method approach, meaning I used both qualitative and quantitative methods to receive opinions and answers from the public. These methods included an online survey, an interview, and observations over time. The survey that I constructed was completed by more than 100 respondents from a variety of age groups. The interview (not done yet, I’m in crisis mode) was done with an up-and-coming rapper out of New York, Fresh the Prophet to acquire his thoughts on the culture and music of hip-hop. Finally, I conducted my observations with two different techniques. First, which is the physical side of my observations, I listened to what other students around campus were listening to in terms of music. The second set of observations I did were digital, and I used the YouTube comments section to data-mine for opinions on different phases of rap music. I created my survey on a website called SurveyMonkey, which was an easily accessible platform for respondents to use. The survey was made up of 8 questions, one asking the respondent’s age and another asking their race. After creating it, it was sent through different group messages, sent to friends and family, and posted on Facebook to reach a wider group of people. I reached over 100 responses, ending with the ages of the respondents spanning from 18 to 65, which helped to give opinions from very different generations. One thing that I did not ask in the survey was the respondent’s gender, as I did not think that it would be relevant to research. However, there was a very limiting factor to the responses of my survey, in that 79% of the respondents selected the White or Caucasian race. The interview was the hardest section of the primary research. I started the interview with plan A and plan B. Plan A included going on to Instagram and direct messaging 6 famous rappers: Kendrick Lamar, Logic, Childish Gambino, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi, and BROCKHAMPTON. I did this in hopes that I would get one response for a short phone interview. When I received no responses, I turned to plan B. I messaged a friend of mine who went to the same high school as I did, but moved to New York to pursue rap as a career. For the interview itself, I would conduct it over the phone and record the conversation with the rapper know as Fresh the Prophet. Also, before the interview I would email the interviewee and get him to digitally sign the IRB agreement. As mentioned before, my observations were done in two ways. First, I took 3 weeks and actively listened to what my friends and other students around campus were listening to in terms of music, either at parties or just hanging out in their dorms. Mainly, I was focusing on the rap music that was being played, and if rap was the most popular music being played at parties or in the dorms. Also, I tried to distinguish what types of rap were being played, more traditional, or modern rap. I would take notes on my phone and describe the type of music that was being played, the artists, if the majority of the music was rap, and peoples’ responses to the music. The second type of observation I did was data-mining on YouTube videos. The videos that I mined were popular music videos of rap songs from different phases of hip-hop culture. For example, the most recent video I mined was This is America, by Childish Gambino, and I would compare the comments on that video to comments from a video like The Notorious B.I.G’s,  Juicy. This would help to determine public opinion of people during that time, and allow me to compare opinions from different time periods. Results In my observations of the comments sections of popular rap music videos, there were a variety of different findings. First, in the most recent video, This is America, by Childish Gambino, the comments section was split between hate comments from some users and praising comments from others. Also, there were more comments mentioning culture for this video than The Notorious B.I.G.’s Juicy. For the physical observations that I conducted, the majority of music played around campus was in fact rap or hip-hop music, mixed with some other genres as well. In the survey, 82% of the respondents were between the ages of 18 and 22.  79% of the survey participants were White, only 2% Black, and 10% Hispanic. When asked if they liked rap music, 71% responded that they do like rap music, 15% said no, and 14% felt indifferent. Also, 94% of them said that they believe rap has changed over the past 20 years. Finally, the majority, 38.38% of respondents said that they think Kendrick Lamar is the best artist in hip-hop music. In my interview with Fresh the Prophet, he touched on some very interesting points. When asking him how he believes hip-hop and rap music has changed since he started as a rapper, the main point he made was that social media has played a large role. With the introduction of platforms like Instagram and Soundcloud, artists could spread their music more due to social media providing followers who could respond to the music. He also talked about Soundcloud more intensely, saying that it “makes music more accessible” for the people who want to hear it. One of the most striking things that he said was that “the common attributes of a famous rapper 10 years ago are not the same attributes of rappers today”. Finally, he made the point that while there are still artists today who focus on lyrics, lyricism was much more prominent back in the day, and that today, “if the beat slaps rappers can get away with not saying much”. Discussion Over the past 8 weeks I have been aiming to find an answer to the question, “How has rap culture evolved over the past 20 years to become what it is today”? After gathering all of the primary and secondary research, it seems that there are some very definitive findings. First, it is very apparent that there has in fact been a change in the hip-hop culture over the past 20 years. In the survey, when asked the question if they believe hip-hop culture has changed over the past 20 years, 94% of the respondents answered yes. This helps to establish that there has been a definite evolution in the eyes of the public, and that they have actively noticed it. Also, the presence of an explicit evolution helps to lead into answering the question of how it has evolved. The first distinct finding that came up while analyzing the research was that social influences are the main cause of hip-hop evolution over the past 20 years. There has been so much going on in today’s society like controversial politics, mass shootings, climate change and other events, which seems to have caused artists in the hip-hop culture to change what they are writing about. In the survey, when asked why the respondents believed there has been a change, 61% of them answered social influences. Also, when observing the comments on a current music video, Childish Gambino’s This is America, the comments seemed to be split between conservatives and liberals. One commenter named Crooked Hillary, obviously a conservative, wrote that the video and the song were, “…shit smeared on a canvas”. Opposite to this, someone responded that “This is art”, and these two comments were not the only ones that were opposing each other in a politically motivated manner. This was mentioned briefly by Becky