Slope Day Lineup Announced

On Slope Day, held this year on May 1st, Asher Roth will open for the Pussycat Dolls. This is pretty good news overall.

There were a few articles in the Sun earlier this semester about how Slope Day funding was cut due to the university budget situation. The S.A. stepped in with $30,000 to help offset the cuts and (possibly) score some political points before the assembly's elections.

I think this will be the best lineup in my three years at Cornell. In 2007, T.I. was the headliner. While T.I. has some great producers who have helped create quality albums for him, he wasn't the best live performer. I've been disappointed at every rap concert I've attended, since rappers usually sound much worse live than they do on recorded tracks. Also, most of the biggest rap songs are compilations between multiple artists. Unless they all happen to be on stage (i.e. at the Grammy's), a lot of the effect is lost.

As a result of this fact, combined with the vivid memory of T.I. asking the crowd to shoot the students who were throwing water bottles at him, we had no rappers last year. Gym Class Heroes headlined, and while they only have a couple of songs worth hearing, they gave a pretty good performance. There put 7-8 people on stage, so there's a lot of energy and interaction with the crowd. GCH were balanced by Ted Leo and Hot Hot Heat, two opening acts who satisfied the purists with quality music, albeit without the commercial success of GCH.

Asher Roth is pretty much a slam dunk choice for this year. Roth's first CD has yet to come out, but he's well known due to his hit song "I Love College," which is essentially a tribute to sex, drinking games, and college life in general. It goes perfectly with the fratty atmosphere of Slope Day. He's a young white man from Pennsylvania, but he's received praise from the hip hop community. While T.I.'s themes of violence, drug dealing, and the dirty south were lost on many Cornellians, Roth's music will hit closer to home. His CD drops (appropriately) on 4/20, so it'll be cool to hear some songs from it.

The Pussycat Dolls are a similar choice to Gym Class Heroes. Not particularly quality music, but they have some well-known songs that the crowd will get into. And even if the music isn't great, seeing five scantily clad women dancing around the stage will be more exciting than seeing T.I. stand around with his mike. Lastly, their name will provide plenty of fodder to greek organizations looking for funny, suggestive slogans for their Slope Day t-shirts.