NICK PEASE

NICK PEASE

“Snow and Hip Hop”

2014

5:06

In my final year in Boulder as a University of Colorado undergraduate student, I have come to meet and befriend more people of other races and ethnicities than I had in the preceding for years at college, or my entire life for that matter. In August I did not know where I was going to live for the following school year until a friend of mine offered me a room in a house living with two other students; each of whom had moved to Boulder from Beirut, Lebanon. One proceeded to join my ski team, the CU Freestyle Ski Team, and the other was an aspiring rapper.

Through these two nice young gentleman, I was introduced to countless other rappers, skiers, and students, all of whom were of differing races and ethnicities than my own. I got to learn all about their lives back home and how they came to move to Boulder, Colorado. Hailing from places such as Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran, Nigeria, and Mexico, I was opened to worldviews both of the United States and of nations I knew little to nothing about. In this piece, titled “Hip Hop and Snow”, I attempt to expose these relationships with people who I consider to have become my close friends.

I spent many days in the mountains filming two skiers who were from Lebanon and Japan, and showing what it is that they love to do. Two rappers featured were Technickly (my roommate), and Khattaf, who have banded together to form a Lebanese-Kuwaiti duo called the Underground Rebels. Due to terms of their recording contract, Khattaf would not allow me to show his face to preserve his public image. These are my friends, and these are the things they do.