Two students at the University of Wisconsin have popularized a rap song about “coasties,” a school term for students who come from out of state (East Coast, West Coast). According to the Associated Press the students, Quincy Harrison and Cliff Grefe (known as Quincy and Beef, respectively), “wanted to have fun with a cultural icon unique to the University of Wisconsin-Madison: the coastie.” Sconnies are the in-state students. While many appreciate the song, the rap has stirred concerns in Madison that the tune is anti-Semitic, or at least insensitive.
The College Guide generally tries not to be overly PC about colleges and their traditions, however recently acquired, but here are some verses of the Coastie Song:
What’s a coastie?/
Black tights all day/
That’s a coastie/
Starbucks big shades!/
She a coastie/
Always blowin’ daddy’s money/
You a coastie/
My east coast jewish honey
What’s a coastie?/
White tee v-neck/
That’s a coastie/
She always think that she the best/
She a coastie/
North face with the uggs/
You a coastie/
But ima still show some love
My Jewish American princess baby/
Walks wit a swag and talks so crazy/
East coast accent,/
East coast fashion/
Black spandex wit an ass like Bascom!/
Smokin on a cig as she passin,/
Blackberry messagin,/
Multitaskin/
Take off the glasses,/
Lemme see your face/
It’s a hot summer day/
Still rockin North Face./
Gotta Starbucks cup, yeah you my star Bucky/
I know you live there but I could really get you lucky/
So i said honey, be my lady/
She said, “kk…Ima meet you at the KK”
Wow. I mean, really? Harrison protests that he’s actually flirting with one coastie and “If anything, it’s complimentary.” Well good luck with that; as Carol Kane’s character in Annie Hall said sarcastically: “That was wonderful. I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype.”
There is some discussion at Madison about whether or not the song was sparked by school housing policy, which by Wisconsin law favors in-state students. Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, who has clearly never listened to the lyrics of the song, “wants to study the housing issue further and tamp down any hard feelings caused by the song,” according to the AP article.
Incidentally, only Grefe is a sconnie; Harrison is from Bloomington, Indiana.
