Down the hall from the School of Music's classical music performance last Friday night was an entirely different scene: a performance by female rappers.
Organized by senior Daniella Novas as an Omega Phi Beta sorority event and part of the EmpowHERment series, the event showcased two female rappers, Dutch Rebell and Ruby Ibarra.
The two women rapped about nearly every topic - from hate to self-confidence - and the crowd was not afraid to join them. Throughout the performance, students swayed to the beat, and Rebell even invited students up on the stage to be her backup dancers.
Novas, who also took the stage with Rebell to dance, is glad she set this event up.
"I really don't listen to rap, so first of all, I wanted to be introduced to the rap culture," she said.
It was also important that this rap culture was from the female point of view.
"You hear music today, and all you hear is male voices, and then Nicki Minaj," Novas said. "I thought it would be interesting to bring female rappers onto campus."
At first, she had no idea how to expose students on DePauw's campus to real female rap artists trying to make it in the music world. Novas started asking around.
"I talked to one of my friends, and she was like, 'Oh I know these sick dope rappers, and I can get in contact with their managers, and then we can get them up to campus,'" Novas said.
From that point on, things were simple. Rebell and Ibarra agreed to come to campus and tell DePauw students about their stories, over a beat of course.
They said being female in an overwhelmingly male genre garners both good and bad attention.
"'Yo, she raps and she's a girl?' Hey, that's not news to me, I've been a girl my whole life," Rebell said.
Ibarra added that being a female is not what makes her songs worth listening to.
"At the end of the day, I see myself as a rapper who happens to be female, rather than a female rapper," Ibarra said.
She believes what women rappers have to say is just as important as what mainstream men in the genre have to say.
"Women have a voice, too, and we deserve to have a voice in hip hop," Ibarra said.
Hearing from these women who are going after their dreams was encouraging to audience members. Junior Sandy Tran said that for her, the event was especially meaningful.
"It's really inspiring to know that there are people, especially Ruby, for instance, who's Asian American, that's doing her thing for other Asian American women like me, to look up to her, and be like, 'yo, she's singing my history? That's pretty dope,'" Tran said.
Events like this can exemplify what a liberal arts education is all about. Hearing what these women have to say through their music can expand both their listening audience and the viewpoints of all who hear it.
And who knows? The students who got up and did their thing on Friday night might one day be able to say they heard Grammy award-winning rap stars Ruby Ibarra and Dutch Rebell perform back when they were just getting started.