Undergraduate / Hip Hop - Rice Supplemental Essay [5]

Prompt: The quality of Rice's academic life and the Residential College System are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What perspective do you feel that you will contribute to life at Rice? (Most applicants are able to respond successfully in two to three double-spaced pages.)

Hip-Hop is an amazing genre of music, and apparently a genre I shouldn't listen to. Not because of any restrictions or morals, but because I'm not the type of person to listen to it.

At first glance, I probably don't look like the rap aficionado, most people from school know me as the really smart, shy guy in class, and I exhibit that look. Unfortunately I display a serious facial expression as my passive face, or so I'm told; and I am not the best conversationalist either, I can be really quirky when it comes to small talk, with some awkward silences stuck in there. Although I don't like to admit it, I follow some of the traits of your average nerd, but it doesn't go as far as the scrawny boy with glasses and a pocket protector; what surprises me is that one of the biggest stereotypes that is always thought of me is that I'm the type of person who bumps Mozart and Bach while driving my ride. Although I dabble in classical, I usually prefer the diverse beats and lyrics of Dr. Dre and the Wu-Tang Clan.

The first reaction from most people when they hear hip-hop is one of surprise; "Andrew, you listen to rap?!" is the generic reaction, followed by "I thought you'd be listening to Beethoven." I understand where they're coming from; the top student in AP Calculus isn't exactly the person you'd expect to know the lyrics to "Nuthin' but a G Thing." Regardless, it surprises me that people are always so shocked that I listen to music generalized for "thugs." The most probable reason I can think of is that I don't express that side of myself-or express much of myself at all- that often, but I can't help it that I don't fully embrace the hip-hop culture. Or rather any culture at all.

This interest of mine displays a couple realizations about myself. The first being that I'm not what I seem to be, and until I'm comfortable with people, I don't usually express the fact I love hip-hop, or that I'm that fan screaming his throat out during football games; but if you put me around the right people, people that have the same traits as me, my true colors show, and I go from the nerd to the hip hop junky. Another realization is that I am not someone who is going to embrace the culture of any type, I'm not a full-on geek, or a complete rap fan, I find it better to mix a little of all the worlds and interests I come from, because I don't want to be shipped into the stereotype of anything.

My love for rap music won't change, but it definitely changes how people think of me.

The prompt is pretty broad, I think I may have covered it all. My main worry is the essays coherence and length.
The prompt recommends two to three pages, mine was one and a half, any way I can expand it?