What Wrong With People?

I first heard about Northern State - 3 white female rappers, when Anne
got her Oberlin Alumni magazine in the mail a couple of years ago.
One of these young hags is an Obie, wan though she is.

I couldn't believe that these smart people I looked up to could
somehow think that mentioning Chekov in a rhyme that goes like this...

The country's getting ugly and there's more in store
But don't blame me 'cause I voted for Gore
Keep choice legal
And your wardrobe regal
Chekov wrote "The Seagull"
Snoopy is a beagle

... is the same as being literate. but they raved on and on, and the
world has joined them:

The ladies of Northern State fight for their right to party like three
Beastie Girls with liberal arts degrees from good schools and the
smarts to keep it real...
writing sharp-tongued lyrics ...
intellectual messages with pop-culture commentary...
smashingly brilliant...
hilariously deft rhyming skills...

Sprout (one of the three vapid rappers) shows herself to be at least
as smart as a bean or alphapha seed that's been soaked overnight -
says this about her influences: "Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco, female
musicians who have done important and very powerful things with
words—something that we do."

Uh huh. She knows what they are doing, that's for sure.

Here's some important and powerful things from Northern State:

I'm free balling,

yeah, I'm free falling,

my cellie blowin' up from the numbers that I'm calling,

go from 9 to 5, then from 5 to 9

I got DJ Sprout on the line

In my other ear I got Hesta Pyrnn and you know that little girl be
wheelin' and dealin'

Prynn up all night tryin to work the plane, me and Sprout stuck again
in a traffic jam

We do it how we do it and we don't need permission, we like it how we rock it

Intuition in our pocket, so please and thank you and don't apgolize

I'm saying what I'm saying looking you right in the eyes, you're dying
in stereo.

There's nothing to left to sy and everything I knew, I knew yesterday,
what's a girl like me supposed to do? get on the mic you know you want
to

what's a girl like me supposed to sy? I'm on the mic cause I like it that way.

It's like you're dying in stereo, can't believe my ears, every single
night, I cast you out, you're serving me capers and you're serving me
papers, and I'm feeling kinda high off of your poisonous vapors, you
can't trash what you don't understand. You can make requests buy you
can't make demands. I'm proud of what I'm doing so don't criticize me.

I knew you all along and you didn' t ever surprise me. I cast you out
and then I cast you in, put that on your tables and spin, in your
mouth or in your hand, the name is not Eminem. The name is Hesta
Prynn, I'm timeless. I write while I rhyme this, turn down the sound
and I'll mime this.

Edmund Hillary couldn't climb this, parsley sage rosemary and thyme
this, step off, your flow is weak, save that talk for Dawson's Creek,
and if you wanna know why I shriek like a banshee? I'm seven eighths
white, one eighth Comanche. What's a girl like me supposed to do? One
step and then another and we're going with the flow, tomorrow and
tomorrow and tomorrow, we learn from the rhythm. We take what we're
given, we do whow we do and that's how we're living. It's like you're
dying in stereo, can't believe my ears, every single night, I cast you
out, my book is full of business and short on rhymes, I'm afraid to
even look at the New York Times, gonna wash my hands off the whole
affair, open the window and breathe the fresh air. I'm tired in a way
that I can't explain, can't remember the last time I felt the rain, I
write in the dark because I don't need to see, I'm not following the
moon - you know it's following me, keep my lips together and my teetha
part, be your substitute teacher write my rhymes on a chart, we're
ready every single night to take the stage and play. I don't have a
job but I work all day. Northern State put the cart before the horse,
we be who we are and show no remorse. What's a girl like me supposed
to do? It's like you're dying in stereo..