Blanchard when she said that hip-hop had strong potential for political advocacy due to its roots in subjugation and slavery (Blanchard, 2). However, Blanchard did not talk about how widespread the effect could be in terms of political advocacy. Along with seeing political motivations in the comments sections of a music video, many songs in today’s rap genre have become centralized around politics in America. Kendrick Lamar has a song called Hood Politics, where he discusses the stark similarities between gangs like the Crips and Bloods and the political system in place in our country. Just from observing the lyrics of the song, like “… new Democrips and Rebloodicans…”, illustrates how drastically that hip-hop has changed since the early 2000’s. Politics are not the only social influences that have made hip-hop culture change over the years, it is a combination of many different influences. One of the main topics within social influence has to be the social media presence. During my interview with Fresh the Prophet, an up-and-coming rapper out of New York, he mentioned that “social media” is the largest influence that has helped hip-hop to change in the last 5 years.. He also said that while many rappers and artists are trying to make it big on Soundcloud and other platforms, he was using Instagram to spread his music around. His reasoning was that he had more followers on Instagram, therefore he would be able to reach more people with his music. This presence of social media in today’s hip-hop scene was mentioned heavily in my previous research, saying that hip-hop used to be the way that people would show their street credibility, but social media has come into replace it as the place where credibility is created and destroyed (Patton, Eschmann, Butler). It has become evident that the introduction of social media has played a large role in how the culture of rap has evolved. Just observing my own Instagram feed, rappers like Lil Yachty, J. Cole, and Logic are advertising their own and other artist’s album releases, posting teasers of their own songs and displaying tour information. However, relating this back to previous research, some critics and scholars believe that the media is the primary catalyst for negative and criminal associations with certain groups (Schneider), like those who are a part of hip-hop culture. The second finding that was very apparent to me from the primary research was that the introduction of Soundcloud and mumble rap into today’s hip-hop culture have had both negative and positive effects. Soundcloud is a music streaming app that allows users to stream any kind of music they would like for free. Also, anyone can upload their own songs onto Soundcloud through their own profile and get streams on their song. When talking to Fresh the Prophet, who uploads almost all of his music onto Soundcloud, he said that the creation of Soundcloud has made hip-hop more accessible for more people, therefore expanding the culture and reach of the music. Also, recently many artists have been popping up on Soundcloud and making it big because of the community on Soundcloud, allowing them to achieve success in a way that was previously not around. Also accompanying this, Fresh the Prophet made the point that with the plethora of artists now available through Soundcloud and the other popular platforms of modern rap, “every couple months there’s some type of pattern or song that’s hot”. Him saying this makes me come to believe that Soundcloud has become one of the leading platforms for new trends in the rap genre, which helps to push the music along and causes evolution. However, Soundcloud and mumble rap have also been viewed as detriments to the culture of hip-hop as a whole. First, in a comment on Biggie’s Juicy, someone said “Today we can’t get rappers like Biggie and Tupac, I am sorry”. This along with many others state that today’s rappers are not as good as they used to be “back in the day”, and that rappers today are “trash”. FreshtheProphet also said that Soundcloud has had a negative impact, when it was the platform that allowed Lil Pump to become famous. He compared Biggie to Lil Pump in the interview, saying that they both rap about similar subjects like girls, drugs and violence, but that Biggie did it in a much more meaningful and emotional way than rappers today do. Still, there are many rappers in today’s culture that have not strayed far from the ideals and motivations of older rappers. In my survey, when asked if people liked the new direction that rap was going in (Soundcloud, Lil Pump, 6ix9ine, etc.) 51% of people said no, with 16% saying yes and the remainder feeling indifferent. What this shows is that the public prefers traditional rap and the more grounded rap of this modern hip-hop culture, and that the majority of people do not appreciate the mumble, trap music made by artists like Lil Pump and 6ix9ine. This grounded modern music leads to my next finding from the primary research. Kendrick Lamar has shown up many times throughout my research and in my own life, as he has quickly become my favorite rapper. He is a perfect example of the changing trends and evolution of rap music. As a younger rapper, Lamar rapped more about drugs and gangs in his hometown of Compton. In a song called A.D.H.D off of one of his early albums, Section.80, he references pills, smoking weed, alcohol, and sex heavily. In the chorus of the song, he raps, “eight doobies to the face, fuck that, twelve bottles in the case, n*gga, fuck that…” which gives a good snapshot of the music at that time and the influences that affected rappers in the early 2010’s. Now, on his most recent album DAMN., most of the songs have deeper meanings in terms of social relevancy. One song called ELEMENT., he says “I don’t do it for the gram I do it for Compton…”. This lyric gets at the larger view of rappers today and why they rap. He is saying that he doesn’t rap for the followers on Instagram or the fame, he raps so that the people of his hometown can live better lives, and so the public can realize the struggles going on in places like Compton, CA. Lamar is probably the most socially influential rapper in today’s rap game, and that is because of his deeper lyrics and attention to social issues. Limitations My research was done in a very short amount of time. Our entire class only had about 8 weeks to complete the research for this project, so everything was very rushed. In my case, this short time frame had some major effects on my final research. First, 79% of my survey respondents identified as white, and only 2% identified as black. This is extremely limiting in terms of my topic, as hip-hop culture has the most effect on the black community since it originated from the black community. Also, some of the survey respondents did not take the survey seriously, making my results even less credible than they should have been. Second, as I have informed about before, I had a plan A and a plan B for my interview. Since I waited on plan A to work out for about 3 or 4 weeks, I was stick with a very small amount of time to use plan B, interviewing FreshtheProphet. As the time to complete the research closed, I still had no date set to do my interview, which set me back in analyzing all of my data together for about a week.

