Southern hospitality ends at the Georgia border

It's a Friday night. You've got "To the Window to the Wall" stuck in your head and just can't seem to get rid of that undying urge to shake a tail feather. But where is there to go? \nAxis used to be the best place in town to listen to some hip-hop music, but if you haven't noticed, you won't even hear the word "ass" in their music selection anymore. It's bleeped out. And last time I walked into the club, I was listening to New Kids on the Block.\nIs it possible there isn't a crowd in Bloomington that really wants a hip-hop scene? \nA few weeks ago I was dancing the night away to an edited version of "Get Low" and almost cried because of the lack of people doing the motions to the chorus. I missed my summer club scene and realized there just wasn't one here in our little college town. Our options are limited.\nI spent the summer interning at a newspaper in Macon, Ga. I was horrified when the security guards at the local Macon clubs asked to check my purse and patted down the guys to check for weapons. To the others in the group it was routine and so was the $10 cover. (There's one way we have it good here in town, Axis recently lowered their cover on the weekends from $5 to $3.)\nLiz Reed's was great. The dancing was amazing, like from a music video. \n I felt like I was in Sean Paul's basement like in "Get Busy;" the dancing was just as phenomenal as the video. It wasn't just people grinding on each other. It was real hip-hop dancing, something I'm sad to say I've rarely seen in Bloomington, but have heard that people have that same talent.\nA few weeks later our little summer intern crew wanted to check out Club Money's. I was informed that I probably shouldn't go unless I wanted trouble. While my friend Crystyn's advice was to wear a throwback and say "I ain't never scared" if anyone approached me, I passed on the evening of drinking Hennessy and Coke in the V.I.P. room with Lil' Jon and the Ying Yang Twins. \nI'm not sure how clubs in Bloomington would handle a V.I.P. room, but still, what good club doesn't have a V.I.P. room? No wonder more hot rappers and hip-hop artists don't come to the Bloomington clubs. We're a college town for crying out loud -- our glimpse of 50 Cent last year never got past the posters around campus. Unless I've missed something, I don't know of any V.I.P. rooms in our small selection of clubs.\nWhen I finally went, we sat and watched locals rap against each other in true "Juice" fashion. The crowd was crazy and appreciated not only the mainstream rap that blared from the sound system, but what the locals produced as well.\nI know quite a few guys on this campus that I've heard freestyle and they are incredible. Whether they're sitting down, playing PlayStation and letting it flow or freestyling at a party, it's pretty hot stuff. And as far as I know, there's not a popular place in town where they can showcase their talent.\nSure, Bloomington has Axis and Bullwinkle's if you want to dance. But as far as a serious hip-hop scene where students are treated as adults that can actually listen to the bad words in music, there really isn't one. The closest thing we have is when 17th Floor plays at The Bluebird. Yeah, things get a little rough, but nothing life threatening has happened so far. And it could be our only true glimpse of a hip-hop atmosphere without leaving Bloomington.\nWe may have dropped our No. 1 party school status, and I can see why. Our party scene too often caters to a crowd more into head banging than hip-hop dancing, singing than rapping and beer over Hennessy and Coke. \nI know Indiana can never live up to the hip-hop scene in Georgia, but I wish there was at least one club where I could listen to the unedited version of "Damn"