They got celebrities and news stations such as Mac Miller, Tech N9ne, and NBC News to tweet it. People got it trending so whatever they would tweet at the end like #ATB so many people were doing it that it started “trending.” Trending could be bashing on people or for an actual reason, for example, after the Ravens and the 49’s lost they were bashing Kyle Williams, and Billy Cundiff, saying who chokes more in the clutch. Just whenever you get a huge amount of people on Twitter or Facebook talking about a topic, and you can get people from around the world to do it, then its “Trending”.

We got to sit down with Nesquick and ask him a few questions.

Q: How supportive has your family and friends been of your rapping?

A: As far as family goes, not too supportive. My parents haven’t even really listened to a full song yet. They don’t dig it too much, but they don’t stop me from doing it really. As far as my friends being supportive, they’ve been really supportive. They definitely believe in me. I just try not to let them down.

Q: Do you pay for your own stuff?

A: Yeah, I pay for everything. I pay for the studio time, which is $55 an hour and the vids. My friends recently loaned me $350 to do this music video I’m putting out today. So, as long as I pay them back.

Q: How did the name Nesquick come around?

A: It’s chocolate milk and I guess when I first started I knew people would probably hate right off the bat. So, I was like how can I make fun of myself ahead of time? I guess the white rapper in the rap genre and I just called myself out before anyone else could.

Q: Do you have a special team of people that help you produce your music or does it change every time?

A: I pretty much have the same people I go to. When I go to record I go to Robert Rebeck who recorded with Tech N9ne for ten years, and then I have friends I go to for artwork or different things like the website. Then, I have friends I’ll go to artwork or the website and different things. Just different roles everybody helps out with, so yeah. I definitely have a team going.

Q: How long have you known you want to rap?

A: I started in the summer before junior year. I just kind of did it randomly, and then after that I just kind of kept going at it. Now I’m starting to get better where people are noticing, I guess.

Q: Just Pretend is coming to iTunes today, what did it take to get it there?

A: To get it on iTunes, I have a friend that does the website, and he knows everything online so he just looked it up for me. He found a good site, and it’s not as hard as people think. All you have to do is pay $20 and then you can put your stuff on there and get 25% of the earnings. As long as you have the content and artwork for it, you can pretty much do it as long as it’s original and you have the copyrights.

Q: How excited for the release are you?

A: I’m pretty pumped because this one is one of the best I’ve done. I had to pay $500 to do this music video and it turned out pretty nice, and the song, hook wise, and everything. So, I’m pretty sure when people see it they wont be able to dispute whether or not I’m doing it anymore.

Q: Are you going to put The Refreshment and Sledgehammer on iTunes, or keep them free?

A: I was thinking about keeping those two up for free and then I’ll just have Just Pretend up for sale. The only reason I’m really selling that is to pay back my friends for the video, because I’m going to need some money back because I don’t work enough at my job since I’m pretty lazy at that.

Q: Are you planning on making an album anytime soon?

A: As far as an album, I don’t know. I don’t know when I’d make it because if I made an album I’d want it to be pretty meaningful, and there’s still a lot more to tell, cause I’m only just starting. So, I’d probably just say I’d probably do a project, maybe like a small, six-song project of all real songs just about the meaningful stuff. But, it’d still have some upbeat stuff to it, too. I’m probably going to have something out by the end of the school year.

Q: What rapper is your biggest inspiration?

A: As far as an inspiration, I don’t know if I could pinpoint it on one. I mean, I listen to people flow wise, not lyric wise. Just people with flow. I like flows a lot, not necessarily what they’re saying, I guess. If I had to choose I’d probably say Big Sean or Tyga though, because they have good flow. I like whenever I see a video on Vivo, I just like working towards getting to a point where the stuff gets more legitimate.

Q: If you could rap with anyone, whom would you choose?

A: Oh, that’s tough. I just think his flow’s really sick, and I like his video style a lot, so I’d have to say Big Sean, probably, that’s just what comes to mind.

Q: How often do you get people asking you to write them songs?

A: Not necessarily write them songs, but I have people telling me to give them a shout out to them at assemblies, or let’s do a collab now. Even though they knew about me before, people notice me now and they want to. I know what you mean about writing songs, I mean people definitely want to hangout more, so it carries into a little bit of everything.

