After the worst FlashFest in recent memory, the All Campus Programming Board has issued an entertainment Band-Aid to this campus in an effort to fix all of the wrongs the organization committed last May.

It’s too bad that this Band-Aid -ÿknown as Chingy -ÿis previously used and coated in the dry blood from wounds caused by Mustard Plug and DJ Skribble last spring.

Chingy’s name might be recognizable -ÿbut so are the names of Yanni and John Tesh, and we definitely don’t want those artists coming to our campus. Back in 2003, Chingy was a certifiable hit -ÿsongs like “Right Thurr” had definite Billboard longevity.

But that was three years ago.

Now, Chingy is tier two hip-hop at best -ÿand even that is pushing it. Hoodstar, his latest record, is annoying at best, and downright inaudible at its worst. I mean, have you actually listened to “Pullin’ Me Back?” Chingy goes dramatically out of his way to prove he can diversify his music and dip into R&B, and falls flat on his face -ÿlike the poor guy just had his training wheels taken away from him.

To me, ACPB took the easy way out -ÿthey wanted to find the biggest name for the smallest buck. Enter the wannabe hip-hop mogul, and a $5 price tag. Problem solved? I think not. Did ACPB actually do any research to see what artists students would’ve liked to see on campus?

In the realm of hip-hop, we could’ve done much, much better. Talib Kweli has come to this campus once before – why couldn’t we bring him to perform, rather than speak? Other great rap acts, such as Esoteric, Blueprint and Atmosphere probably could’ve been had -ÿthey’re vastly more interesting and probably could’ve been brought here for far less coin.

And don’t tell me it’s impossible -ÿwe’ve had Common on this campus before. We can certainly do better than a guy whose popularity peaked while the majority of us were finishing up high school.

The ACPB needs to find a way to get the student body involved in its artist selection to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The group should put together a list of acts it is considering bringing to campus, and then randomly survey students to see what acts they would like to see perform on campus.

Does this ruin the surprise of seeing who is coming next? Not really -ÿat this point, students are glancing across a list of hypotheticals that may or may not happen. Implementing an idea such as this one wouldn’t take much effort -ÿall the organization would have to do is walk down a flight of stairs in the Student Center and talk to some students in the Hub. The fact that ACPB doesn’t currently practice this is an obvious display of laziness.

These guys screwed up last year’s FlashFest something fierce -ÿand judging by the misguided decision to bring Chingy here over a palatable and worthwhile artist, they could screw it up again. It’s like the Bush administration -ÿif last year’s FlashFest was the Patriot Act, this year’s has the potential to be Abu Ghraib.

Don’t let ACPB take our allocation money, tie it up and torture it anymore.

Ben Breier is a senior newspaper journalism major and campus editor of the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].