Dining

Dos Amigos: Let’s Taco ’bout Expansion

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If you were to ask the hungry customers who patiently wait in line by the truck, any one of them can testify that the amount of creativity that goes into the names of the food is equally met by the amount of care and flavor of the food itself. And while all the items on the Dos Amigos menu are spectacular, a bevy of new artists have risen to newfound stardom, and multiple albums have been released since 2015, when the truck first hit Ithaca’s roads and found its permanent resting place in front of Cascadilla. Let’s look at some of the potential new items that Dos Amigos could add to their already stellar menu, while continuing the hip-hop/rap theme:

Arts & Culture

The Culture of Culture

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When Donald Glover, better known as Childish Gambino, was called on stage to receive his Golden Globe on behalf of the show Atlanta for best TV series, people did not expect what he would say next. Donald did not take the conventional route of thanking his parents or making a political statement for unity and inclusion. Instead Donald said, “I really want to thank the Migos, not for being in the show, but for making ‘Bad and Boujee.’ Like that’s the best song…ever.” He would later go on to call the Migos “the Beatles of this generation,” high praise for the Atlanta rap trio who have been pioneering the new wave of trap music. To say that the Migos have been “hot”’ lately would be an understatement. In a matter of four months their chart-topping single “Bad and Boujee” has reached platinum status and the group has amassed a cult-like following that stretches from places like Atlanta, Georgia to Lagos, Nigeria.

Arts & Culture

JONES | Listen to My Friend Evan

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I have a friend named Evan whose rapper name is Dough Boi and he makes music and you should check it out on SoundCloud. I realize how unappealing that sounds. My reaction to people on social media or YouTube hawking their “fire mixtapes” and begging “please just give me a chance” always inspires a mix of disdain and embarrassment in me. The only music I ever listen to is either critically lauded or at least signed to a record label. Evan is the only exception.

Arts & Culture

GOLDFINE | The Kendrick-Taylor Paradox: What Happened at The Grammys?

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On Feb. 15, Kendrick Lamar was unforgivably robbed of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his superbly produced, lyrically genius, dialogue-inspiring and arresting political concept album To Pimp A Butterfly, which will indisputably be remembered as one of the greatest American hip-hop albums of all time. Also on Feb. 15, Taylor Swift, the most popular woman in the world, deservingly walked off the stage with the Album of the Year Grammy for her immaculately crafted and super-cherished pop opus 1989, to the validation and joy of fan-people everywhere. I find both of these conclusions about what happened at the 2016 Grammy Awards to be equally plausible, and this absurdity is what I think of as the Kendrick-Taylor paradox.

Uncategorized

Chatting with GZA

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A founding member of the legendary hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA — also known as the Genius and famous for his laid-back drawl; his complex, multi-layered lyrics rife with metaphor and literary illusions; and his now seminal 1995 hip-hop album Liquid Swords, which features samples from classic Samurai films — dropped us a line this week to chat about his creative process, kung fu films and his absolutely favorite past-time: chess.

The Sun: What do you expect from Cornell? In terms of the student body, are you excited?
GZA: Yeah, I’m looking forward to the show.
Sun: What do you think of Girl Talk?
GZA: I don’t really know much about him. I just started learning. He’s the DJ, correct?
Sun: Yeah.

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Student Artist Spotlight: Brodyman

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He make beats, he raps … he apparently even freestyles on the harmonica, a fun fact which I learned this afternoon during an impromptu performance while I prepared to learn all about the man behind the music. From where I’m sitting (in his studio, where all the magic happens) it seems as though there isn’t much that Cornell’s own Brody Ehrlich ’10, also known as “Brodyman,” can’t do…

Sun: So Brodyman, tell me about what you do.

Brody Ehrlich: Basically, what I do is music production, I make a lot of hip hop and R&B beats for a few different artists, the main one being my friend Mitch Raw from home who I grew up with.

Sun: How does that work?

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Cult Classic Explores Hip Hop's Wild Rise

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As someone who fancies himself a movie guy, I’d like to think I’m a pretty good judge of whether a movie is essentially good or bad. That’s not to say there can never be any gray area (see all M. Night Shyamalan movies since The Sixth Sense), but usually I can walk out of the theater with a pretty good idea of where — if the world were black and white — a particular movie might fall. And then I saw Wild Style.