Chuck D 'raps' with Bona's students
Ruthie Harper
Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: News
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A week of hip-hop-related events led up to Chuck D's lecture, which began with words from Marcel Brown, a freshman marketing major, as he strode to the front of the Reilly Center Arena crowd.
"I've got a question for y'all," he said. "What is hip-hop? Let's go."
After Brown rapped about the hip-hop genre, a video of a group of St. Bonaventure students introduced Chuck D to the stage as about 800 audience members watched, according to Anna Omoregie, graduate assistant for the Damietta Center and key component to bringing Chuck D (born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour) to campus.
Chuck D began his lecture by discussing his own connection to Bonaventure; he said he heard about the university when he was in elementary school in Roosevelt, N.Y., mostly because of former St. Bonaventure basketball star and NBA Hall-of-Famer Bob Lanier.
Chuck D mentioned an Olean-based rap group called BBA (Building a Better America) and urged the audience to go to the group's Web site at www.bba716.us.
As the conversation moved along to the importance of a college education, Chuck D had some advice for college students.
"It would behoove you to bust your head open with knowledge," he said.
To drive the point home to hip-hop fans in the audience, Chuck D compared a Lamborghini (often referred to as a Lambo in hip-hop slang) to a hoopty (slang for a car of poor quality).
"If somebody gave you a Regal '77 when you spent $160,000, you'd be mad, right?" Chuck D asked. "Put your hand in the air if you (would be mad) if you got a hoopty when you spent St. Bonaventure-type money. Put your hands in the air. Now, how many of y'all got hoopty GPAs?"
Later in the lecture he encouraged students to be proud of their knowledge and their education.
"If you are a nerd at whatever you like, that's a good thing," he said.
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