Geeksta rap
Bustin' rhymes in American academe, love in Montenegro, Russian spam and journal wisdom ... David Cohen prowls the web for the latest offbeat news in the world of international higher learning
Wednesday August 3, 2005
From Wired.com comes the news that the subculture of hip-hop has finally invaded the citadels of American academe. The magazine isn't just talking about the odd sociology programme, either, but hardcore - sorry, nerdcore - science labs, where computer majors are attempting to outdo each other by bustin' rhymes about "dope machine code".
It's happenin' in da univerzity. Sez da mag: "While gangsta rap is seen as celebrating the violence and aggression that claimed two of its brightest stars, 'geeksta' rap is a hip-hop genre celebrating coding skills and school grades.
"Also dubbed 'nerdcore', this branch of hip-hop is for geeks, by geeks. Geeksta rappers adopt the same combative verbal-assault stylings of their forerunners, but bust rhymes about elite script compiling and dope machine code."
Step up, MC Plus+, a Purdue University PhD candidate who spins verses like: "I'm encrypting **** like every single day / sending it across a network in a safe way / protecting messages to make my pay / if you hack me you're guilty under DMCA". (The last bit refers to a federal copyright law.)
Then there's Monzy, a Stanford University graduate and rival of the aforementioned Mr Plus, who taunts his East Coast rival with dis lyric: "Your mom circulates like a public key / Servicing more requests than HTTP / She keeps all her ports open like Windows ME / Oh, there's so much drama in the PhD."
The article quotes a (real) hip-hop journal editor, who doubts the lab-hop genre will endure, because so far the major artists happen to be males: "You're going to need some females."
