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Walking through the corridors of the Arts West music production hall, you’ll hear the muffled vibrations of creativity through the supposedly sound-proof doors. A remix of Ed Sheeran’s, Shape of You, acoustic guitar, acapella–all these being worked on within. But one room bumps particularly louder than the others. A comforting rumble could be felt on the bottom of your feet, stronger and stronger, the closer you approach. Inside, Connor Smith works on his latest project. An old-school hip-hop beat with an eerie violin plays in the background. “This is from my latest project I’m about to drop, be on the lookout,” he says, while hunched over the computer. He gives a quick tour of the fully-equipped recording studio. A 6-foot soundboard, massive speakers, multiple boxes with endless flashing buttons, and Smith knows how to use every single one. Attached to the room through a sliding door is a sound-proof area with microphones and instruments. We sit down with one of his songs softly playing in the background. Connor Smith, or his rap name, Casper, is a senior music production and recording arts major. He works in the recording studio, but it’s more of a sanctuary to him. “I’ll be in here late at night, and the lights in the hallway will go off. Once that happens, hours will go by and I won’t even realize. I’m just making music.” Smith is a North Carolina native, raised in Chapel Hill, and now at Elon. His goal, like many young rappers, simply make it big and get your name on the map. Being from NC however, his chances are slim. North Carolina doesn’t boast a large roster of big-name rappers. Their most famous being J.Cole, the mid-2000s group Little Brother, and their producer, 9th Wonder who now teaches down the highway at Duke University. Elon University’s hip-hop culture reflects North Carolina’s. Non-existent for a long time, but slowly on the rise. Down the hall, past a massive chalk mural of a band, and to the left is another recording studio. In it, Will Henderson, or Komodo; who’s at the forefront of the hip-hop movement with Smith. They’ve known each other since freshman year, in passing really, but recently began working together. Henderson comes from Durham, North Carolina, or “Durm”, as he likes it. The son of a pastor, he began recording church services in high school. This evolved into recording his friends in his bedroom closet to home-made beats. Now he works alongside Smith. Both literally in the recording studios, and through their music. They began collaborating more when they found out they were going on the Elon in LA trip together. They became roommates, got an internship together, and started making music in their downtime. Their time interning at ES Audio was life-changing. A relaxed work environment gave them free reign to create in their down time, while gaining experience recording local talent. Other notable artists also came through the studio in their time including Amine and Trinidad James. Their success inspired them to work even harder. Now back at Elon, they’re taking charge of leading an up and coming wave of hip-hop artists that have joined the music production major. “A lot of these young guys have the lyrics, they just need someone to mix or record them. That’s what we do,” says Smith. “I can make a beat, record, mix it, get a camera and take the album art, you’ve gotta be versatile,” Henderson explains. Spending so much time in the studios has made it easy for Henderson and Smith to get involved with the growing hip-hop culture at Elon. Most rappers on campus have had a session with one of them. As Smith said, the voice is out there, they just need someone to put it together, which is why these two are so crucial to expanding hip-hop on campus. Join Will and Connor in the studio as they tell their story, and discuss the current state of Elon hip-hop. You can check out some of Smith’s tracks from his upcoming LP here:
Smith and Henderson will also be releasing a music video for their song ‘Just Watch’ Saturday, Nov. 12th. Listen here:
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One of the most difficult decisions to make as a first-year student is selecting your career path. There’s no doubt about it. Most of the time, students choose a major that’ll hopefully make them a lot of money, versus something that they’re passionate about. For Rosie Darling, that's just the case. “If I were to give advice to a freshman, it’d be do what you want and do what you’re passionate about, and not what you think you really want to do,” said Rosie Darling, a current senior at Elon University. Darling, from Massachusetts, faced the same problem most first years face when they come to Elon; deciding on a major. As a strategic communications major, Darling takes classes focused on the communications field as a whole, such as public relations, communications design, and journalism. Although, it wasn’t exactly what she really wanted to do. “It was a tough decision, but if I had to go back I would definitely choose music over stratcom,” said Darling. “Hands down.” Throughout her time at Elon, Darling has been creating, producing and distributing her own music in her spare time. Something that started off as a weekly hobby, but now has turned into an everyday habit. “I was twelve when I learned to play guitar, my dad taught me,” said Darling. “I sang for the first time when I was ten taking vocal lessons while growing up.” Darling has become a musical sensation at Elon ever since her sophomore year when she first performed for a philanthropy event with her roommate Rose Joaquin. From then on, the two vocalists formed a dynamic-duo of singing talent titled, “Rosie X Rose”, two young and aspiring artists with wondrous talent. Following their performance and a few more song covers, Darling went solo and created a platform for herself and her music for all of Elon and the world to hear.