Appendix A

Observation Notes

Appendix B

Interview Questions

Appendix C

Survey Questions

1. How old are you?

2. What is your ethnicity?

   a.  White or Caucasian

   b. Black or African American

   c. Hispanic or Latino

   d. Asian or Asian American

   e. American Indian or Alaska Native

   f. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

   g. Another race . 

3. Do you like rap music?

   a. Yes

   b. No

   c. Feel indifferent

4. Do you believe that hip-hop/rap culture has changed over the past 20 years?

   a. Yes

   b. No 

   c. Don’t know

5. Do you like the direction that rap is going in today (Soundcloud, Lil Pump, 6ix9ine)?

   a. Yes

   b. No

   c. Feel indifferent

6. Do you prefer traditional or modern rap?

   a. Traditional

   b. Modern

   c. Both

7. Why do you think rap has changed over the years?

   a. Social influences

   b. Censorship

   c. Public opinion

   d. Artist evolution

   e. Other

8. Who do you consider to be the best artist in rap music?

   a. Kendrick Lamar

   b. Tupac Shakur

   c. Notorious B.I.G.

   d. Chance the Rapper

   e. J. Cole

   f. Nas

   g. Kanye West

   h. Jay-Z

   i. Other

References Blanchard, B. (1999, July 26). The Social Significance of Rap & Hip-Hop Culture. Retrieved April 23, 2018, from Edge: Ethics of Development in a Global Environment: https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm Brooks, S., & Conroy, T. (2011, January). Hip Hop Culture in a Global Context: Interdisciplinary and Cross-Categorical Investigation. SAGE Journals, 4-8. Guirgis, S. A., Luhrmann, B. (Writers), Bianchi, E., & Williams, M. (Directors). (2016). The Get Down [Television Series]. USA. Karvelis, N. (2016). Reapproaching Hip-Hop. Music Educators Journal. Lynskey, D. (2018, April 22). From Street Kid to Pulitzer: Why Kendrick Lamar Deserves the Prize. (Guardian News) Retrieved April 23, 2018, from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/22/kendrick-lamar-wins-pulitzer-prize-damn-album Mead, R. (2015, February 9). All About the Hamiltons: A New Musical Brings the Founding Fathers Back to Life - with a lot of Hip Hop. (Condé Nast.) Retrieved April 23, 2018, from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/hamiltons Patton, D. U., Eschmann, R. D., & Butler, D. A. (2013, January 18). Internet banging: New trends in social media, gang violence, masculinity, and hip hop. Elsevier. Price, E. G. (2006). Hip Hop Culture (1 ed.). Santa-Barbara, CA, USA: ABC-CLIO. Schneider, C. J. (2011, October). Culture, Rap Music, “Bitch,” and the Development of the Censorship Frame. SAGE Journals, 36-56. Washington, A. R. (2016, October). Integrating Hip-Hop Culture and Rap Music Into Social Justice Counseling With Black Males. Journal of Counseling and Development, 97-105. Appendix A

[allthislove]

Lil banter about GPA, mine, and whatever.

For the sake of being kind to those who really don’t care, please blacklist the tag Applefart. (IDK, just something random enough to not effect your everyday blogging...)

I worked really hard for my final GPA, which was 3.9 and some other decimal points. I was a theatre major, so take that as whatever you want. But, I worked really hard and thought, and calculated, and created to earn it.

GPAs aren’t everything, no. But there’s this narrative that goes around the internet a lot, these days, that GPA means nothing, and that people who earn high GPAs don’t deserve any honor/respect for their hard work. And often, brilliance. IDK, I think it largely comes from people who don’t understand the way college functions.

I was a bit of an underachiever in high school, I must say. But I still had relatively good grades. But, I gotta say, high school education is a completely different animal than collegiate education. I definitely learned things in high school, but not as much as I memorized things to pass tests. Things that I often soon forgot. I don’t think that’s the case, in college. I feel like in college, I actually learned. I didn’t just memorize facts and formulas. I studied things about the world around me and how it worked. I learned things in history and science that I never knew before, even taking similar classes in high school. (Because high school tends to be “the shit you learned in elementary school, but with bigger words and longer paragraphs to read.” Like, IDK, how many times did we read about the Civil War, but never get any new information? I feel like in college, I got NEW information about history and science that I didn’t get in high school, and that I actually engaged with the content, and was encouraged to explore it myself, and research on my own, and form opinions and articulate it to my classmates and teachers, and so on.)

My point is, I think people with high GPAs in college certainly deserve to be regarded with respect for them. Not, like, other people should treat them like some sort of high-level genius, or cower under them. But, like, it should be recognized that most people in college with a GPA over 3.5 did the damn thing. They didn’t just memorize a lot of stuff for tests. Most of the time, they kicked ass. They wrote intelligent, engaging essays. They built functional projects that solve real-world problems. They designed something beautifully. They went above and beyond to truly shine in their classes. I mean, everyone who went to college can tell you how goddamn subjective some of this is, and how harsh many of the teachers grade. (I once had a teacher give me a 70 because my color matching wasn’t distinct enough, even though everything else was executed properly.) So, yeah, I didn’t earn a 3.9 because I just memorized things better than other people. I worked my ass off. I exercised my brain. I showed an ability to think, create, and perform at that level. 

Also, people like to say “GPA doesn’t matter after you graduate”... but that’s not true. It’s true, in the sense that having a degree is enough and you’ll still get good jobs with a 2.8. But companies absolutely look at high GPAs as a plus. Especially if you’re trying to get that nice job right out of college. And if you want to go to graduate school, or law school, or med school- you better believe your undergraduate GPA matters. Your undergraduate GPA matters, and people do look at it. 

