Enough is enough.
When the hate came by way of Facebook, I laughed. It’s Facebook, what can you do? People will say the craziest things when they’re hidden behind a computer screen. Many students voiced their disapproval of the music of rapper J.Cole on the Student Association Programming Board group on Facebook. They don’t understand the skill level he possesses; that’s nothing new. Same story, different wall post. But, then one contributing writer to the Oswegonian fell victim to the madness too. ::Gasp:: not the school paper, the Heralded Oswegonian! I just wrote an article for them, how could this be?
Well, they did. That’s where the problems start but don’t end. One student correlated J.Cole’s music to hate crimes, his constant rapping about the ghetto (Ahh, the good old inflammatory “ghetto”), and my favorite: “He puts down anyone trying to make an honest living, saying there is no hope.”
I know! I know! I couldn’t believe it either.
Believe it or not, Jessica… Ms. Jessica Bagdovitz, your article seems more likely to cause hate crimes to me. Your piece was not only biased it was widely inaccurate. Your research into who J.Cole is apparently went no farther than to provide a picture of him from jcolemusic.com. Had you taken the time to read on who Jermaine Cole is before running off to quote songs out of context, you would have seen that this artist who “puts down honest living” graduated from St. Johns University. In fact, Mr. Cole graduated Magna Cum Laude. Read even further and you’ll find out that although J.Cole always had aspirations to be a rapper he knew that in this world… A world where journalists MAY find you to be no more than a hate crime inciting artist, an education is valued and even essential to success. So, without sacrificing one for the other, he managed to succeed at both.
I guess you can now see that J.Cole doesn’t make music that’s only tolerable to those who share in his decadent lifestyle. Although, I’m not sure if having four years worth of student loans is typically considered decadent. Whatever. You call it “ta-may-toe” I call it “to-mah-to.”
Ms. Bagdovitz…and hopefully you don’t mind me calling you so. 🙂
The conversation over the “n-word” is incredibly complex and convoluted. Its history and impact laps our lifetime more than four-fold. So, I will not engage in the argument of if there is ever an appropriate usage or if the word is ever socially/generationally accepted. The place for that conversation is not here nor does time, or my word count permit. However, know this: Your out-of-context usage of J.Cole’s lyrics was borderline disrespectful, egregious, and out of line. Let me see how to better phrase this: You played yourself. You took less than 16 bars from a song to paint an artist known to uplift, excite and amaze listeners with his broad views, clear insight, humbleness and inspirational background and managed to turn him into a race hating, misogynist.
Look ma, get your act together. We all go to the same school and in my time here I’ve learned the importance of doing my research and not rushing to rash judgment and the importance of integrity; even more so in my writing. All I can do is suggest you do the same. Make it one of the commitments of your spring semester to become an accurate, well versed (pun intended), writer who contributes to this campus’s need for unity. Because right now, you’re “so far gone”.
Good LUCK.
In properly quoting J.Cole ” science can tell us how/ but they can’t tell us why” and WHY you chose to write such an inconsistent and biased article that can potentially divide a student body is an answer I’m currently in search of.Know this. A formal response with an ACCURATE depiction of J.Cole will be submitted to the Oswegonian this week. I only hope you and the rest of the school are afforded the opportunity to read it . You might learn a thing or two.
It’s about time somebody spoke up. It’s really surprising how people really feel about this whole concert this. Then again nobody really knows why and how we got those two artists though.
Great post. Tired of students stating their opinions as facts in the Oswegonian.
I think you miss read my article just a smidge. I was in no way attack J.Cole himself, but mearly his music. After all, I did open with noting that I wasn’t attacking talent. Maybe its just my country ways, but anyone who used language to such a degree as he does in his music is not worth listening. Maybe it just because I was raised on Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw and Shania Twain. Also, given my word count, I could not do a more indepth search of J.Cole’s lyrics, and had to grab some random samples, and I truely mean random, and was obviously not pleased. As far as the n-word goes, I believe its all about context. Mark Twain can use it, modern day folk, not so much.
However, I think the debate on J.Cole comes down to a “to each their own” view. I want to go back to country line dancing, and I will let you continue listening to rap. Also, I didn’t pick the photo, I just wrote the word.
Miss Jessica Bagdovitz
I actually understood your article quite clear. This is in now way a “tit for tat” but you’re actually not aware of what people found offensive about your piece. By your own admission you picked at random. Then after skimming through them and finding buzz words you mad a rash judgment on who J.Cole is. If you look around us, and some of the hugest issues that we are dealing with on a global level most of these are caused by that very same problem…rash judgment. We can’t accept that type of “research” or writing . You by all means are and forever will be entitled to your opinion, but what we often forget is that the entitlement comes with a responsibility. We are responsible for the things we say and your work was very irresponsible. I don’t know you personally but if I were to take the same sort of approach in determining who you are as a young lady that you did with J.Cole it would probably be less that desirable. However I’m sure people who know you closely would take offense to that and say “who is this guy? who does he think he is?”
If you feel you best suited refraining from hip-hop and sticking with country line dancing. I wish you the best. But understand there is a beauty of music and a world waiting to be discovered in EVERY genre. We just have to open our minds and most of all our hearts to it. Be Blessed I wish you well in your studies and spring semester.
P.S.
If you ever change your mind. Tickets for Jcole are now on sale 🙂
While I’m glad we can agree to disagree, I was in no way intending to attack J.Cole himself, or the people who listen to his music. I was criticizing the messages within. Perhaps my article better fits into a “First Impression” section, but alas, the newspaper doesn’t have one of those. As Public Relations major, I know that sometimes the first impression is the only impression. I won’t take a ticket from someone while truly enjoy the show
Also, I know a guy who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell who spent those 4 years as a frat boy, and shoved a funnel up his butt and poured beer into it, sooooooo I’m not that impressed, but he’s a good guy, so I’ll give J.Cole the benefit of the doubt as well.
You obviously cannot grasp a simple concept due to your close minded / narrow minded / stubborn characteristics. We know you were not attacking Jcole himself, but rather we are trying to get at the point that you misinterpreted his message.Firstly you went wrong when you thought you could interpret/criticize his message (or any message for that matter) just by listening to a few verses(or doing 1/16 research on a subject). Secondly you should not be writing articles on anything that you have no interest or experience in because the end result is going to be false if you go in with a predetermined mindset and prejudgment. Especially in your case where you jumped to conclusions and employed typical stereotypes as your main deciding factor, after only having listened to a few bars. I bet you judge every book by its cover. For a subject matter such as this first impressions are useless as they have no credibility because the message cannot be unlocked easily. I actually hate the idea of first impressions because there can be way more to something than meets the eye, and that’s the case in almost every situation. True Rap Artists music has way more depth than you think or even realize, the messages in these songs goes way further than those in most other genres. End of the story is your article voiced a misinforming false opinion rather than a researched and open minded factual response.
Fixed: End of the story is your article voiced a misinforming false bashing of jcole rather than a researched and open minded factual response.
Good evening those who are reading. May I remind you that though you may highly disagree with what Ms. Bagdovitz has to say about J. Cole, it was an OPINION article!!!!!!!!! Opinion articles are meant to be the opinion of the person writing the article. Therefore, the article will be bias. All articles that are outside the “opinion section” must be unbiased and based completely on fact. Everyone has the right to their own opinion and you should respect that. You are all making the accusation that she is making a rash decision, but yet you are all making a rash decision about who she is. All you have to go on is this article. Did you even ask how much time she spend on research? Did you ever find out how long the article could be? Ask before you judge. “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”- Matthew 7:5