What does hip hop clothing say?

 by Brittany Hamilton

Women’s hip hop and urban apparel has never had so much to offer. Today there are more colors, varieties, labels, and styles than ever before in hip hop clothing. Women can choose just what they want to express their personal vibe.
 

Since its inception, style with an edge has always been a part of hip hop clothing. Women today, however, can choose from even more clothing choices by the growing range of shades and changing logo styles. According to herbanstylz.com, the latest trends in urban wear are more understated apparel offering choices in chic hip hop clothing women’s lines in everything from sportswear to office attire, cabbie hats to handbags.
 

Reason hip hop clothing is so appealing to many women is because the choices in hip hop clothes today make it easy to express their individuality and personal expressions. From sporty Rocawear sets and Baby Phat t-shirts to sexy J-Lo miniskirts, a woman can create her own personal style in hip hop clothing. Women have many different sides, and the different faces of urban wear today let them show them all.
 

You can find everything from loud, bright jersey dresses and animal print halters to soft and sexy low rise cords and understated mesh tops in neutral colors in hip hop clothing. Women have a choice to be playful, serious, sexy, or demure in their hip hop clothes. Another reason for the continuing success and expansion of women’s urban clothing lines is that many styles accentuate the sensuality of the female body in hip hop clothing. Women are beautiful in their unique form. Low rise jeans, hip hugging mini-skirts, and snug t-shirts all celebrate the curves of a woman’s body. When you wear clothing that celebrates what is uniquely you, you can’t help but feel good.There are dozens of manufacturers today of hip hop clothing. Women can also buy dozens of accessories from the same urban clothing companies or from companies specializing in hip hop accessories. Some of the most popular hip hop clothing lines for women include: Baby Phat, Fetish (by Eve), Diesel, Fubu, Sketchers, Pelle Pelle, Tommy Girl, J-Lo, and Sean Jean.

While stores are bustling to keep up with the latest styles and demands for hip hop clothing, women have choices to find the hottest styles, usually at better prices, by shopping for hip hop clothes deals on the net. Tons of sites, including wholesalers, offer the hottest name brand hip hop clothes for less than, and usually before, you can get’em in the stores. So whatever style, color, and label you want to wear in hip hop clothing, women can express their personal style in more ways than ever before.

Click here to go back to May 18th homepage

Shrek 3

by Rocio Reyes 

Shrek 3 may be one of the most anticipated movies this year. If you have been following up on the trailers then you can see that this movie looks to be better then the first.

Shrek 3 has many twists and turns. In the second movie, Shrek meets Fiona’s parents and at the end wins their love. In the third movie, Fiona’s dad, who is the King of the Kingdom of Far Far Away, is dieing. In the mean time, Shrek and Fiona have to take the place of the king and queen. But Shrek and Fiona don’t want to assume to role of king and queen. But in order to get out of it they have to find Prince Arthur to be king.

Through the quest of finding Arthur and making him king Shrek and Fiona encounter some problems and Puss in Boots and donkey don’t make it any better. Also a major twist in the movie is Fiona’s pregnancy. This is a major stress factor to Shrek who doesn’t want to be king, has to find Prince Arthur, worry about Fiona, get puss and donkey to behave and on top of that try to prevent Prince Charming from taking over the kingdom.

I don’t know about you but I’m super hyped for this movie and I think that this will be the best Shrek movie yet. The main actors in this movie are Mike Myers who plays Shrek, Cameron Diaz who plays Fiona, Eddie Murphy who plays Donkey, Antonio Banderas, who plays Puss in boots, and finally, the new member of the Shrek family, Justin Timberlake, who plays Prince Arthur.

The opening date for this movie is May 18^th. So mark your calendar and head to the movies then.

In the Land of Women Review

by Alex Tudor

 

The movie stars Adam Brody as Carter Webb in a drama romance about a young TV writer and his life after he and his famous girlfriend actress break-up. Webb leaves L.A. to stay with his wacky Grandma in her suburban
Detroit home. Carter stumbles into the lives of the family living directly across the street, Sarah Hardwicke, the mother of two daughters: Paige and her older sister Lucy. While Sarah faces her own personal crisis, Lucy wrestles with the fears that define her. Through his relationships with these women, as well as his grandmother, Carter begins to discover that what felt like the end was really only just the beginning.