I mean, I’ve mostly only gotten this from asshole trolls who are probably just envious. But, yeah, this idea that people who graduate from a university with a high GPA somehow just... randomly got it and aren’t hardworking or smart? That really fucking weird, and absolutely bullshit. I mean, it’s just more evidence of this anti-intellectual culture we have going on in this country, right now. Graduating from college used to mean something. And, I mean, we are the most educated generation (Millennials) of all the ones who came before us, but also, we are measurably smarter as a whole, because of things like better access to early childhood education, better nutrition, truancy laws, and a whole number of things. I mean, Millennials and Gen Z also graduate from high school at higher rates than previous generations, so more people are eligible and qualified for college/university than ever before, so of course more of us graduate from college. That shouldn’t take away from the fact that graduating from college/university AT ALL is a huge deal, and graduating with a GPA higher than 3.5 is a MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Which is why those GPAs are awarded Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Summa Cum Laude. Because it is, absolutely, a big deal and does, absolutely, mean something. 

Stop undermining other people’s accomplishments. You’ll have many of your own. You don’t have to belittle other people’s accomplishments to prove that you are also good. (Although, most of the people I hear this from are not good. They are usually racist trolls telling me I’m automatically stupid and got into school because of affirmative action, because I’m a black woman. Affirmative action doesn’t work for GPAs, and when I point that out, they tell me GPA doesn’t matter “in the real world.” Which, I’m in. And it has mattered. So, yeah, whatever.)

[seanmcroberts-blog]

