Recent Hampton University graduate Nicole Breeden was shocked that her $100,000 degree didn't come with a cheat sheet to instant success or a black credit card, she writes at Clutch magazine. She castigates the hip-hop industry for encouraging hopes of achieving extraordinary wealth that most people will never obtain. The fantasy, she says, promotes cynicism and disillusionment.
A writer over at Elite Daily expressed in an article “25 Sitting On 25 Mill: Why Rap Culture Is Ruining Our Generation’s Perception of Money,” that a college graduate should be lucky enough to land an unpaid internship. Harsh fact while over in a world far far away, Drake is rolling around in Versace sheets, Future is waking up in his new Bugatti and Rick Ross is preparing to visually remind us of the things we don’t have. Lovely.
As a Hampton University graduate, I truly thought that after crossing over into the "real world," society would be in the palm of my hands — automatically that is, not in the "Started from the bottom, now I’m here" sense. I was raised with the mentality that attending and finishing college is simply expected of you so although I didn’t treat graduating like some over-the-top profound life moment, I was way more taken aback that all my hard work and $100,000 degree (that I paid for), didn’t come accompanied with a cheat sheet to instant success and a black card.
Like most twenty something year-olds, we walk away from college full of million dollar dreams, optimism and complete confidence that we can jump out into the working world and land safely square in a pile of money.
And then one day, we turn up our radios, browse our favorite rapper’s Instagram and that’s the day our lives change forever. Where is my new [Bugatti]?
Read Nicole Breeden's entire piece at Clutch magazine.
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