Midterm...

Differentiating herself is something Chelsea G aka MszEdukated is fond of, since her younger years. She comes from Danbury, CT now a sophmore at Lehigh and continues to press the limits with her eclectic style and personality. Her upbringing has a lot to do with her love for hip hop, her parents enstilled the art of music in her at a young age, mainly R&B and old school as she grew older she proceeded to listen to these and the music of her time. Coming from CT, one would think that her take on urban lifestyle would be much different than it is, it is often said that she was a metropolitan child misplaced. It is clear she has something to say as a young black woman in America, but she speaks for everyone.

MszEdukated started really writing as a form of expression around the age of 10. It first started as a means to express her anger and frustrations from issues with siblings and disagreements with the parents, short stories, and a little poetry here and there. Literature was always one of her fond pastimes, she read authors such as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker at a young age for pure recreation. Over the years, she has stuck with this and really divulged into this poetry realm and is running with it. The urban venacular as has always been an interest and she continues to explore the art and intriguing persona of the metaphor and similes with thought provoking phrases. She refers to poetry as, "It's the lyrics, words, speech whatever you call it, of my heart, which doesn't have a mouth, so it's relayed through my mind and pen." She was always more of a timid writer, wasn't fond of openly sharing pieces, but upon arrival to Lehigh has decided to step out of her shell and speak up, sharing her work at different events and collaborating with classmates with their works as well. She has even begun to explore the art of freestyling and rapping.

This piece reflects the division between a salary versus a reality as relates to hip-hop and MszEdukated's take on it. It's relaying her beliefs on the negative influence she thinks capitalism takes on the true essence of hip-hop sometimes and how it has seemingly divulged from a true art form into a money-making arena full of gimmicks. A salary, represents the a skewed version of hip-hop, and has just become a venue for craziness that sells, these artists are merely here for a quick buck. Reality, is real hip hop, a real story to tell, a real lifestyle, R-E-A-L-ity. Her emphasis placed on certain words really conveys the message and let's us know as listeners and observers that this is something she's quite passionate about. However, she's soft spoken and might be often hard to hear her, but has been working greatly on trying to be heard. She has to work on commanding the stage and really capturing and engaging her audience, and should probably start with memorizing her pieces, to allow for some mellow, yet influential theatrics during her performances. Failing to due, makes her seem to lack confidence and we believe it's in there, so she needs to let it out and go.

MszEdukated is continuously working on different pieces and is truly a fan of hip-hop and lives it everyday. She yearns to grow and continue growing as an up and coming artist in '09. With some hard work and consistent motivation there's no doubt in our minds that she could potentially go far and make a name for herself.