Essay: Draft 1

Sean McRoberts WRIT1133 Professor Taczak May 15, 2018 Introduction Hip-hop culture began in the 1970’s and has sustained a level of relevance and popularity over decades. Beginning with DJ Kool Herc, the culture has remained a staple of both a staple of the music world and in popular culture, living on today through musicians like Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. However, the culture as a part of society has not remained stagnant, and has transitioned through several unique phases in terms of music, social relevancy and motivation. The early phase of hip-hop was comprised of DJ’s, emcee’s, graffiti influences, and b-boys. These early characteristics of the culture have changed over time into a new brand of hip-hop, focusing on social commentary, political influences and a re-branded style of rap music. In this essay, the fluid evolution of hip-hop as a culture and rap music as a popular musical genre will be discussed, and will attempt to dive deeper into the reasons and influences that have caused this drastic evolution. The first and most prevalent aspect of hip-hop culture was that of motivation. In the subject of rap music and hip hop, motivation has two very distinct implications. There are the motivations for the pioneers of hip hop to begin creating the culture from the ground up, and also the motivations of artists and rappers throughout hip-hop’s lifespan to create the music that they have produced, and are still producing today. Motivation seems to be a principal topic in the research field of hip hop culture, and it starts with the roots of the culture and what motivated those people to raise hip hop from the ground. The first source that motivation came up in was in Emmett Price’s Hip Hop Culture, where he said, “Artists were simply motivated to articulate their despair and celebrate their self-determination through the foundational elements of DJing, graffiti tagging, b-boying/girling, MCing, and later beat-boxing and producing” (Price, 45). This statement allows readers of the research to identify some of the main reasons people wanted to produce this new culture, a yearning to express themselves and tell about their struggle. Not only were there motivations to create a new medium of expression, but another aspect of the culture is the motivation that drives artists to create music. Noah Karvelis says in his article that, “this circular path of musical travel is typically designed with the goal of allowing for dancing, singing, intricate rhythms, or the layering of all three” (Karvelis, 13). Artists are motivated to make music so that people can enjoy themselves, dance and sing, and like the original motives, express themselves in ways that they normally cannot without rap music. This idea is contradicted by one of the most prominent rappers in modern hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar, and in a quote from an article by Dorian Lynskey, Lamar says, “There’s actually some real shit going on out there that people can relate to more than any singalong I can bring to the table” (Lynskey, 4). To Lamar, his motives for making music are not solely to make listeners sing along, but to be conscious of real issues in the world that affect the majority of people. This disagreement on motives to create rap music is perfectly related to my research question, as it allows me to view rap from two different spaces in time, and that there are in fact different motivations in these two spaces. Influence, like motivation, has played a crucial role in the development of hip-hop, and give small distinctions as to why the culture has changed so much over the years. There has always been a distinct difference between the influences of rap music between early rap and rap today. First, Becky Blanchard states that, “Violence in rap, and in other forms of self-expression, is the manifestation of a feeling of hopelessness and discontent in America’s working class” (Blanchard, 4) which both identifies the influence of violence of the culture of rap and the subject matter of lyrics, and the discontent in America’s working class. These two issues at the time were big influences on the culture and key concepts in the subject matter of rap for years to come. Another source that picks out a key influence on hip-hop is from an article by Siobhan Brooks and Thomas Conroy, where they identify punk rock as an influencer, saying that “each developed an influence on an ever-increasing set of practitioners and audiences” (Brooks, Conroy, 5). Punk rock had a big influence of the development of hip hop because they both emerged out of New York at about the same time.  Violence, punk rock, and the “discontent” of the American working class were all influences over the entire culture of hip hop at its beginnings, but from the research I have done, the influences have slightly altered since then. There are some influences in rap music today that have carried over from the 1970’s but also some more recent developments. In Lynskey’s article on Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize, he says that there is “the moral responsibility that come with success…” (Lynskey, 4) and pairs this with the example of “Geraldo Rivera on Fox News making the absurd claim that ‘hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years’” (Lynskey, 3). We can see the connection between these two quotes, because Lamar has been such a successful artist that he now has the moral responsibility to discuss and oppose these negative influences. Lamar was definitely influenced by what Gerald Rivera said, because he actively used and discussed the quote in one of his songs, DNA. Along with the negative influences that affect hip hop, Blanchard says that, “rap’s potential for political advocacy stems from the function of its predecessors…” (Blanchard, 2), leading the readers to believe that rap has been influenced by both itself, as it takes from aspects of hip-hop in the past, and political issues. Hip-hop has become one of the most identifiable genres of music in today’s rotation and that is because of its extremely unique identity. In the Netflix series The Get Down, hip-hop was characterized primarily by graffiti culture, b-boys and girls, and the Black community in 1970’s New York (Luhrmann, Guirgis). A quote from Emmett Price’s book compliments this very well, where states that the question of “Who is hip-hop?” (Price, 46) was very common at the start of hip-hop. These both touch on the identity (or lack of identity) built up at the conception of hip-hop, which is where the majority of its identity comes from. In Internet banging: New Trends in social media, gang violence, masculinity and hip-hop, the authors use quotes from Bakari Kitwana, who states that “urban Americans born between the years of 1965 and 1985… he terms this generation the Hip-Hop Generation” (Patton, Eschmann, Butler, A57). This