Apparently a few Princeton students are not happy that Detroit rapper, Big Sean, has been tabbed by their school to perform at their spring concert, called Lawnparties, later this month. Two students, Duncan Hosie and Rebecca Basaldua, have started a petition to try and get their Undergraduate Student Government to revoke its offer to the "Blessings" rapper. The pair has put up signs throughout campus quoting a line from Big Sean's collab with Nicki Minaj "Dance (A$$)," "If she look good she pay me in sex" and continuing further down, "Want to take this down? Take down Big Sean."
"After I saw that video, I started researching Big Sean's language and I found language that was both misogynistic and homophobic," Hosie said to the Daily Princetonian. "We wrote an op-ed piece that we published on Google Docs [on Sunday] and wanted to see the number of supporters."
USG social committee chair, Simon Wu, said the petition was not going anywhere as it is too late to renege on a contract at this point.
"The contracts are signed and it's unrealistic to stop this from happening," Wu said. "The best way to move this in a productive way is to see how we can improve the selection process."
This type of cherry picking of hip-hop lyrics is outrageous and can be used to paint any rapper in a negative light. Even someone like Common, who is not misogynistic and is very socially conscious, could become a target if his lyrics, such as those in "The Bitch in Yoo," were examined under a microscope.
The pair probably did not listen to Sean's recent album, Dark Sky Paradise, or his heartfelt tributes to his grandmother on tracks like "One Man Can Change The World" or "Blessings," but I guess it is easier for some to just believe that all big-time rappers are misogynists.
