Music is a universal language. A colorblind form of expression.Senior Flip Caderao confronts stereotypes with syncopated witforging hip-hop with an ideology of”laughter-as-the-best-medicine.”
It’s unique, blunt, street truisms catch our attention andmove our feet and its truth.
Caderao who also goes by the hip-hop alias “J thePrimate,” has recently used his lyrical talent to create”The SMU Song.”
This confrontational anthem has attracted students to the dancefloor with its poppy beats and janglin’ rhymes and compelsthem to consider the undeniable commonality between everyone thatattends SMU: the mascot, fashionistas, bus parties, the U-Leecafeteria crowd and pony ears.
“Besides the alma mater, there is not another positivesong written about our university,” Caderao said. “Ifeel I poke fun of all the stereotypes in a constructiveway.”
Written and recorded in the bedroom of his Binkley Avenueapartment, Caderao finished “The SMU Song” in just twodays, having little idea it would become as successful as it has intwo short months since its internet release.
Oftentimes the most appropriate and well-loved anthems orslogans are the unofficial ones that speak of a group orcountry’s victories in the face of adversity. The songtestifies that at SMU, “we’re not snobs, we’rejust better than you.”
This is the stuff that binds all political campus bodies —on the field and in classrooms. The lyrics admit that,”…this school’s the passion/ All you cats inyour high styled fashion/ listen’n to me cuz’ I’mthe one who brought it up/ Louis Vuitton purses and Polos with thecollar’s up/ rollin’ and ridin’ BMW markings/those are nice cars but there’s no place forparking.”
Senior Amy Messer recalls the first time she heard the song atMustang Coral just before school started. “The first yearsdidn’t necessarily get it,” Messer said.
“All the upper classmen were dancing and going nutsbecause we could really identify with it.” After the firstweeks of class and the first football game, however, freshmen couldrelate on an entirely new level.
Caderao’s lyrics unify all that walk the campus regardlessof their ethnicity, major, religion or gender. No matter whatclasses students take, what parties they attend, how much theirclothes cost or the accent that colors their voices as they ordersandwichs at Umphrey, “The SMU Song,” tags them in itsgood-natured game. Everyone is an equal part of the team.
“It is good to see that SMU students can poke fun atthemselves and not take it all too seriously and at the same timeare working to break through the preconceived ideas that many holdtrue,” said Caroline Casey, ja unior at University ofTexas.
Caderao’s music reflects a desire to create bridgesbetween social islands around him, connect people with lyrics thatprovoke discussion, stimulate thought and, in the end, make themsee that beneath the “fashion” and the symbols thatsurround all students, everyone is having to make a go of it— whether to find a parking place or a couch to sleep on.
“I love the fact that I am so different from thestereotype. Not that the stereotype is a bad thing, it’s thatit helps me grow individually and provides me with betterperspective,” Caderao said.
Although he wishes he could have devoted more of the song toDean Jasper Neel, the “prof in polka dot bowtie,” he ispleased the way it came out.
Caderao will be performing “The SMU Song” at theFamily Weekend Talent Show in the McFarlin Auditorium. To hear”The SMU Song,” visit http://point5covenant.com/Flip.
