For all those Duke students whose summer "vacations" are defined by the few precious weeks between final exams and high-powered summer internships, the chance will soon come to witness the fruits of an alternate lifestyle.
Kanye West--hip-hop producer and up-and-coming rapper who will headline the annual Last Day of Classes concert April 21--is a college dropout. His debut album, "The College Dropout," features a number of lyrics that justify and even glorify life sans a university degree.
And yet he has achieved the fame and fortune that most can only dream about. West has produced such hits as Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and Scarface's "Guess Who's Back." In addition, "The College Dropout" has won critical acclaim and gone platinum since it was released Feb. 10.
"It's kind of a funny juxtaposition to have a college dropout who succeeded so well playing on our last day of classes," said LDOC co-chair Mark Pike.
Pike said he was pleased with this year's LDOC line-up, which will also include West's touring partner, Dilated Peoples, and possibly another opener.
"We think we'll get a much more diverse audience than some of the past rock concerts have shown," Pike said, noting that West's selection was based in large part on the results of student surveys. "We got a lot of feedback that indicated the campus has enjoyed past hip-hop concerts on campus, and we've seen that these types of shows generally bring out a really enthusiastic audience."
Pike added that the all-hip-hop show should lend some consistency to the event--a feature that was missing, he said, when Run DMC and Guster headlined the LDOC concert in 2001. "You had one audience coming in and another leaving," Pike said.
Both Pike and LDOC co-chair Tamara Wilson acknowledged that many students may not know who West is, but held that the choice was still a sound one.
"We were looking to get an artist that is newer but rising in the ranks, meaning that he's not very pricey right now but could potentially be just as popular if not more popular in April than he is now," Wilson said. "If people don't know who Kanye West is, now is the perfect time to turn on the radio, MTV or BET and take the chance to find out. And if they do know him, it's time to get hyped." Pike said many students are probably already familiar with some of West's songs, such as "Through the Wire" and "Slow Jamz," though they may not know the artist by name. In addition to selecting a music line-up for the last day of classes, the LDOC committee has been busy planning for what they hope will be an all-day festival to celebrate the end of the academic year. "We're looking into the logistics of planning an all-day festival like Springternational or Oktoberfest, with vendors and live music from favorite local acts and other skilled musicians," Pike said. "We want it to be a 'last day of classes' festival as opposed to a 'last night of classes' festival." Wilson said that, in the past, many students spent the last day of classes in their rooms, only emerging onto the main quadrangle around 7 p.m. "There was nothing to do in the daytime," she said. "Hopefully this year there can be stuff to do, so people can go to class and between classes visit the vendors, have some food, have a good time on inflatables--things like that. We want the whole day to feel really special." The LDOC committee is currently working with members of the Duke University Union, which has experience in planning for events like Springternational and Oktoberfest, to sort out the logistics for an all-day festival. Pike said the committee is looking into the possibility of offering beer on points--a feature the Union used as a major selling point for its latest Oktoberfest. "We know a lot of kids have leftover food points at the end of the year, and what better way to spend them than on smooth libations?" Pike said, noting that many students will be drinking anyways. The LDOC committee is also trying to plan an on-campus LDOC after-party this year, which could possibly feature appearances by some of the day's performing artists. Wilson noted, however, there are still many logistics to be worked out before the group can move forward with those plans.
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