Wild N Out is an MTV show hosted by Nick Cannon. It is a show where two teams of celebrity comedians (the red and black team), and one special celebrity guest, compete in “improve battles.” Wild N Out has an urban theme. The setting of the show represents the city streets where neighborhood youth get together to freestyle rap, dance, etc. The humor from the show comes from the performers thinking very quickly on their feet and coming up with witty rhymes and putting down the other team. In the episode I chose, their special guest is Kat Williams, a stand up comedian/actor/rapper from Cincinnati. The whole feel of the show is extremely fun and lighthearted. Wild N Out glamorizes and applauds customs that originated in the streets of cities in lower class areas. This message shows the importance of culture that comes from less fortunate urban communities. Because of the popularity of hip hop culture among young people,the show is directed toward a teenaged audience. Here are some clips of Kat Williams on Wild N Out:
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday Night Live: "Lazy Sunday"
“Lazy Sunday.” Saturday Night Live. nbc. December 17, 2005. March 30, 2009.
Lazy Sunday is a short joke rap song performed on SNL by Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg. it is about an average day in the life of two white middle class guys. The humor in this video comes from the fact that there subject material it everyday things that people can relate to. The fact that they are discussing these basic topics in hard core gangsta rap add to the humor. In the video, two boys are going to see The Chronicles of Narnia. They refer to things such as Google Maps, magnolia bakery cupcakes, sneaking food into the theater (because the theater is so overpriced), and the movie trivia questions that come up before the film starts. The purpose of this piece is to point out (and make fun of) today’s popular music. In this mock music video, they play up the role of hip hop/rap artists who take themselves very seriously even though their song is pretty much empty in meaningful content, just like a lot of music today. This piece is directed toward a young adult audience. They are the and have the greatest steak in todays pop culture.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Large Hadron Rap
In her website Kate McAlpine describes herself as “an adventurer in the realm of ideas”, who has “pitched [her] camp at a crossroads: the intersection of science and writing.” Even as a promising scientific writer who has contributed to many prestigious publications, Kate still believes that although reporting is a serious business, science itself should be fun.
Faithful to her mission “to generate interest in and understanding of scientific topics through writing,” Kate made a rap video about the Large Hadron Collider, the groundbreaking particle accelerator that has been built in a 17-mile circular tunnel at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. It is amazing how she managed to explain in few lines things like mass-energy equivalence, the case for dark matter or what antimatter is.
Rap and physics are two worlds culturally light years apart. Through her courage, creativity and intelligence Kate has successfully bridged the gap between the two. I believe that a great part of the half-million visitors who have watched her video will attempt to find out what’s going on there in Switzerland. I agree with Kate that physics rap or rather science rap is the next big thing.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Statz Rappers
So you think statistics are just for geeks and nerds! Time to change your mind! With this number 1 hit jam of the summer 2006 you’ll soon realize that you can have fun, enjoy music – even if you aren’t a hip-hop fan– and have a good time learning statistics.
This video was developed by Chuck Tate together with a psychology student at the University of Oregon. Chuck was teaching a Research Methods in Psychology course and wanted his students to enjoy statistics as much as they like hip-hop. With the help of other psychology graduate students (in order of appearance: Jeff Loucks, Chuck Tate, Chelan Weaver, and Cara Lewis) so as to make the song and video more appealing. The song is a parody of Nelly’s “Grillz”, which maximizes its impact.
The song is a creative way to think about teaching. Students would like to see it at least once, if they like it and want to understand the lyrics; they’ll have to refer to their statistics lessons. It would be a great idea for statics teachers to start their course with it.