By Michael Penn II - The Daily Cardinal

News

The new 'Key' to igniting patriotism

By By Michael Penn II | Mar. 12, 2013

God bless the Internet. God damn the Internet. I’ll get that etched on my gravestone when I perish from a life of fast food and good music. What is the latest reason for such an attitude, you say? Well… did you know about the new White House online petition system that gives a smidgen of control back to the people in the democratic process? You might think we’re currently drowning in solutions to world hunger, ending to all foreign wars, the dependency on foreign oil… and we probably are. But again… this is the Internet, so someone started a petition to change our National Anthem to R. Kelly’s remix to “Ignition.”

News

Why now is the time to separate 'Harlem' from 'the shake'

By By Michael Penn II | Feb. 26, 2013

If Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” is one thing, it is a damn sure success. Though it took an entire year, Harry Rodrigues has singlehandedly dethroned “Gangnam Style,” reached number one on the Billboard and created a single that rose from the ashes of SoundCloud obscurity into being purchased over 250,000 times in a week. And the arguments… so… many… damn… arguments.

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'Falling Out' from musical expectations

By By Michael Penn II | Feb. 11, 2013

Yes, they’re back and looking as undeniably emo as ever.

News

Beef: it’s what’s for Twitter

By By Michael Penn II | Jan. 29, 2013

I’m a proud carnivore: the beef is served on my dinner plate. Slabs of tenderness, doused in grease and love with some sort of potato-based side dish; perhaps a cola, if you will. So pardon my disappointment… but I feel like there’s a shortage of beef in hip-hop right now. We’re getting a little too used to the cloned meat we taste through subliminals in songs. The hors d’oeuvres we scrape up from an empty shot on Twitter or someone straight flexin’ on Instagram leaves me, to simplify, empty.

COLUMNS

On Weeknds: a letter to Abel

By By Michael Penn II | Nov. 16, 2012

This is a disappointed letter to Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, who released a series of R&B mixtapes in 2011 that skyrocketed to popularity and landed a deal with Universal Republic records. The label has rereleased the trio of mixtapes in a remastered set called Trilogy.

COLUMNS

The lost art of listening to full albums

By By Michael Penn II | Nov. 8, 2012

I have 40.5 days, 95.22 gigabytes, of music in my iTunes library—and that’s only what iTunes has accounted for.

COLUMNS

Internet kills possibility of achieving hip-hop 'classic'

By Brittany Jones and By Michael Penn II | Oct. 25, 2012

I thank whichever higher power exists for the Internet. But God knows I can despise the people on it. I also thank the aforementioned higher power for not having the Internet explode in popularity in the 1990s. Not in the overall user sense, but a musical one; I am so happy hip-hop was not the way it is currently in the 1990s.

COLUMNS

"A Post-Newsprint JournalWave" critique of subgenres

By By Michael Penn II | Oct. 18, 2012

Let’s play a game. I want you to invent a word for a genre that doesn’t exist until you create it and use it for generalizing music that has yet to be categorized in a way that makes one feel safe. It can only be one word and takes two steps to effectively create: the first part of the word must be an adjective, preferably abstract or otherwise absent from basic conversation, and the second part must end in either “wave,” “core,” “step,” “hop” or “trap” (for the relevant hipsters out there). If you’re feeling innovative, add “post” to the beginning for extra historical value. How many can you conjure from the recesses of your socialized mind?

News

Mousetrap of today manipulates emcee's youthful talent

By By Michael Penn II | Oct. 12, 2012

In today’s hip-hop climate, youthful exuberance is once again exemplified through the teen talents of today… for better or worse. Leading the playing field: Joey Bada$$, Earl Sweatshirt, Robb Bank$, Chief Keef and a plethora of other digital phenoms ranging from the revivalist to the refined to the ratchet.

Wisconsin drops fourth straight in dramatic fashion

Matt Marheine, Matt Marheine

COLUMNS

Saluting show sobriety

By By Michael Penn II | Oct. 4, 2012

To the horror of peers and piss-scented dudes alike, my friend and I recently embarked on a journey to an EDM show in Madison… sober. For many readers, this may never be a possibility to consider, but allow me to enlighten you: It is an option that is as doable as it is enjoyable. I wrote this guide for people like us: the lone wolf of the Zach Galifianakis-led wolf pack that does not happen to partake in certain substances, legal or not, when attending music events. Since arriving to college, I have planted the soles of several pairs of tattered shoes upon the hardwood floors of many events, all of which I have attended sober. (Save the “You’re better than I am…” speech for someone who isn’t human.) While this mental hitchhike occurred through genres trap, indie, and the like, I discovered a formulaic approach to surviving every DJ set and underwhelming moshpit one may encounter through their time in Madison or anywhere else on the planet, no PBR necessary.