Squares Stay Sharp

"...And I'm after hers, with these macking words, nerd. I thought squares stayed sharp..."

-Mac Dre, "Feelin' Myself"

Smart = Cool, Cool = Smart

The idea here is that not only is it ok to be smart, it is actually cool. 

The Hyphy Movement, circa 2004.

I’ll never forget the hyphy moment/movement that swept me away upon my arrival to Stanford University’s campus in 2004. It quickly became a standard way of life for all of us in the Bay Area. The late influencer Mac Dre was our leader/guide, and when he died, we loved and missed him even more. He came back alive again through the influence with which he ignited us all.

Mac Dre

I most appreciate how he maintained tremendous candor while simultaneously relaying the bleak and often dangerous experiences of a hip, hidden sub culture in the most unexpected ways. He could balance and juggle multiple concepts at once in expert fashion; it was too cool for school and way before its time. We’re still catching up to where Mac Dre was headed with his forward thinking.

He especially won me over with his 2004 Ronald Dregan album cover!

His spirit is the embodiment of what I’d like to call modern edutainment.

Wikipedia Wiggins’ definition of “edutainment”:

Educational entertainment is media designed to educate through entertainment. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainment value. It has been used by academia, corporations, governments, and other entities in various countries to disseminate information in classrooms and/or via television, radio, and other media to influence viewers' opinions and behaviors.

The history of edutainment gives us the blueprint of what a world with limitless boundaries can do, not only for our minds, but also for our livelihood.

Squares Stay Sharp is the resting home of modern edutainment, where one can finally meet in the middle of being equivalently smart and cool.

#RIPMacDre