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£ THE GAMECOCK • Wednesday June 8, 2005 HE MIX "S T J—_ VINCENT VAN GOGH By JAMES PRINCE FOR THE GAMECOCK When you see a picture of Kanye West, you usually see him clothed in a “preppy boy” sweater and collared shirt with an inquisitive look on his face. He embodies the image of a typical student. But what accessory enhances this image? It’s the Louis Vuitton backpack strapped snugly around his shoulders. The myth? That these backpacks are filled with knowledge-filled rhymes and promotional CDs because these rappers have a hard time copping a deal because of their musical content. The true irony lies in the fact that some rappers create a studious image but usually believe that post-secondary education isn’t important in pursuing a career in PHOTOS BY MARY PINCKNEY WATERS/THE GAMECOCK Cory Smith uses his business courses at USC to help him run his record label, Run That/Headhunterz Entertainment. hip-hop. For 19-year-old Cory Smith, a local aspiring hip-hop artist who believes otherwise, puts his backpack to practical use. Smith, a Columbia native and USC student, has been rhyming and making beats since the age of 10. “(Hip-hop) is people expressing themselves in a rhythmic pattern,” he said. “It’s poetry, evolved.” He has not just realized how poetry has evolved into hip-hop, but has also realized how important education is. As a child, he wanted to become an active member in the workforce after high school. As a teenager, he was introduced to a program sponsored by USC called Upward Bound. “If it wasn’t for Upward Bound, I would have never thought about going to college,” Smith said. Upward Bound, one of the programs of TriO — a group of non-profit organizations geared toward motivating individuals to seek a college education — assisted him in realizing that college might be a part of his dreams. Through the program, Smith learned that college would provide him with the business skills he needed to survive in the harsh world of the music business. Smith was already the proud owner of his own record label, Run That/Headhunterz Entertainment, and Upward Bound enabled him to make connections that benefited his company. From meeting other students who were artists to meeting local business owners at various Upward Bound conferences to meeting artists such as Grandmaster Caz, Curtis Blow and Raheim of the Furious 5, the program has definitely been an attribute to his personal life, as well as his professional career. because or his experience with the program, Smith took the road less traveled by his hip-hop peers. After graduating from Columbia High School, he enrolled at USC — the very college that sponsored the program that influenced his ♦ BACKPACK, page 7 CD REVIEW Coldplay presents amalgam of new, old styles X&Y Coldplay ★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ By PATRICK AUGUSTINE FOR THE GAMECOCK Chris Martin, Coldplays frontman, has a monkey on his back. Following the release of his bands sophomore effort, “A Rush of Blood to the Head” in 2002, Martin met and married actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and the couple had a child. In a profession that still clings to the cliched idea that angst produces the best art, critics saw signs of the worst weakness a musician can confess to — domestic bliss. “X&Y” is not only Coldplay’s third full-length album then — it is a test for a band long brushed off as banal since its breakthrough hit “Yellow” from 2000 s release “Parachutes.” The UK’s music press has long been fond of saddling any band that shows a sliver of promise with the weight of being the next Beatles or Oasis, hoping their domestic fledglings will usher in another era of invasion-like fervor about British music. Coldplay has labored under this mantle with the obligatory U2 references ever since their discovery, and it seems to have gone to their admittedly self conscious noggins. Instead of doing what a great band does and break new musical ground, the men of Coldplay seem contented to simply be a second-rate cover band of the best in British music, both now and then, subsuming the punk-revivalist guitar attack of Bloc Party and fusing it with Bono’s swelling arena overtures. This is not to say “X&Y” is not a good album. On the contrary, there is hardly anything to object to in the bands trademark formulaic build up on songs like the albums opener “Square One.” This inoffensiveness of sound is sure to net Coldplay big Sound Scan numbers for album sales, as “X&Y” will appeal to rock and adult alternative fans alike. If nothing else, the albums brilliance is in its carefully wrought production, which clearly has in mind Coldplay’s live arena show where the big money is made off T shirts and spinning turnstiles. Martin seems to have traded the vulnerability that made his earlier songwriting more approachable for a shot at universal appeal, all the while scaling back the acoustic guitar and piano approach that was notable in earlier albums. “X&Y” trades off between up-tempo rockers and ballads in predictable fashion that would make a manic-depressive proud. “Fix You” is a notable example, with Martin straining his voice to a near whisper in a bid for the upper register, getting lost in the wash of organs and piped-in strings and evoking the indie albums that made a breakthrough last year thanks to Fox’s “The O.C.” “X&Y” is a summer album, plain and simple, with notes of the British rock icons of the past that hopefully mean Coldplay will mature into something more complex in the future. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu