A Rap Battle for the Ages

Recently at the Grammy awards Macklemore a prominent white hip hop/pop artist beat out Kendrick Lamar, Jay-z and other black rap artists for best rap album of the year. This sparked some controversy in whether whites can become equal in the rap game or is it tied in too tightly with black culture.


Should Macklemore be apologizing? Is his apology sincere? Is it appropriate?

I believe Macklemore should be apologizing to Kendrick and just Kendrick because he should have clearly won the Grammy. I do believe the apology was sincere though except for when Macklemore posted it on Instagram that where it became in appropriate.

Can rap music ever transcend race and class? Or is it too indelibly tied to black urban culture?

I believe that rap music can't rise above race and class although white artist can create a new sound like some have before Eminem and Mac Miller are examples of two prominent white artists but they should fall under the Hip hop category and not into rap. I believe Macklemore should be in the hip hop or pop category as well. As for rap transcending race and class I doubt it ever I will because of the meaning behind rap, it was used as a tool in hard times, to fight against racism, poverty, and many other hardships that black Americans had to face. It is fort hat reason that I believe rap will forever be a black music type because of the history they've with it.

Blog Reflection

​The first piece in my portfolio is a personality profile on an engineer. I included this piece on my blog because I feel that it is one of my more completed pieces, the length and writing style is more thought out then some of the other of my assignment. To do this personality profile I had to find an engineer to interview and then set up a time and place. After the interview everything goes a lot quicker, when I had all the information I needed I sat down and began writing the piece. I believed that this piece was strong because of descriptive sentences with good tone an example is “ All in all Chris leads a busy life, but not all of it is focused on his career, he likes to focus on what matters in life, friends, family, and sports.”  A weakness of the piece could be length but also scattered plot, I was all over the place writing the piece because it was my first profile. The second piece I put in my blog was my college essay, I wrote this piece and published it to my blog because it is one piece I tried on, and cared about. The process for writing a college essay is to choose one of the designated options given by colleges and then answer the statement or question they choose for you. The option I chose was to write about a place I feel perfectly content at. It is a very strong essay because of my voice and description of the place that I write about. A weakness is that I couldn’t find a fitting ending to it, so it is left open ended which I hope I can change. In the beginning of the year we had to write a short paragraph on our previous writing history and the goals we hope to accomplish in this class. One of my goal for this class was that I hoped to develop the fluidity of my writing with a nice style, so it wasn’t choppy and dull. I haven’t been able to work on this yet because we haven’t had creative style writing yet, we’ve only had personality profiles and essays on a subject, the only real chance were one or two short stories we did in class. A weakness of writing for me was actually being able to sit-down and crank out decent lengths of writing in a proficient way. I seem to be slowly improving in this category throughout the year, and hopefully turn it into a skill. This first semester of journalism has been interesting and I hope that the next semester will be unique too.

College Essay

The smell of fresh cut grass, the sight of dirt gently swirling in rays of sun, rap music blasting out the trunk of my car, I am back in the dirt parking lot over looking my football field. With kids giggling on the playground, young boys playing baseball on the diamond in the back, and young men bashing heads on the field, it shows my past all in one serene landscape. Although the season isn't currently over I can still feel the pain of not coming back next year for two a days in the blistering heat of the summer, and practices that go on until itis almost snowing and pitch black out in the winter. This is the place where nothing else matters, it makes me live in the moment, leaving the past behind me and the future ahead of me.

When playing football I can put everything aside, I am completely focused on the here and now. On a football field you live a life time, you go through ups and downs, happiness, sadness, and most importantly the feeling of family. The reason I am perfectly content in this field is because I have known no where else, where I have felt so close to my friends to be able to call them my brothers, it is where we have cried, laughed, bled and fought together. There is no other spot I would rather play or hang out, it is a place I can call home. For the the past eleven years it has been a center in my life, an anchor, I always know that I can go back and reminisce.

Throughout my high school career I have gone through some major changes, I have gotten and lost jobs, I have gained a license and vehicle, relationships with teachers and friends have gone down and up, it has as expected been a crazy high school experience. Though the one thing that stays constant is the field, through out my child hood and high school  have gone to the same field every year for eleven years. It has been a center, having the same great feeling of stepping on to it the first time after a long winter, the feeling of coming back to a familiar place, it is a feeling you will seldom feel, and never replace. I'm glad that I can always conjure up that feeling, or revisit the place which brings back such fond memories.

Personality Profile: Engineer

         Although you can find him driving around in his big Toyota tundra, Chris does care about the environment. An avid recycler and composted, Chris can be seen enjoying nature to its fullest by biking, or boating through Maines serene landscapes. These are just a few of his hobbies while his main love his working. Chris is an environmental engineer who works in Freeport, although he hasn't always worked there. After completing four years in UMO's engineering program, which Chris said was very intense, he was able to get a job working for the state. After working for the state governemnt he got a job with Mechanical Engineers in Portland until 2000. In the year 2000 Chris and an old work friend started their own business called MacMillan & Donelly. Recently Chris and Tim sold their company and joined a group called Power Engineers which is based in freeport. Since Chris once owned his own company I asked him whether be thought running his own company compared to working in a corporate structure, and he replied " there is more paper work and policy, but compared to other companies, the one I work for (power engineers) does a good job at balancing that.".

         After so many years working Chris said that its still interesting because of the people and companies he consults for are unique and all the projects I undertake are always diffrent. His wife said he loves his job because the rewarding feeling of using knowledge to help solve people's problems. When asked if there was any negatives to his job he thought for a long time, and he finally decided the only complaint he has is it i am a project manager so there is more time on the computer in the office and less in the field, which he doesn't consider that a very negative part. When asked what is the main skill your learned from high school that helps you the most on the job, Chris replied with organization and prioritizing. "It's really important that I get the tasks I am assigned done on time, so having good organization and prioritizing skills makes that a lot easier.". College for Chris was a lot of work, but it has payed off. It allows him to do the things he enjoys most in life other then helping people. All in all Chris leads a busy life, but not all of it is focused on his career, he likes to focus on what matters in life, friends, family, and sports.