ARTS
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 5, 2000 -9
'Komposit aims to transcend borders
through music
By W. Jacari Melton
Daily Arts Writer
Komposit. The name of this promotional
and DJ crew has become synonymous in the
University community with packed events
t venues like the All-Star Cafe and the
Cavern Club, not to mention countless
house parties and student group functions.
"The hypest parties I have ever been to have
been hosted by the Komposit crew," claims
Engineering junior Jason Johnson. Judging
from positive feedback like this, it seems as
if Komposit has been successful in its
attempt to create a New York club vibe
within the confines of Ann Arbor. However,
Komnposit's goals stretch further than draw-
ing crowds to Church Street or making a
urge profit. Instead, they hope to promote
diversity and bring people together through
music.
Then first-year students Nihar Kulkarni
and Kumar Rao originally came together in
October of 1996. Sam Eliad, current Engi-
neering senior Fun Cheung and current
LSA seniors Luke Bassis. Willie Cho and
Wil Hao joined them soon after to become
the founders of Komposit. Currently, the crew
consists of six members. Included in the lineup
now are Rao, a Business senior, LSA seniors
Clint Carte, Kulkarni and Edson Sasso along
with LSA juniors Eliad and Ram Dharmarajan.
Eliad said each member brings their own unique
quality to the group. "We hit all aspects," he
said. "Geography, class and mentalities but
we're brought together through hip-hop. We
achieve diversity."
Despite the diversity found within Komposit
and the statistical data of the University, Rao
feels that there is a lack of interaction between
different groups, particularly racial and ethnic,
on campus. He describes the phenomenon of
seeing people together during the day and then
separating into different racial or ethnic cliques
at night as "disheartening." Deejaying, Rao
feels, serves as "a venue to celebrate similari-
ties;' because people, regardless of ethnic back-
ground, are able to enjoy the music in a similar
manner. To further address this issue, Kulkarni
added that Komposit's goal is to "breakdown
racial, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring
diversity through hip-hop."
LSA senior and Komposit fan Sona Bajaria
said she believes the group is doing exactly what
it envisions. "I am impressed by the diversity
within the group itself," she said, describing the
group's diverse members as "a significant factor
in bringing together people from many different
racial and cultural backgrounds" at their events.
Komposit's reputation for attracting crowds to
dance and hear their blend of hip-hop, R&B,
reggae and Latin has allowed them to spin at a
wide variety of events. On campus, Rao said
they have worked with the AIDS Charity Ball
and other campus groups like the Indian Ameri-
can Student Association and the Mixed Initia-
tive. He stresses that whenever they can help
out, Komposit will. Kulkarni added that their
endeavors have "never been about the money,'
but rather doing something positive.
Off campus, Komposit continues to explore
new ventures. In addition to performing at local
venues like the Cavern Club, they have done
work at Detroit's St. Andrew's Hall as well as
clubs in Chicago and are scheduled to head to
Boston within the next few weeks. In the near
future they would also like to take their talents to
Los Angeles. Recently, they began working with
"We hit all aspects ... Geography, class and
mentalities but we're brought together through
hip hop. We achieve diversity." - Eliad Dharmarajan
LSA junior
the Internet company [tradequake.com] and in
the past have been involved with Sony. Group
members can see Komposit becoming a market-
ing company some day. However, they have not
forgotten their efforts in promoting diversity on
campus. Komposit members are working on ini-
tiating multi-cultural dialogues with the help of
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, New York,
as well as havying a multi-cultural fair. Members
hope to bring the vibe created at their current
events into those they have in their future plans.
Through all their different activities, Kom-
posit believes they have accomplished several
things. For one. Rao points out, there have not
been any major incidents of violence at their
events, disproving the myth that hip-hop ori-
ented crowds are prone to violent acts. Also,
ChuChu Rocket,'
interstellar game
From the simple but evil minds at
Sonic Team comes "ChuChu Rocket,"
the first fully online Dreamcast title.
It's also the first full-fledged Dreamcast
arty game. So, logically, it's the first
ull fledged online party game for the
Dreamcast.
ChuChus are space mice that you
need to get on board rocket ships in
order to escape from the space cats
Grade: A-
ChuChu
Rocket
For Dreamcast
Sega
Reviewed by
oai1y Arts Writer
Ted Watts
known as
KapuKapus. The
ChuChus move
faster than the
KapuKapus, but
both species
move with the
intelligence of
oxygen deprived
fruit flies, turning
right when they
hit a wall, going
The mice are meant for your rocket
ship and the cats for those of other
players. Every cat that enters your
rocket kills and presumably eats one
third of the mice that you have so far
managed to get into your rocket and
keep there. Most mice normally add
one to your score, but some add 50,
and others start a roulette wheel spin-
ning that can vastly alter the game. It
can precipitate an attack on the other
players by hordes of cats, huge
amounts of mice or a change in the
speed of game play.
