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Chancellor Martin is a brave, honest, decent man; a true leader and great man of tremendous intellect and common sense.

He is everything Aggie Pride is about.

I find it interesting that Mayor Johnson objects to a rapper with gang ties performing at the Colisuem for Homecoming. Apparently she does not mind a police officer holding press conferences with a validated gang member and convicted felon in which he accuses other police officers of an unjustified shooting and misconduct without evidence or merit. I would like for her to respond in public to that issue.

Strange. I've neither heard or seen anything about this issue on WFMY-TV! Normally if there's ANYthing to do with A & T, they devote coverage quite a lot of coverage to it. Aggie homecoming saturates their newscasts - yet we see nothing on the homecomings of the other colleges in our city on News 2! Amazing how they've suddenly gone silent!

My hat off to A & T if they do, indeed, replace this guy because keeping him would be an endorsement of his message, and his message is NOT what young people of ANY color need to be hearing these days. Should they back down and keep him on the program, perhaps some pressure needs to be put on state legislators to cut back funding due to the clear waste of money.

Chancellor Martin is a great leader. However, safety concerns will only increase if something like this happens. It is great to take a stand but the tickets have been on sale for a very long time. The leadership at the University should have been more hands on during the beginning of this process.

The two students (who did the right thing) apologizing to the concerned students and members of the community who were offended will be placed in a situation that could ultimately jeopardize their young lives. Like it or not, "Gucci Mane" seems to have some sort of radical following in this city and in the country.

(They may not know it) But those young men are standing on the shoulders of giants. God be with them through this storm

I am pleased that their are many A&T students along with the chancellor, who oppose this artist performing at homecomiing. I think the chancellor is correct when he says this is the kind of debate we need to be having in public. How could we possibly glorify that after seeing the video of the kids fighting in Chicago.

It seems that TALK IS CHEAP and doesn't mean ANYTHING in this city. I have lived here for 50 YEARS and have seen it all, both the good and the bad. Let's see WHO REALLY has the BALLS to keep this CLOWN away from Greensboro. We have enough trouble here at home already. WHO NEEDS OR WANTS an "outsider" to come in and "STIR THE POT" and use the "excuse" that he is just an ARTIST WITH A MESSAGE?? Let's just see what happens now.........

I hope that the contract will be broken and someone decent brings music that showcases what we want our society to be. Not bring about discord but camaraderie.I am not an Alumni of A&T, but I want the same for them as I would myself, and that is values,education and success!

I suspect that if Gucci were performing at UNCG instead of A&T, the student government organizers would not be pressured to apologize in public, and at the first sign that the performance might be canceled by the administration, there would be student protests to protect Mane's first amendment rights.

So many people forget that A&T's homecoming is Greensboro's biggest cultural event of the fall and that it generates hundreds of thousands of dollars -- if not millions -- in revenue for our city. At the very least, people should give the organizers props for trying to host an event by a mainstream artist who did something culturally relevant for young people in the last two years, something no other entertainer who visits our city can say.

My hat is off to those who are trying to change this dumb mistake. Here's the deal - replace Gucci even if it means you take a dollar loss. For the next 10 days, offer refunds to those who have already purchased tickets. I'm betting there will be very few, if any, such requests. And for those who want a refund, you are probably better off not having them at your show anyway. Then, pursue disciplinary action against any A&T representative who had anything to do with Gucci's booking. Simple as that. And in the interim, don't pat anyone on the back for the debate that is going on. That should only happen after Gucci is gone. Let your heart and brain be your guide A&T. Do what's right.

Who is the moron who booked this concert to begin with? That's the person whose job should be on the line. If theyve signed a contract they'll have to honor it and at least pay the performer.
But seriously, what do you expect from a vapid, value-less style of music such as gangsta rap? The genre is morally indefensible. Period.

What's the basis for an "intellectual debate?"

It's either condoning the values of drug dealing and murder or taking the moral high ground.

What's there to debate about?

I think it's a shame that students in a public university -- who are receiving the benefit of a publicly funded education -- criticize media or member of the administration for "airing dirty laundry in public." They don't seem to understand accountability to the greater community. Students and alumni need to understand that A&T is not a private, members-only club.

It's NEVER too late to do the right thing. Even if the concert gets canceled altogether and they still have to pay the performers it's better then doing what is clearly wrong.

Calling this moronic gangster rapper and "artist" is shameful. The entire genre of music is deplorable and in my opinion only widens the gape between whites and blacks.

What kind of effect do you expect this kind of trash to have on a ten year old kid? Do you think it will lift their spirit and make them a better person? Will it help them make good decisions?

Rap "artists" are some of the nicest people, and really great role models. Every A&T graduate should be able to rise to the fine moral standards of Gucci Mane. Hey Maybe next year They can book someone who speaks out on the merits of raping children, and killing homeless people.

Get a clue A&T, you need to be doing better if you want any respect at all.

The school talks about all the students that openly oppose this but what about the 6,000 plus that have already purchased tickets? I'll bet they will not cancel him since there is already a lot of money being spent. How did this happen to start with?