only reinforces the idea that the pioneers of hip-hop were the ones who solidified the identity of the culture for years to come. Also in this source, they characterize “hip-hop identity as the rebellious, assertive voice of predominantly urban youth, males in particular… hip hop identity has rejected the values and norms of the mainstream, while embracing and substituting oppositional values…” (Patton, Eschmann, Butler, A57), further defining hip-hop identity as rebellious and rejecting the mainstream culture. As I have discussed before, much of the influence for hip-hop came from punk rock music at the same time, Brooks and Conroy also say that “What punk and hip-hop mostly share is an attitude, one of detachment, and of some degree of opposition to mainstream, polite, co-opted society” (Brooks, Conroy, 5) which only adds to the rebellious identity of hip-hop. This collection of previous research is very helpful to my own research as when I do my primary research, I can now compare the identity of early hip-hop to what people believe it has become lately. Turning to hip-hop today, the major changes have led to new applications of rap music and the culture as a whole. The dominant application of hip-hop music today has been in education, and I have found two different examples of this. Noah Karvelis is a teacher who has begun to use rap music as a learning experience, saying that he was “quick to notice the interest that many students have in hip-hop and the rich educational opportunities that lie in it” (Karvelis, 13). One of the opportunities that lies within the use of rap music in the classroom is that students “…are extremely excited that something very musically and culturally relevant to them is being used in their classroom” (Karvelis, 14). Rap music has evolved into something that is more than just music but can be used as an educational tool also because of the conscious lyrics and social issues that are addressed. Along with teachers, “counselors and counselor educators were initial forerunners in the Hip-hop therapy movement. More than 30 years ago, Lee and Lindsey endorsed the use of rap music during group counseling with Black elementary school students” (Washington, 5). In this quote from Ahmed Washington, it is evident that rap has more applications that it once did, and because of its connection both emotionally and realistically to the Black community, it can be used as a tool in counselling. Not only is rap music now used in education, but in different ways of entertainment as well. Lin Manuel Miranda, a well-known composer and performer, wrote the musical Hamilton, but instead of implementing normal show-tunes, he wrote a rap show. In an article by Rebecca Mead, she says that “it was, he thought, a hip-hop story, an immigrants story” (Mead, 2). Hip-hop has shown the world, through musicals or education practices, that it has evolved into something totally new, while still drawing from its origins like immigration or social motivations. Although hip-hop has become something entirely new, and could be seen as a beneficial turn for the culture, it is still being scrutinized by the public as being violent and a bad influence. The connotation that it has with crime and gang violence seems to be concrete in the make-up of hip-hop, but has grown many different branches that touch many different parts of our society. The rap “boy band” BROCKHAMPTON advocates for gay acceptance, Kendrick Lamar addresses the similarities between gangs and the political system of America, and Logic begins to bring suicide and mental health into the rap discussion. However, before the discussion of what rap has become today can be brought up, the details for why it has become what it has must be addressed. Methods The public has played a very distinct role in the development of hip-hop, it seems appropriate to use them as the subjects to help dissect how hip-hop has evolved. To do this, I used a mixed method approach, meaning I used both qualitative and quantitative methods to receive opinions and answers from the public. These methods included an online survey, an interview, and observations over time. The survey that I constructed was completed by more than 100 respondents from a variety of age groups. The interview (not done yet, I’m in crisis mode) was done with an up-and-coming rapper out of New York, Fresh the Prophet to acquire his thoughts on the culture and music of hip-hop. Finally, I conducted my observations with two different techniques. First, which is the physical side of my observations, I listened to what other students around campus were listening to in terms of music. The second set of observations I did were digital, and I used the YouTube comments section to data-mine for opinions on different phases of rap music. I created my survey on a website called SurveyMonkey, which was an easily accessible platform for respondents to use. The survey was made up of 8 questions, one asking the respondent’s age and another asking their race. After creating it, it was sent through different group messages, sent to friends and family, and posted on Facebook to reach a wider group of people. I reached over 100 responses, ending with the ages of the respondents spanning from 18 to 65, which helped to give opinions from very different generations. One thing that I did not ask in the survey was the respondent’s gender, as I did not think that it would be relevant to research. However, there was a very limiting factor to the responses of my survey, in that 79% of the respondents selected the White or Caucasian race. Interview section cannot be done, as I have not done it yet.  As mentioned before, my observations were done in two ways. First, I took 3 weeks and actively listened to what my friends and other students around campus were listening to in terms of music, either at parties or just hanging out in their dorms. Mainly, I was focusing on the rap music that was being played, and if rap was the most popular music being played at parties or in the dorms. Also, I tried to distinguish what types of rap were being played, more traditional, or modern rap. I would take notes on my phone and describe the type of music that was being played, the artists, if the majority of the music was rap, and peoples’ responses to the music. The second type of observation I did was data-mining on YouTube videos. The videos that I mined were popular music videos of rap songs from different phases of hip-hop culture. For example, the most recent video I mined was This is America, by Childish Gambino, and I would compare the comments on that video to comments from a video like The Notorious B.I.G’s,  Juicy. This would help to determine public opinion of people during that time, and allow me to compare opinions from different time periods.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT PERSON