Above is a sneak peek at Rosie's new cover "Oceans Away" music video. Like the thousands of freshmen who enter college every year not knowing what they want to do with their life, Darling chose the “money” major over what she was truly passionate about. Strategic communications allows you to, “do more with a career” than music production would, according to Darling. The Elon Registrar’s Report for the Fall of 2017 recorded that among majors in the school of communications, strategic communications is by far the most popular major at 523 students out of the 1239 students. Music production majors at Elon are only 74 students, while music performance is 9 students total. In comparison, music production is not highly selected at Elon. Sam Sarath, a current junior at Elon, faced a similar problem when he was an incoming freshman. “I’m a finance major but I was really into sports and still am,” said Sarath. “I chose finance because of the business routes and the opportunities that it would hopefully give me. I learned now, three years later, I made a mistake. I love sports, maybe choosing sport and event management would have been the better choice for me because sports is something I’m truly passionate about and love.” First year students come in every year scared to major in something they actually like rather than taking the ‘money route’. Scott Newton, a first year from Massachusetts, is yet another example of students who choose majors based on money rather than passion. “I declared as a biology major in the science department for a few reasons,” said Newton. “One, was because I’m good at science and was in high school. Another reason was because it looks good on cover letters and resumes for potential job employers in that field.” Although, Newton’s passion isn’t exactly biology or science at all. “I’m really into computer science and coding, making websites and stuff like that,” said Newton. “Honestly, at this point I’m kind of sick of biology and am thinking of switching before the year is over.” Students come into college every year with the thought of declaring a major that sounds promising, something that’ll get them a job down the road in the future. Rosie Darling, along with Sarath and Newton, all chose majors other than what they’re passionate about and what they truly love. “Music is the universal language and everybody can relate to it on some type of emotion or lyric,” said Darling. “That’s what I’m seeking to bring out in people, and I knew it from the very beginning. Music drives me and I love it.” As a college student and a music artist Rosie Darling aspires to be at the very top by recording new songs week by week and performing at live venues. Although, for someone who is really hitting it off in the music world at such a young age, Rosie Darling has been through those same problems every college freshman has. To her, choosing what you’re passionate about is far more important than the money. “It’s a form of expression,” said Darling. “A lot of my song aren’t based on true events it’s more of a creative writing thing, pushing yourself to write about different things so that there can be relatable to others.” Click on the file below to Rosie Darling's final take on first years struggling to choose a major!
(Click on image to go to article): An article published by USA Today illustrates President Trump delaying the decision on several business deals. I think this article is interesting, because not only does it pertain to my interests but several others. In other words, this article was recently published to expose Trump as well as provide the people with an update about what is actually going on. As of now, Trump has delayed the business deals he promised to make and who knows what will come in the future.
This article explains how the Golden Globes, one of Hollywood's most iconic and famous awards, controls certain music artists and performers, actors, and anybody around Hollywood. This article details the specific occurrences where the Golden Globes controls most of the media pertaining to Hollywood. Specifically named in this article, Deadpool against La'La'Land, two iconic and different genres of films, will compete against each other in the 2017 Golden Globe Awards.
An article published by ESPN.com invites journalists, researchers, publishers, editors, or basically anybody in the communications industry to take part in what is exactly happening. In other words, ESPN shares this article to get a just of "p.r." perspective for its company. Although, for the branded content that ESPN owns, almost everyone and anyone knows the ESPN logo. In order to keep up with the competition, ESPN invites journalists to join the fight in keeping journalism, well, journalism.
Paul La Monica of CNN recently published an article titled, “Why Disney should cut the cord and spin off ESPN” detailing exactly what its title states. This CNN edition provides its audience with background information on the relationship between ESPN and Disney and why ESPN is a degrading factor towards Disney’ success.
La Manica begins his article with a witty and clever statement under the title stating, “Not even a superhero or princess might be able to save ESPN.” After this, the author acclaims “props” to Disney’s movie-making industry by complementing two newly released films, but then quickly changes directions and says executives should still be worried about the future. As the article progresses, it’s obvious that the author knows what he’s talking about. La Monica states facts, statistics, and a general background of relationship between Disney and ESPN. However, the author does not provide quotations of any kind to attribute his work or where the research came from. Either way, the author is widely recognized with the subject matter and can be supported with his claims in his work. While this article is newsworthy and informative to an extent, the author does incorporate a sense of sarcasm and opposition towards ESPN. Hence, his title. Although not completely against ESPN, La Monica does side with the fact that Disney should release and cut all ties with ESPN. He justifies this claim by providing research and stats from other sports news networks and other non sport networks and their ratings. Specifically CBS, FS1, FOX and Comcast, and what they’re doing to stay in the competition in sports and news broadcasting. This past November, the world's leading consumer and producer of prodcts, China, went over the top and really excelled in terms of pollution and overall world disaster. In other words, China exceeded its limit for planetary polution from its industrial factories and manufacturers. Thi article published by a Chinese newspaper (Link in image, click to continue), stresses the significance of this disasterous pollution.
What NPR says may be harsh, but it's the truth... NPR’s latest news revolves around Exxonmobil's relationship with the ecosystem as well as other industrial companies surrounding the globe. This article (embed here) is a great representation of how in depth journalism should appear on print and ready for an audience. The author started with a summary lead, because of its importance in the news recently. The author also incorporates some opinionated phrases and comments, but nothing too drastic. The author, Marcelo Gleiser, had to do more reporting and research to better represent his findings for people to read.
I could see why this article can be perceived as controversial, because the author is strong on his opinion for why large oil companies are ruining the ecosystems and atmospheres of the globe. However, it’s a known fact that oil companies and industrial factories do permit smoke and pollution to the air, which the author hasn’t missed the opportunity to stress it. Overall, this article was well written and well informative to its readers. Myself, especially, I was able to seek out the strengths and little weaknesses in this piece. Marcelo’s hard work and interpretation of international findings that resort to pollution has brought light to the subject. Not only has Marcelo offered valuable insight to a recurring problem, but he has also progressed it to be known as a worldwide phenomenon. An article published by The Guardian anounced the death of communist leader and prominent figure of Cuba, Fidel Castro. This article details how Castro passed as well as his great acheivements as a successor. Just 40 years ago Castro reigned at the top of the food chain in Cuba, parting with China dna the Russians, and acting as a leader of a communist country. Now, a Cold War and Vietnam fiugurehead has passed, and a part of history is diminished.
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October 2017
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