Rapper Lil Yachty and rhythm and blues singer Khalid will be performing in the Spring Concert 2018 on April 15, at the University of Massachusetts’ Mullins Center.
The University Programming Council announced the line-up on their official Facebook page, stating that tickets will be on sale starting Tuesday, March 20, at 10 a.m.
Tickets are $15 for UMass undergraduates, $30 for Five-College students and $50 for the general public.
Lil Yachty is a Georgia-based rapper, who is best known for his collaboration with music artist DRAM on the hit single “Broccoli,” which rose to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of 2016. Since then, the artist has released two full-length albums, “Teenage Emotions” and, most recently, “Lil Boat 2.”
Khalid is best known for his 2016 hit single “Location,” which rose to number 16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in May of 2017. His other song, “Young Dumb & Broke,” on his “American Teen” album, went platinum as of October of 2017.
In response to the recent announcement from UPC, some UMass students expressed excitement for the line-up.
“I like Lil Yachty. He’s good. I liked ‘Minnesota’—that whole album ‘Lil Boat’ was pretty good,” senior history major Conor Hesketh said. “Last year, when [the album] came out, me and my friends, we listened to that album a lot, so I know a lot from that.”
“Khalid coming too—that’s kind of cool. ‘Young Dumb & Broke’ is a really good song. I like Khalid’s flow; it’s different, and Lil Yachty is kind of the first ever good mumble rapper I’ve ever heard,” Hesketh added.
“I don’t really listen to Lil Yachty, but I’m excited for Khalid,” James Levenson, a senior psychology major, said.
However, not everyone appeared to be excited for the Spring Concert 2018 line-up, including Renaldo Jean, a junior mechanical engineering major, who said,
“For lack of a better word I think it’s trash.”
“Lil Yachty, I feel like he may appeal to some people, but he doesn’t appeal to the majority of the student body. I feel like that was just someone who was in charge, and they see a popular rapper, so they were just like, ‘Cool, I’m going to pick him,’” Jean said.
He added, “Khalid, I’ve heard good things about his music, but I’m not really sure about him. Although, I don’t feel like his vibe and his music direction is what we would want for the Spring Concert.”
But, to senior political science major Ricky Gelin, the real problem with the Spring 2018 Concert is a lack of communication on the part of the University Programming Council to market the event.
“It’s cool that [UPC] is having another concert; it sucks though that they didn’t really publicize it much. Like in the last concert, I got an email about it maybe a week before. But with this, [this] is the first time I am hearing about this,” Gelin said.
“But it sounds like it should be a good time. Hopefully it will be a bigger crowd than the last time,” he added.
Alvin Buyinza can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @abuyinza_news.
