Bike racks around the campus are becoming more crowded by the year. If you live in Pine, Oak, or Cypress, it is tough to find a place for your bike. So what is being do about this ever growing issue? Is there a plan to installing more bike racks? Is there a demand for more bike racks? Most importantly what do bike riders think about the issue.

I think the issue is big enough to attract a big audience. There is a large number of bike riders in UNCP. It’s also safe to say those bike riders have friends that know about their bike, so they may be interested. For those who are planning on buying a bike this article may influence their purchase.

In the University Center there used to be three LG Flat Screen HD TV’s. There are now only two. There are many rumors that are going around the gamers that frequent the TV’s. However, no one really knows what happened.

I plan to write a story about what happened to the missing TV. The issue is not significant enough to attract most readers. So I plan to write the story as a compelling mystery that makes the reader want to read more. With an attractive title and interesting quotes I think the story can develop into something interesting.

Pembroke day is an annual event here at UNC Pembroke where students, professionals and associations can interact with each other. Phi Beta Sigma was one of the many fraternity present. With their white and blue laced theme Greek letters, they were representing their organization with pride.

They were placed near a tree in front of Old Main with pamphlets and frat props. A stick coiled with white and blue stripes that they used to dance at a recent Yard Show at the UNCC. They were not there to prove who the better frat or school was, but “to promote Greek unity and give each fraternity and sorority a chance to show off who they are and where they come from,” said Sigma member Tre Robinson.

Robinson gave a brief overview of their history, founding in 1914 at Howard University. Their organizations goal is to help produce “successful young men who can make a difference,” Robinson continued. “Culture for service and Service for Humanity” is their long standing motto.

Many people typically miss fraternity tables. The only questions they asked were, “who are you and what do you do?” There is more to a greek organizations that can fit within the confines of Pembroke Day. However, they are worth understanding. With Phi Beta Sigma’s 98 year old heritage of excellence, future is bright for all of their memebers.

What Is Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop is a Culture that is based on 4 Elements of Entertainment.

The most common being Rap & Djing along with Breakdancing, and Graffiti.

Origins

The Origins of Hip-Hop comes from various trends in African American history and entertainment.

Rap

Before I tell the history I would like to clear this misconception up. Rap and Hip-Hop are often misinterpreted to being separate entities. Rap is simply one part of the whole that is Hip-Hop. So you can not have Rap or any of the other elements without Hip-Hop. No matter how good or bad the artist is, he’s apart of the culture Hip-Hop.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the history.

Rap has it’s origins Jamaica. Jamaica’s block parties consisted of a stage, a Disc Jockey, Big Speakers, and Performers. It was common for either a DJ or performer to rythmically chant along with the music. The topics would be about whatever the individual thought would please the crowd.

Kool Herc

I can not go any further without mentioning the Legendary DJ Kool Herc the father of Hip-Hop. He moved from Kingston, Jamaica to South Bronx New York. Here he became popular in his neighborhood for his epic block parties. He had an idea that rather than playing the whole song, why not only play the best part of the song for dancers of which is called the Break. And with that we can move on.

DJing

Now that you know a little bit about how Djing started…. let’s take break from Kool Herc for a bit

Graffiti

Graffiti is art that has existed since Cavemen. It’s all over the world through human history. Graffiti did not become the elaborate art form it is now until Cornbread. Cornbread was kid that wanted to impress a girl by Tagging his name. Eventually his tagging go so good, people thought it was cool and decided to do it too. Including Kool Herc who was a member of a Graffiti crew called Ex-Vandals.

Djing continued.

Now that we’re back to Kool Herc, we can finish his story of which is the story of Hip-Hop. Kool Herc may have started Djing, but Grandmaster Flash took it to the next level and used the turntables as an instrument. Instead of just focusing on the break, DJ Flash would focus on several different parts of a record of interest, resulting in him being able to focus not only on the break, but even words and phrases of a record.

Rapping continued….

The DJ back in the early days of Hip-Hop was the most important part of the party. So of course they are going to have an ego. Kool Herc would rap while Djing, but as Djing got more complex and competitive DJ’s couldn’t mix records and rap at the sametime. So why not let someone else come in and rap about how good the DJ was and how good of a time people were having. But eventually the rappers figured they were pretty good at rapping too, so they started talking about good they were and started becoming more creative with their rapping.

Breaking

All of this so people could have a good time and dance. One of the most exciting parts of the party being Break Dancers. Dancers that Dance to the Break Beat. The dances they used started out from popular James Brown dances. James Brown was one of the best dancers in show biz with his energetic often considered near acrobatic dance moves inspired kids to do them. But with talent comes competition. Before long people wanted to become better and was inspired to find or develop better more energetic moves to be the best. Taking moves gymnastics old African American dances for example. Competition is the element of Hip-Hop that drives innovation and it’s overall success.

Closing

All of this coming from a society of kids who were locked out of societies system threw racism and socioeconomic’s. Kids who once would have committed a crime or join a gang to survive or get noticed, came together in Hip-Hop to find a positive, peaceful way of expression and attention to better their lives and self-esteem. Kool Hercs block parties were glue that held it all together.

Jacuelane (Nikki) Scott is 28 year-old Senior here at UNCP for Journalism and will be the first in her family to graduate from college. With 3 kids, 5, 6, and 10, she is motivated to do the best she can to provide for them.

She has been active in the University’s Pineneedle Newspaper as a writer and photographer and has plans of working on UNCP’s Yearbook. She has also previously attended Fayetteville Technical College where she earned her Associate’s Degree.

Nikki has experience with her own personal blog, youtube, and online radio show. However due to technical difficulties those activities became less frequent. Today, she has a new computer and is now ready to pick those previous activities up again better than ever.

Ever since she visited the Pulitzer Museum she has had aspirations of having her name with rest of the Pulitzer winners. She is mostly interested in magazines. Working for Time Magazine would be a dream, but she would also be delighted to work for National Geographic Magazine as well. Eventually in her career she wants to write novels based on her journalistic adventures.

As a journalist she ultimately wants to write the truth. However, here original focus was in fashion, later on developing an interest in politics. This may have been sparked by a trip to The White House she was selected to visit. Here she had the opportunity to be part of a Press Conference. “Going to the white house showed me how tangible my dream to become a journalist is.” Nikki says.

The aspiring journalist has had the opportunity to visit India this Summer. Visiting the Himalayas for a week, then to Woman’s Monasteries in Tibetan villages. She also had the courage to climb a small mountain. In the future she plans on going to Brazil before the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.

Jaquelane Scott is an adventurous mother with ambitions to explore and share the world. Her future in journalism is as bright as her motherly smile.