Spider Man is back

by: Kailey Lanier

Spider Man 3 is a superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with screenplay composed also by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, which saw the return of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco as Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn respectively.The film begins with Peter Parker basking in his success as Spider-Man, while Mary Jane begins her Broadway career. Harry Osborn still seeks vengeance for his father’s death, and an escaped convict, Flint Marko, falls into a particle accelerator and is transformed into a shape shifting sand monster. An alien symbiote crashes to Earth and bonds with Peter, influencing his behavior for the worse. When the symbiote is abandoned, it finds refuge in Eddie Brock Jr., a rival photographer, causing Peter to face his greatest challenge.Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in multiple countries on May 1, 2007, and released in the
United States in both conventional and IMAX theaters on May 4, 2007. The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, in stark contrast to Spider-Man 2‘s ecstatic reviews, yet the film broke most of the opening weekend records, both in the United States, and in foreign markets, including records held in IMAX theaters.  Link: http://spiderman3.sonypictures.com/ 

Ya Boy Lupe

by Brittany Hamilton 

Born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, (born February 17, 1982 in
Chicago, Illinois), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco is an American rapper. Raised on the west side of
Chicago, Lupe is the youngest of four brothers and five sisters. His father (Died: February 27, 2007) was a prolific African drummer, and also taught Karate. His mother was a gourmet chef. Lupe began to rap when he was in the 8th grade, and began to pursue it at the age of 17.  

Lupe has been open about his Islamic faith. He showcased it in his underground remix of friend and collaborator Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks”, entitled “Muhammad Walks”. He has noted the importance of religion in his life, so he doesn’t drink; go to clubs, and basically the whole groupie situation is a shutdown. 

Growing up, Wasalu had the nickname of “Lu”, the last part of his first name. The “Lupe” portion is an extension of this nickname, which he borrowed from a friend named Lupe from high school. The “Fiasco” portion came from his simply looking at the song “Firm Fiasco” from the album by the rap group, The Firm, and liking the way the ‘fiasco’ looked on paper. Wasalu in a video interview on YouTube, stated he found out that the last name of his stage name, Fiasco means “terrible,” so he figured his name meant “Lupe the Terrible,” when in actuality, it means “Lupe is Terrible.” Wasalu said he decided to keep the name anyway. 

Lupe is exactly the opposite of Terrible and continues to be just that. This songwriter, rapper and producer has a few albums in the underground and the best selling label album, Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor is in stores now.

Click here to listen to some of his music

Flavor of Love Girls Charm School — Starring: Mo’Nique

by Mia Saunders 

There’s a new show on VHI starring the Flavor of Love girls featuring Mo’Nique. Mo’Nique tries to help the girls shed the negative image they portrayed of themselves when on the Flavor of love. Each girl has her own reason for being there, from fighting within the first two minutes of the show, to being a porn star in secret. The girls need serious help in the etiquette department and that’s what Mo’Nique is there to do. Most of the woman on the show, want to improve their image since seeing their own behaviors on the Flavor of love. The show comes on every Sunday at 10:00.  Watch the show to see all the drama and excitement that never disappoints when it comes to the Flavor of Love girls.

 Click here for more information about Charm School

Future of Miss Universe 2007

by Parvin Sahraei  

Swimsuit, evening wear, talent; Yes, I’m talking about the miss universe pageant, one of the most popular competitions for women in the
U.S.  This year countries such as Brazil, Philippines, Puerto Rico, and
Venezuela are competing for the crown. Last year miss.
Puerto Rico, Zuleika Rivera won. Who do you think is going to win this year? I think this year the competition is going to be fierce with more different countries competing and more girls trying their best to represent their country in hopes of making them look good. But it isn’t just about beauty. The winners of the pageant go on to make the world a better place. Some do humanitarian efforts like miss
USA winner 2007 Rachel smith. The beauty’s accomplishments include humanitarian efforts that have allowed her the opportunity to travel the world; she has been to Mexico twice and multiple times to
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The cool thing about Miss
Tennessee is that she is mixed. She was born in panama and lived here most of her life. While former miss
USA winners have been American it seems that in the future there will be many more diverse American beauties.

 

Click here to learn more about Miss Universe and other pageants

Effects of Violent Video Games on People of Different Ages

by Nicholas C. Delos 

It’s easy to be confused as to what the scientific findings are on video games and violence.  What is somewhat clear is the cause for such confusion.  That is not to say that all studies on the subject are inconclusive, in fact, they are pretty near all over the map.

