Dear Lodro:
While I appreciate your willingness to open up a dialogue with the Social Committee, I found your comments in Last Friday’s Argus to be not only disrespectful, but also ignorant. Asking questions like, “Why do we only have one member of Wu Tang ‘we were cool ten years ago’ Clan coming?” and “Couldn’t we afford two?” is not opening up a dialogue, it’s insulting a group of qualified, capable, and hard-working Wesleyan students who devote their time to preserving one of the few traditions at Wesleyan that affects the entire student body and to pleasing as much of the student body as possible. I also personally found it somewhat disheartening and disappointing to hear you call Ghostface Killah, one of the most prolific MC’s of the Wu-Tang Clan, “G-FuzzyBunny”. Any real discussion will require a little much needed background on Ghostface, and for that I will refer you to Ben Doleac’s article entitled, “Hegemony Rocks.”
To answer your questions…
Firstly, regardless of how long ago 36 Chambers was released, the Wu-Tang Clan will always represent manic energy, spouting hallucinatory images, inventive and intelligent poetry, and lyrics with both content and value.
Secondly, no, we could not afford two of them and, more importantly, it is our opinion that one is enough. If we had booked one of the less influential MC’s from the Wu-Tang Clan your comment might be pertinent. However, Ghost has more front-to-back classic albums than most rappers have singles, the most recent of which, The Pretty Toney Album, was released on April 20th on Def Jam Records.
The album was produced by RZA, K-Def, True Master, Nottz, and Minnesota and features guest appearances from Missy Elliott, Musiq, K-Fox, the Lox, and Trife. To put it in an even more mainstream context, just yesterday evening, DJ Clue announced on MTV’s Direct Effect that Kanye West referred to Ghostface as the best MC. In short, Ghost is “the dopest, flyest, O.G., pimp, hustler Gangsta, playa, hardcore muthafucka living today.” He is not only one of the most highly regarded rappers around, but his reputation is based on his talent, originality, and longevity. So, while I understand your frustration and I agree that if we were allotted more money than last year, we should get a bigger name, I believe that we have done that.
Please also try to keep in mind that Spring Fling is more than just a headliner, it is practically an all-day event. The Social Committee feels that the tradition of Spring Fling is an important one to preserve and putting all our money into one artist would both detract from the essence of the event and would run the risk of alienating a large portion of the campus. If you would rather that we spend our entire budget so that a more expensive act could show up around 4:15 in the afternoon, perform for only 45 minutes and then leave, please feel free to write that down and put it in the Social Committee suggestion box located in the WSA.
Lastly, campus-wide surveys have always been something the Social Committee has thought about implementing, however, we have consistently run into several logistical barriers. For instance, if we offer the student body the choice between several headliners, and (as artists often do) the most popular act becomes unavailable, how do we then reconcile that issue with the student body? Any suggestions you have as to how to institute campus-wide surveys or how to make the student body more involved are welcome. If you feel that you are more qualified or even just plain qualified, I would encourage you and anyone else who feels similarly to apply to the Social Committee next fall. Applications will be available in the WSA.
With love, from the Social Committee.
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