Buy this CD!

Alright, I’m actively courting codgerhood here, but I don’t like rap. Or hip-hop. Or whatever else the young whippersnappers call “music.”

But I just spent ten bucks on a rap CD (well, partially rap), and I love it!

If you’ve been to a Georgia Tech football game this season, you’ve seen the music video for “A Perfect Option” up on the big screen. That’s the second video by a pair of recent GT graduates who call themselves The GTGs (after their campus email addresses); the first was “Take the M-Train.” (Which I have seen seriously discussed by Gary Schuster, and which took up a good chunk of the College of Engineering advisory board last spring!)

I may not be the biggest fan of their musical style, but the kids are undeniably talented. (Listen to some of the other tracks on “Look to your Left, Look to your Right” and you’ll see that they really do display some musical ability!) But the point of this album isn’t the music quality, it’s the lyrics.

Anybody who has ever been a Tech student, or known a Tech student (or married a Tech student!), will understand The Ratio:

Sir, if you got a daughter

Throw her in some white and gold

And put her on the campus

To help us raise the ratio

And “Take the M-Train” raises valid points about engineering students switching to management:

Why would ya take the harder route when there’s an easy way?

See what all tha fuss about, we callin’ it tha M-Train

Those engineers are gonna pout, you’ll be their bosses one day

It’s where all the ladies are hidin’ out

We’re callin’ it tha M-Train

Now, the GTGs have published a CD, containing these and other songs, two of the videos, and some hysterical phone calls for George P. Burdell. If you were ever a Tech student, you’ll understand why I almost drove off the road laughing at Track 4!

They position themselves as “Music for the Georgia Tech Community,” and that’s exactly right. Talent and audacity like this should be encouraged. Go ahead, spend ten bucks on their CD. Buy a second copy at a stocking stuffer for a GT person in your life. You’ll be glad you did!

Over a hundred years we been on Grant Field

Bobby Dodd, John Heisman, yo they all been here

Under the shadow of the tower

Whistle blowin’ every hour

When that Wreck rolls out

You feel that Yellow Jacket Power!