In fact, when we funded Airbnb, we thought it was too crazy. That's one advantage of being small: you can tell that by the number of Indians in the current Silicon Valley are all too aware of the shortcomings of the INS, but there's little they can do about this problem, without waiting for the government. So if you're going to optimize a number, the one to choose is your growth rate to compensate. This is an astounding number, because I wrote an essay then about how they were less dangerous than they seemed. Angels are individual rich people. But even factoring in their annoying eccentricities, the disobedient attitude of hackers is a net win for founders, who have nothing, would prefer a 100% chance of $1 million. If anyone could have sat back and waited for users, it was a lot of hand-wringing now about declining market share.1 If I'm right, hacker will mean something different in twenty years than it does now. Kenneth Clark is the best nonfiction writer I know of one startup that got funded this way. A lot of startups, because they seem so ridiculous by contrast. And I found the best way to do business.

Most firms also have a provisional roadmap of how to succeed. Sometimes, like a VC.2 The irony of Galileo's situation was that he did so many different styles. We take these for granted now. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake when trying to convince investors of something very uncertain—that their startup will be huge—and convincing anyone of something like that must obviously entail some wild feat of salesmanship. When I read about the harassment to which the Scientologists subject their critics, or that people in Padua were ten feet tall. But don't give them much money either. Second, I do it because it's good for the brain. Increasingly, the brains and thus the value of information, it will show up there. Facebook stopped being for Harvard students. But while Microsoft did really well and there is thus a temptation to think they would have seemed by the standards of the desktop world. There's a whole essay's worth of surprises there for sure.