Brennan Hopper isn’t just an average high school senior, but he’s still not any different than the rest of us. Working for something you believe in is a respectable cause, and the way he’s doing it is great. As famous as he’s so obviously going to be, he’s a chill guy who just want’s to make his music.

Sophomore, Tanner Thompson: “I would do the same thing as Dr. Lake.”

Sophomore, Alec Hodges: ”I would get better lunches and have no school.”

Sophomore, Bailey Thomas: ”I would make school start later and have it end earlier.”

Sophomore, Conner Fries: ”I would make late arrival every day.”

Freshman, Anonymous: ”I would make school illegal and have early releases every week.”

What would you do if you were the principal for the day? Tweet us your responses on our twitter page, @bvwspotlight.

They are memes.

By definition, a meme is a picture, phrase, or abstract concept that spreads through the Internet. The word is pronounced as “meem”, even though the spelling seems to imply a different sound.  At first glance, the concept of a meme seems to be pretty straightforward, but it can be difficult to tell the difference between a true meme and a random Internet phenomenon.

Unlike most things that are briefly popular on the internet, a meme usually inspires many imitations and parodies. For example, the phrase used in the first sentence of this article originally became popular as “im in ur base, killing all your d00dz.” It spread around the Web as a video game reference, but quickly mutated into many different forms. It was considered a meme when it became a concept instead of just a single phrase. Now, there is a sort of “formula” to it. To invoke this meme, all someone has to do is write “I’m in your X, (Verb)ing all your Y”, and the reference is usually understood by people who spend a lot of time on the Internet.

Even though memes have become common only in the past five years or so, they have been around for decades. Even before the Internet, an author named Richard Dawkins coined the phrase to describe an idea that can spread from person to person within a culture.

When the World Wide Web took off in the 1990s, memes had a newfound space in which to grow and develop. One of the first well-known memes was the “Dancing Baby” image, a simple video file that was distributed over the Internet in 1996. It inspired several parodies, like a drunken baby and a Rasta baby.

Since then, popular memes have included “Rage comics” (crude drawings of stick figures that use a set of pre-drawn faces to express emotions), jokes about Chuck Norris, and Lolcats (pictures of cute cats with funny captions underneath. Often, the captions are memes themselves.)

In the past few years, memes have spread to every corner of the Internet and are beginning to spill over into the real world.  During the Occupy Wall Street protests in Fall 2011, many of the protesters carried hand-drawn signs that used memes to express their dissatisfaction.

And in the future? I expect to see a reference to a meme on every street corner.

This year for Veteran’s day, Scardino and fellow Social Studies teacher Aaron Anderson decided to involve their students in our Care Package Project. They found it valuable to do something kind for others, and not receiving anything in return.

Mr. Scardino explained to his classes how thankful his son had always been when he received support while deployed at sea, and how he would love for other fellow Marines to this joy, too. The 150 students (six history classes – four Western World classes, and two US History classes) responded in a tremendous manner. They hand-wrote 190 letters (on specially printed patriotic letterhead Scardino and Anderson created themselves) and collected over $210 in donations.

Mr. Scardino, Mr. Anderson, and their students are a great reminder of how nice it is to give back. Not only giving back inside the school walls and community, but anywhere else in the world.

Seniors:
Abby Berger, Brittany Eastham, Tessa Carson, Nicole and Rachel Stolte, Destiny Boos, Olivia Boone, Evan Kline, Joe Davis, Austin McGuire, Tori Ventura, Emily Grantham, Madi Fulgham, Morgan Zammit, Jadyn Flores, Kanika Kshirsagar, Jack Vandervelde, Jon Echeverria, Samantha Newland, Katie McKenzie, Kenley Gassoway, Amanda Moore, Ryan Agnitch, Stephanie Peterson, Amy Stumpf,
Juniors: Maggie Highberger, Rylee Nordstrom, Paige Cedergreen, Mackenzie Sipes, Shelly Bushman, Sam Smith, Hayden Chauvin, Chad Carlson, Lindsay McCausland, Tyler Hamedi, Kale Greiner, Maddy Wilson, Andrea Rock, Dylan Stull

Great job Jags, keep up the good work!