Can someone name "1" Rapper that has not rapped or said something that had to with drugs, gangs, alcohol, bad mouthing women. A&T didn't say anything when R. Kelley was here. Lil Wayne came many times, no issue arised. To make it clear, I can not stand Gucci Mane. However he is doing nothing worse than what other rappers have done. Drake has rapped about weed, Kanye has rapped about drinking and drugs, heck even common has had some questionable lyrics some would say about women, and I am a big fan of of all three of these guys. The problem is someone wants to look good by making a smaall issue bigger than it really is

I agree w u Willis! These mo fo's just decided to jump on the band wagon cause they didnt have anything else to do today. Look at the big picture, all the profits dont go to A&T..... no one questions the money greensboro colisuem is making when they promote this and other controversal performers. It all comes down to this..............if u want to attend the concert then attend, if not then dont. We w b paying taxes for the rest of our life and we r not in control of where it goes, who allocates it and how its spent. Bottom line. Yes u have a voice for change but use it instead of waisting time online here. So get over your selfs and get a real day job! Its obvious ur spending a lot of ur employers time on line!

Will Smith doesn't rap about that junk. But no one listens to his stuff. I'm betting that Gucci comes and everyone does there thing as scheduled. I hate it that it's taking place on halloween because there will be a lot of people out just trying to have a good time. Now we have to stay away from downtown and prepare for the worst!

Willisjs8:

I'm working on a story for tomorrow that will address your question. One of the fascinating things about this what's happening here is that it's not that no students ever had anything to say about previous acts, some of whom have been gang affiliated and a number of whom have had lyrics about drug dealing and violence. It's that there was never enough of them who were willing to say anything about it that it ever mattered. Also, if you've been following the stories so far you will have read that part of the problem here is that A&T's current method of choosing artists means that by the time students find out who's coming to homecoming, contracts have already been signed. If there was a strong objection, it would already be too late. In the end it gets to that discussion that Chancellor Martin says he wants to have about whether it's enough that homecoming events sell tickets and make a lot of money or if they also need to reflect values the university endorses.

It's an open question, but this is what debate looks like.

In tomorrow's story we'll hear from a professor and hip-hop expert who addresses your assertion that nearly all rap contains these elements people find objectionable. It is manifestly false -- the list of popular artists who don't make music celebrating crack houses, street gangs and gun violence includes The Roots, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Common, and OutKast just to name a few. But more importantly many references to these things in rap music are in music with a political message or a narrative arc that makes it clear these things are blights on the community and terrible for those who choose that path (many songs by Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z, BDP). Objecting to general boastfulness or materialism in rap is a different and lesser thing than objecting to artists who rap in a celebratory way about the merits of real-life drug dealing and their own personal real-life ties to street gangs. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say that if there is any message, political or otherwise, to Gucci Mane's music I can't discern it after many hours of listening to the music and watching videos. Not all music has to have a message, or a message that's positive -- but I think the fact that Gucci Mane's music doesn't have that asset in a sea of liabilities is what's driving the debate about him here.

Joe:

You and I know each other well enough for you to know I'm the ultimate first amendment advocate, especially at the college level. When I was a college student I never thought the administration not liking something was reason enough not to do something or have someone visit campus. I still don't.

But there's an important difference between abridging someone's First Amendment rights and expressing a concern that illegal and dangerous behavior by an artist and their art's celebration of violence, drug trafficking and membership in violent criminal street gangs doesn't jibe with the mission of your institution, so you'd rather not pay them money to perform at the your homecoming event. Deciding you don't want to pay a lot of money for someone to come to your campus is not the same thing as banning them from it.

Even the SGA members who were responsible for booking the act are now saying they handled it poorly and didn't have enough student discussion first, something Chancellor Martin seems to be echoing.

In my day the discussion was about whether certain political views by speakers like Angela Davis, Tristan Taormino or Mike Adams had any place on campus. My answer was always -- of course they do. Have everyone of all political positions come to campus, hear what they have to say, have a discussion. The first amendment doesn't just protect speech or art that you like.

But none of those people had people trying to shoot and kill them for their jewelry, on which other prominent people in their business had put a bounty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWoM5cRGDOA

None of them bragged about their affiliation with the Crips or Bloods, gangs with which the city is already contending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUN-R-9yzsQ

None of them celebrated shooting people for such reasons in real life or selling cocaine or crack.

It's not hard to see how all of these things would mean there needs to be a discussion about whether to bring the act to a homecoming event -- which I think is different than bringing them for any other event, in a way. Unfortunately that conversation is being had now, not before the act was signed. But I still think it's a fascinating story. No one I've spoken to on campus wants to prevent the art from existing or even prevent people from hearing it - many of them own Gucci Mane albums or listen to his music. Their argument seems to be that it has its place, but that place isn't the university's largest celebration at a time when they're welcoming back alumni and celebrating what's good about their school.

You are, by the way, the only person in the discussion so far on either side I've heard describe Gucci's music as culturally relevant. I guess that's a broad term and a potentially low bar, but I'd love to get together for a beer sometime and talk further about what you mean. Maybe tonight, when we come to the Ghostbusters showing at the Carousel?