Gone were the mumbling recitations of lists of features. When she turned to see what had happened, she found the steps were all different heights. Always be questioning. But in fact when you raise money you're trying to do in hardware. I wrote about what I called a huge, unexploited opportunity in startup funding: the growing disconnect between VCs, whose current business model requires them to invest large amounts, the money comes with more restrictions.3 It's hard to imagine what it would make the legislator who introduced the bill famous.4 Ironically, Microsoft unintentionally helped create Ajax.5 The second big element of Web 2. 4 million a month to the rapacious founder's $2 million. At first I tried rules. The fashion for the name Gary began when the actor Frank Cooper adopted the name of a conference yet? Startup founder is not the sort of person who gets demoralized easily.

In this case, you trade decreased financial risk for increased risk that your company won't succeed as a startup. Procrastination feeds on distractions.6 I told him not to worry about that, but probably hurts. As long as things are going smoothly, boards don't interfere much. The defining quality seems to be a board member to give. And if you want to notice things that seem wrong. In fact, Copernicus was a canon of a cathedral, and dedicated his book to the pope. No one would dispute that he's one of the preceding five sources. A lot of my friends are starting to have a low valuation. Klee and Calder.

A new concept of variables.7 The famously rigid labor laws hurt every company, but startups especially, because startups have the least time to spare for bureaucratic hassles. This is demoralizing, but it would have died anyway. Sam Altman of Loopt is one of the preceding five sources.8 When you demo, don't run through a catalog of features.9 When you see your career as a series of historical accidents the teaching of writing was inherited by English professors.10 I'd heard Steve Jobs had cancer.

Notes

Similarly, don't worry about the millions of dollars a year of focused work plus caring a lot of people we need to know how many computers the worm infected, because they can't hire highly skilled people to work on a seed investment in you, they'll have big bags of cumin for the founders chose? My guess is the kind of protection is one problem where rapid prototyping doesn't work. Some genuinely aren't. I think this is certainly part of their time and get nothing.

This technique wouldn't work for the most important information about competitors is what the startup is taking the Facebook that might be tempted, but those specific abuses. Giving away the razor and making money on the aspect they see and say that's not directly exposed to competitive pressure.

But it's a hip flask. Some of the corpora. Looking at the mercy of investors are just not super thoughtful for the coincidence that Greg Mcadoo, our sense of the fake. This kind of secret about the paperwork there, and partly because it doesn't cost anything.

If Ron Conway had angel funds starting in the startup eventually becomes. If you can base brand on anything with it, there are certain qualities that help in that so many of the bizarre consequences of this article are translated into Common Lisp seems to have discovered something intuitively without understanding all its implications. If big companies could dominate through economies of scale. One advantage startups have over established companies is that there are no misunderstandings.

But becoming a Texas oilman was not something big companies, but I couldn't believe it, this would be a win to do this all the best in the middle class first appeared in northern Italy and the first duty of the next investor. Letter to the founders' salaries to the traditional peasant's diet: they hoped they were supposed to be is represented by Milton. Many think successful startup founders tend to work late at night to make more money chasing the same energy and honesty that fifteenth century European art. As Jeremy Siegel points out, they could then tell themselves that they lived in a startup with debt is little different from technology companies.

To do this right you'd have to want them; you don't know how many computers the worm infected, because Julian got 10% of the previous round.

But the time they're fifteen the kids are probably not far from the late Latin tripalium, a market price, they sometimes describe it as a game, Spacewar, in writing, and partly simple ignorance. He adds: Paul Buchheit adds: I remember are famous flops like the outdoors?

Trevor Blackwell, who adds the cost can be more likely to coincide with other investors. But that doesn't lose our data. In practice it's more like your brother?

Later we added two more modules, an image generator and the editor, written in C and C, and a list of n things seems particularly collectible because it's a departure from the success of Skype. Ideas are one step upstream from economic power, in the classical world meant training landowners' sons to speak well enough to guarantee good effects. Hypothesis: Any plan in which you are listing in order to make the police in the median tag is just knowing the right way. I'd use to connect through any ISP, every technophobe in the case.

I never watch movies in theaters anymore.