- Where you're from
- Where you live
US
- Your cultural heritage, lineage and genealogy
African American
- Do you know your roots?
Never did one of those gene test or did any real research. Truthfully, those don't really matter. You can tract down one small section of your family history but due to slavery none of us will ever have a truly comprehensive list of all of our ancestors.
- Your Age
23
- Favorite musical genre
I like electronica, pop, dance punk, new wave, some 70's rock (Mostly Pink Floyd), alternative rock (80's and 90's stuff like Sonic Youth, Manic Street Preachers, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Radiohead etc, cannot stand the new mainstream stuff like Kings of Leon or Creed), rap, and older versions of black genres like soul and guitar orientated r&b like Isley Brothers. I like the excess and whole culture surrounding Disco in the 70's as well as the music is created and I also like newer music that is heavily influenced by it.
Sounds like a lot but I am actually pretty picky. I mainly enjoy progressive pop orientated music, meaning, it usually needs to be something people will dance to and easy to get into but I don't want it to sound manipulative or vapid.
I've been weaning off rap over the last 5 years and at this point, I basically only check for specific artist. I haven't really discovered a new rap act that I like since like, Lupe Fiasco.
Never really been a fan of contemporary r&b. What bothers me the most about the new stuff as opposed to the old is that mutha fuckas all sound the same to me, doesn't really seem to be much variety in the ways of voice or delivery. Every song starts with some whispery, sexy sounding voice, cuts to some redundant overblown chorus, back to whispery voice, redundant chorus, even louder and more overblown/redundant bridge, and finally the chorus again, maybe sung a little louder at the end. By this point, I want to punch the guy in the face.
The stuff that's coming out now is lower than ever. Can't stand any of these dudes. They have all taken so much influence from rap that nowadays I sorta "get it" when white people call someone like Chris Brown a "rapper". Most of them dress and act like thugs and nobody will take a risk with their sound.
- Your profession/major/career interest
I have a Liberal Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Took my LSAT today...:lol
Who knows what will happen, I may very well end up going back to school for engineering.
- Your religious affiliation
Atheist
- Hobbies
Internet, videogames, movies, music. Basic stuff. I also really enjoy fishing with my pops.
- Do you feel ostracized as a black nerd/dork? Charles Barkley once said that "there's nothing sadder than a black nerd". What do you think about those words, and while we're on the issue, what is gaf's opinion on the whole "act white" thing?
I didn't say anything in the last thread but since it's a specific question : I think the phenomenon has become a little overblown over the last 10-15 years. I feel like the media finally "found out" about one of the many problems in the black community, and it's now like, the de-facto excuse for everything happening to black Americans. I don't mean to disregard personal anecdotes or discredit the many black researchers and intellectuals who have also focused on the issue, clearly it happens and it has an effect. I just think that the amount of attention the "acting white" thing receives, is balanced too heavily in the "Why are black students failing" pile. Black kids aren't scoring 1, 2 , 3 hundred points lower on SAT's because they were told it would be "acting white" to score high. Every group of kids faces peer pressure, most have the resources, parenting, and structural support to deal with it.
Far as Barkley goes, and being a "black nerd", I feel like a nerd is a nerd and that being black adds little to the stigma. Only real difference between me and a lot of guys my age is that instead of putting in 100 hours in Call of Duty, I might put 100 hours into an rpg, it is what it is. Half these dudes geek the fuck out when they see a rock band set up at a party so I'm not sweating it too much.