Let Us Do It Doggy’s Style

Oversensitive Colgate community, I'm calling you out.

Coming back from studying abroad, I was confused to see Snoop Dogg set to play Spring Party Weekend, and especially our willingness to pay $100,000 for him. It was like coming home to find my parents blasting Justice and ripping shots of Nikolai. I thought, "Are we really that cool?"

And then I read the last few issues of the Maroon-News, with the ceaseless whining and petition-making of the other Colgate demographic (let's call them the "Brown Bag Luncheoners") and I came back to Earth. Ah, that's more like it.

There are a few different objections I've heard to Snoop Dogg coming to campus: People claim he's a misogynist, he will bring Colgate into financial ruin and he's going to smoke enough weed to dry up the whole Campus, causing everyone to realize that Oliveri's tastes terrible. I'd like to respond to only this first allegation, as it was well-put in Heather D. Dockstader's recent Letter to the Editor, "I
Hate Fun."

Dockstader claims that Snoop Dogg is a misogynist, that he objectifies women. To support her point, she lists the titles to some of his popular songs that some may find, on the surface, offensive. However, if Dockstader had actually looked at the lyrics to one of the songs she mentions, for example, "Break a Bitch till I Die," she would find something more complex. Take the chorus: "Run down to the Dogg House, and see fo' yo own two eyes/ Bitches try to pull snake moves to get a piece of the pie."
Okay, fine. He's a misogynist.

But he's also entertaining as hell. He's one of the most prolific rappers in history, and to me and many fans at Colgate, bringing up his lyrical themes is like bringing up his short-lived sketch comedy show (Doggy Fizzle Televizzle), his laughable attempt at a horror movie (Bones) or the allegations that he may be a snitch for the LAPD. Do these things make me respect him less as a person? Yes. Will they stop me from going nuts when he plays anything from
Doggystyle? No.

My point is, we're not going to see him because we heard he has a groundbreaking thesis on gender inequality that will make even the most timid Phi Delt start calling his female teachers "Ho-fessor." We're seeing him because he's an entertainer, and this is the one week of the year where we have something more fun to watch than Freshmen girls slip in their heels on a Jug Night. We deserve this
mindless entertainment.

What I don't understand about the haters' argument is that if you're so obsessed with the Colgate "community" and our high intellect and morals, why do you think we'd be so easily corrupted? It's condescending to think that any free-thinking adult would take to heart an oppressive and antiquated view because they waved their hands in the air while listening to it.

And if we are so easily influenced, and it's so important to bring an artist who will stimulate positive discussion and ideas to Colgate, how come none of these perpetual petition-makers made a big deal out of Lupe Fiasco coming
last year?

Lupe's lyrics tackle all the issues Colgate struggles with. You could plan an entire seminar around his take on women's rights and urban culture ("I used to hate hip-hop/ Cause the women degraded"), his stance against violence (even in video games) and his condemnation of drug culture. Personally, I would've loved nothing more than having the faculty and students use Lupe's appearance to kick off discussions on these issues. I would've gone to every Brown Bag Lunch Series just to hear people give my hometown hero the respect he deserves for his positive message and talent. Too bad the same people who are protesting Snoop Dogg to my knowledge, never attempted this kind of positive action. Why? Because they only have one gear – incessant bitching.

To be fair, the only alternative to misguided whining at Colgate is apathy, which is probably worse. If the perennial protestors are at fault for not seizing the opportunity to use Lupe to spark discussion, it's ironically because they know that few people at the last SPW cared to hear Lupe's lyrics anyway. Mostly they drunkenly wandered off the lawn of Beta and Phi Tau for a few minutes when they heard "Superstar" come on, and then returned in time to finish their
Beirut games.

No one was ideologically moved last year and no one will be this year, for better or worse, because no one cares about the messages of the performers we bring to campus. And maybe it's a good thing that we're not so ignorant and impressionable that we allow people who are good at rhyming decide our deepest beliefs. So let us have our entertainment. If we took it seriously, it wouldn't be entertainment- it'd be a headache-inducing borefest; like hearing people gripe every time we try and get one good thing to come to
this campus.