Princeton Students Peeved About Big Sean Concert

Princeton University just can't win when it comes to its Lawnparties festival. Last year, Mayer Hawthorne was the main act, and the student government was criticized for choosing a less-than-huge name. So this year, the student government went with rapper Big Sean ... and now it's being criticized for choosing an artist whose lyrics, some say, are misogynistic. "His language provides the ideological basis for gender-based violence against women," 21-year-old junior Duncan Hosie tells the New York Times. (Sample lyric: "If she look good she pay me in sex.")

Hosie and Rebecca Basaldua, a 21-year-old senior, started a petition calling for the student government to "stop promoting rape culture and misogyny by rescinding the offer to Big Sean" after seeing a student government promotional video for the concert featuring a song with the words "stupid ass bitch" repeated numerous times, they tell the Daily Princetonian. The Times says the petition has gotten hundreds of signatures. The two students also note that in 2011, the rapper was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old after a concert; he took a plea deal for unlawful imprisonment in exchange for the more serious charges being dropped. So far, though, organizers say his May 3 performance will stand. They promise, however, to get more student input before choosing future performers. (More Princeton stories.)