Friday, December 6, 2013 - 5 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com UNIVERSAL Walker got his first big break in 1998's "Pleasantville." In remembrance * of Paul Walker KITTY Meow, am I riiigght? World of hip hop moves to broaden horizons 'Fast and Furious' actor found dead after car crash By AKSHAY SETH Daily B-Side Editor There's something to be said about "normality." Is it a picket fence, closely surround- ing the red brick houses that float unnoticed on islands of unkempt summer grass? Is it those tired winter afternoons spent racing down miounds of snow next to the neighbor- hood cul-de-sac? Or maybe the crinkled ticket stubs you find in your pockets after a night at the movies. No one really knows. But we all have ideas of what we think - or Want - it to mean. Paul Walker, who died in a car crash last Saturday, saw nor- mality in his daughter, Meadow. She was unplanned, the first taste of consequence in a life of irrelevant one-night stands and detached infidelities. It was before his first real break in Hollywood, before he became the unassuming man who cat- egorized his career with the words, "I thought I'd make one movie and be done, but I kept working and now I'm 38 and don't know what the fuck hap- pened. That's it in a nutshell." Initially, Walker turned away from his responsibilities. He chipped in financially, mailing in a regular stream of checks to his former girlfriend to make sure Meadow wouldn't be in need of the things he lacked growing up, but he was never there himself. He focused on * his career, clinging to that tran- sient lifestyle, "living out of bags" and unable, even, to call anywhere "home" until he was 32. Things changed in 2011. Nearly 40, Walker did what he'd never considered before: He moved in with his daughter. It was a new challenge - the one he felt he had spent his entire adulthood working toward, and for once, he was OK with being grounded by the permanence. It's a progression in personal- ity peculiarly suggestive of the franchise that made Walker a household name. The roaring cars, plumes of nitrous exhaust and vibrant, over-the-top story- * lines sold the tickets, but "Fast and Furious" 's beating heart was always family - the brief reaffirmation of brotherhood that came with looking out the passenger window and being able to lock eyes with people 4 who you knew would lie down in traffic to protect you. As the engines hummed beneath the weight of those neon-soaked nights, Brian O'Conner became the closest thing a big-budgeted, "dumb" summer extravaganza could afford to relatable dynamic- ity. Dom was unmoving - a monolithic dedication to honor, paternalistically guiding how the story unfolded, but it was Walker's easy blue eyes and patent accessibility that let the films distance themselves from hollowness. It wasn't that we could never tell what he'd do next - every character in the "Fast and Furi- ous" universe except, perhaps, Hobbs, is a beacon of predict- ability - it's just that he made it seem normal. No matter how cheesy or overblown the lines may have looked on paper, he spoke them with an odd sto- icism ringing of the endurance that comes hand-in-hand with experience. There was a visible calmness in that experience, a calmness that cut through the bombastically fiery explosions and unnecessarily loud plot twists at every turn. Yet, it's intriguing to note how it wasn't always that way. "The Fast and the Furious," the first film in the franchise, features an obviously young- er Walker whose character approaches his surroundings with a high-pitched innocence that's invisible in the later installments. The lines aren't much different; still short, plain, to-the-point statements of fact that never once approach the flowery monologues about the meaning of life and fam- ily we see Vin Diesel spewing every 30 minutes. But in those first two films, hearing Walker's delivery is like being hit by the new-car smell of a Mustang you just drove off the lot. The persistent traces of potential are there, but what you remember are the swerv- ing fluctuations in emotion that Walker dampens by the time "Fast 5" and "Fast 6" roll around. In that change, there's the unavoidable recognition that, like his character, he's finally at peace with the life he's chosen for himself. Each movie is still arace, the exaggerated depic- tion of a struggle to find some trace of stability in life. But O'Conner's journey is our own. He's fighting to make a place for himself in a world completely defined by the finish line. And in that last scene of "Fast 6," sitting around a table of food with the people he calls his closest friends, we get an idea of what that means. He never planned on being a family man. It just happened. He chose the people he let into his world, and in doing so, found the calmness he'd spent an entire lifetime struggling to accept. The jok- ing blue eyes and smirking grin didn't look out of place any- more. They had endured. . O'Conner, like Walker, found meaning. It doesn't really mat- ter what it was - skids of burned tire marks stretched across the expressway or a daughter he could finally call his own. Because it was his. His normality. By LEJLA BAJGORIC DailyArts Writer Today, it seems like anyone can record a few verses in his or her spare time, upload them to YouTube and dub themselves a "rapper." Some people love this; some don't. Some retain tradi- tional standards that newcomers must meet in order to be recog- nized as rappers, while others would describe Miley's verse on "23" as rap - because, well, the lines rhyme, she's talking about Jordans and she mentioned a '90s rap group (shout-out to Naughty by Nature), and isn't that enough? Well, to each his own. But here's what I think. I think that rap expanding its target demographics and reach- ing more people in new ways with new sounds and new con- ceptsisdope and natural.I'mnot a supporter of some newcomers, though, who (and maybe not intentionally) suck the artistry out of the art, almost making a mockery out of it. I realize that, right now, hip hop's presence outshines other types of music; everyone wants to throw up the roc be on the But sonal people for CL tion of These sitive artists they u becom for (becau about club I' Kit ty] bt I degree hope rant, 1 must my b cause we're all bad bitches think of it as a belated gift). Her inside - I know this. name is Kitty (used to be Kitty t it starts to feel like a per- Pryde), a 21-year-old Daytona attack, an invasion, for Beach artist whose music blew who want nothing more up about two years ago. Remem- hristmas than a resurrec- ber "OK Cupid," or "Orion's f the golden age of hip hop. Belt" - that song with Riff Raff? people become extra sen- And maybe I shouldn't have when they discover new revealed that she did a song with s who don't sound like what Riff Raff, but don't let me lose sually approve of and they you now. Danny Brown is a huge te quick to dismiss them, fan of hers if that helps, because understandable reasons it should. use if I hear one more song Many of us can't directly poppin' champagne in the relate to trap music. We spend m gonna pop... sorry). more time on YouTube than on the corner, and we "grew up on the shy side, the free Wi-Fi side," * where stayin' alive wasn't really ty is not your a concern. This is Kitty. And she pical rapper may not be rapping about regu- a Pe larly rapped-about topics, but it give her a the thing is, she's still keeping it real. She's aware that her pres- chance. ence may be controversial and has even referred to herself as the white girl ruining rap, but she has bars for days. feel you to the highest On "R.R.E.A.", Kitty reveals e, hip-hop heads, and I that she's just "a little Nipsey you believe me after this Hussle plus a little pixie dust," because there is a favor I my favorite description of her. ask of you all (plus it was I'll stop rambling now and let irthday last Monday, so you decide for yourself. WANT TO WRITE FOR THE DAILY NEXT SEMESTER? APPLY TO THE DAILY ARTS SECTION AND BECOME A PART OF OUR DREAM TEAM. E-mail arts@ michigandaily. com to request an application today! VISIT WWW.MICHIGANDAILY. COM/BLOGS/THE+FILTER FOR THE LATEST POP CULTURE NEWS! Walker leaves behind a 15-year-old daughter.