All this takes place with four play-
ers, either humans or Als of varying
intelligence, trying to steal the
ChuChus the others have diligently
been trying to direct towards them-
selves while plaguing those same play-
ers with hungry KapuKapus. That
doesn't sound so bad, but when facing
three independent players at cross pur-
poses with you and streams of space
mammals uncontrollably rushing hither
and yon. And, since there's only
enough fuel for one space ship to
escape the KapuKapus, only the rocket
with the most ChuChus will survive.
To win the game, you need to launch
three rockets.
You also get to gloat if you're win-
ning and taunt your opponents when
you're losing. They're only mice, so it's
not very mean. Of course, what good is
taunting in a game when you can
DEAD
Continued from Page 9
satisfying manner. "Soul Calibur"
largely failed to make use of its beauti-
ful settings; "DOA2" allows players to
damage one another by throwing each
other off of roofs, into various electri-
fied objects or through stained glass
windows whose shards glitter in the air
around the falling body. This i an
obvious improvement from "VF3"'s
interesting but very humdrum back-
ground interactions on the order of hav-
ing sloping stairs that might improve an
attack position in a scene that might be
considered shamefully simple by the
standards of its fellows.
"DOA2"'s story mode pits its 12
characters against each other in a fight-
ing contest. The Hulk Hogan-looking
said, "We're running a business," which
ires a great deal of management and
>nsibility on the part of all members.
posit's ability to draw support and have
larity seems to be a testament to their
.ss in that field. Yet probably the most
rtant thing they have accomplished is
ng other students interact and forming
s between themselves as Komposit mem-
"We reach people of all backgrounds"
we all have a common goal," Eliad said
ursuing this goal of bringing people
her, members of Komposit have forged
g relationships amongst themselves that
hope will translate into greater unity
en people of different backgrounds
in the University community.
pro wrestler has to win to get his
wrestler daughter to be less sexy, the
daughter has to win to be more sexy,
the opera singer has to win to come to
terms with having her mother shot to
death all over said singer's face and so
on. For some reason, all of these quests
end up with fighting some sort of
Pinocchio/Santa Clause/Incredible
Hulk spirit called Evil Tengu who
claims loudly that everything is his
delusion. I guess he's the designer of
the game.
There's a bumper crop of other
modes, including not only the requisite
versus and practice modes but also tag
team matches for big time fun. Put
everything together and you have a
solid platter of entertainment that goes
beyond the limits you might expect in a
cheesecake fighter.
in the direction of arrows players drop
and otherwise travel straight.
And there's no complicated board to
make the game any harder it sounds.
he game moves in two dimensions,
and even though the characters are
nicely rendered in one more dimension
than that, the angle of view doesn't
interfere with seeing what you're doing
the way most games ofthis ilk do.
The player does not actually move
anyone; control is effected by diverting
the streams of ChuChus and the occa-
sional KapuKapu in various directions.
scream all you want at the guy next to
you ? Since you can get online and play
against someone in Japan, the in game
messages become much more impor-
tant.
Getting on line takes a little bit of
work, but not too much. You need to
have internet access and be sure you
have your online settings and an email
address entered. Once you do that, you
need to register with the ChuChu scrv-
e. Then it's time to jump into a chat
room and join a game online. This is
all much easier with the Dreamcast
keyboard, especially the talking to peo-
ple online part. Sega is providing a
slew of servers to host ChuChu games,
Courtesy of Sega
and it's free. While you're connecting,
you, get a run of warnings on the order
of "gosh kids, don't give out your per-
sonal information to creepy strangers
in chat rooms" and "hey, don't piss on
people on our server" Nothing is ever
truly free.
Add to all this a pretty hard puz-
zle mode (where you can even make
your own and give them to people
online) and a very low price and you
have a shipshape little application.
ChuChu Rocket uses more than a
solid fuel booster to be a blast.
.5 _________________________
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s : & ;out
- AssL
TS 75CALLE
DRINKS M
UFR O ,IICK A EL
2000 Spring session: May 1 -June 23
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The University of Michigan-Dearborn
invites you to be a guest student for the
Summer 2000 semester. We have three
options to accommodate students who are
home for summer vacation.
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