One study of 387, 12 to16 year-olds, found frequent video gamers self-reported increased playing time correlated with aggressive behavior.  Another, on 117 undergraduates found no correlation between violent video gaming and increased violence.  Still another, by Kestenbaum & Weinstein on 208, 11 to 14 year-olds, found aggressive video games actually had a calming effect.  Still worse, many studies fail to factor out sources of error such as whether more violent people are attracted to violent video games.

Such common errors in studies would seem to indicate that the study is a new field.  That is, however, quite wrong.  Only ten years after “pong”, the first video game to gather widespread popularity, was released in 1972, early studies on violence and video gaming were well underway.

That is not to say video games are harmless. Studies of the effects of violent video games on younger children are more conclusive. Such studies generally show an increase in violent behavior during normal play among children who play or view violent video games. Additionally, many psychologists fear that the increased exposure to violence could lead to additional desensitization to violence similar to that found after prolonged exposure to graphic violence on the television. Video gaming has also been found to be addictive, and the long periods of screen use associated with gaming can lead to increased rates of near sightedness.

Additional information from scholarly sources

The Effect of Playing Video Games

Music Industry Hot and On Fire

by Eliana Diaz 

A welcome surprise came from our favorite Canadian rocker chick, Avril Lavigne, who graced us with her new song “Girlfriend”. This song is described by Lavigne herself as being “fast, fun, young, bratty, aggressive, confident, cocky in a playful way…all the good stuff.” .“Girlfriend,” gained Lavigne her highest single debut (number five) and her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as her highest ever position on the UK Singles Chart (number 2).

For all of our Hip-Hop and R&B lovers out there, there’s no need to fear.  Timbaland, famous for his producing skills and collaborations with Missy Elliott, has his new hit “Give It to Me” which features two very prominent artists, Nelly Furtado, and everyone’s guilty pleasure, Justin Timberlake.  Unknown to most people, “Give It to Me” disses many other musicians in its lyrics. Each of the three featured artists have a single verse in the song separated by the chorus which is sung by Nelly Furtado (Furtado’s verse takes a blow at Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas while Timbaland’s verse is aimed at fellow producer Scott Storch.).

 

Lest we not forget the powerhouse combo of Beyoncé and Shakira with their hit, “Beautiful Liar”.  The song’s musical structure mixes heavy hip-hop beats with Middle Eastern music, which are the characteristic sound of Beyoncé and Shakira, respectively.  It holds the distinction of having the largest upward movement on the Billboard Hot 100, moving 91 positions from 94 to 3 the week of April 7, 2007.  Beyoncé has stated the song is about female empowerment, in keeping with the theme of the album.  The protagonists sing about being charmed by the same man; instead of fighting over him, they decide not to start drama or waste their time.

So, whether you’re up to singing about pains of boyfriends or up to dancing and partying like a rockstar, you’ll be sure to hear these songs more on the radio, and on the go! 

Billboard Top 100 Page

Techs Light Up the Stage

by Alex Crowder

           

The spring musical for the school, “Grease” has ended. The actors as well as Ms. Harris have finally been able to relax after the ending of the massive production. Of course, with a very good show, there are techs who work just as hard to see that everything is set together right for the shows performance. While there is a tech class, and that class is mostly responsible for the operation and the construction of the set for the musical, there is also a way for you to volunteer for helping out.

           

The techs have already worked hard on various shows such as Shakespeare in
Hollywood, where they built the steps and constructed the fountain or the center of the stage. The play for Halloween, “10 Little Indians,” consisted of doors and frames built buy the techs, as well as furniture brought from Scott Obechain’s house. The painting, and the set up was done entirely by them, as well as the lighting, the sound, and the sound set up, although the sound did require a little extra help.

           

Given the magnitude of the play, Scott Obechain’s, the tech director, had the size of the set fit the size of the play. In other words, it was big. They made a full size diner for the burger palace with steps going up the back, a front for the school, a full room with a bed for Marty’s room, and a platform for the Hand Jive Contest. The work on these set pieces took roughly a month to make, and while they were brilliantly built, the deadline for the play came too fast. But despite this handicap, they managed to get the play sets ready, painted, and mobile for easy access during the plays. There were six shows in total, most of which were pulled off by a total of 8 techs, not including those in the sound booth, and others working on the microphones and lights. Still, including those, there were 11, and it was a major achievement to make the show go as smoothly as it did.