By Eiman Zuberi–

The Student Activities Board held its fourth annual Homecoming concert. This year’s headliner was none other than Waka Flocka Flame, a rapper best known for his Billboard’s Hot 100 song “No Hands.”

Flame, whose real name is Juaquin James Malphurs, also announced in April 2015 that he was running for president. Although it never happened due to age restrictions, it did help boost his image and from then on, his name was known by most.

Before the concert:

Sometime around 9 a.m Thursday morning, commuters and students were caught off guard by the giant road block between Third and Fourth street on Cardinal Boulevard. A stage had been set up and security guards, backstage crew and SAB volunteers were busy adding touches to finalize the scene.

SAB concert chair, Dominic Cinquina,  and committee member junior Harshal Shah said the concert took months to plan. 

“We wanted someone people were going to know, people were going to recognize and people were going to get excited about,” Cinquina said. He said the event promoted itself- SAB’s initial announcement on Twitter got more than 350 retweets in an hour. Soon, the entire campus knew about it.

Cinquina and Shah had been setting up all morning but around 1 p.m., they were ready for the crowd to come.

The main concern they had was the rain predicted throughout the day, but Cinquina wasn’t too worried.

“It’s a free concert and we’re going to have it, rain or shine,”Cinquina said.

A security guard said the enclosed audience pit could hold roughly 2500 people and they could expand it to close off other streets if the crowd exceeded that limit.

The Concert

Waka Flocka was scheduled to perform at 8:15. But by 5:30 p.m, the pit was open for students. By 6 p.m, the opening performance was already on stage. The Homies are a “collective group of artists” from Louisville who performed popular cover songs. A crowd of about 100 students gathered in attendance. It’s important to take into account the weather and the fact that there were still classes going on.

After The Homies finished around 7 p.m., local DJ Glittertitz performed his vibrant and electrifying remixed hits for the growing crowd. Many students are familiar with DJ Glittertitz because he DJs at several bars near campus on weekends.

Finally, at 8:15 p.m., after plenty of synchronized “we want Waka” chants, Waka Flocka Flame appeared on stage, dressed in a Louisville jersey. He was accompanied by DJ Whoo Kid. They performed numerous songs, including some of Waka’s most recognizable.  Everyone sang along to “No Hands.”

It did rain for a while, but that didn’t scare away the large crowd.

Cinquina estimates 2500 students came down for the concert. Other viewers were Cardinal Towne residents, who watched from the comfort of their windows.

The strangest part of the concert was when students started crowd surfing a trashcan. Yes, a large blue trashcan was being tossed around in the crowd during DJ Glittertitz’s performance. His reaction was, “Hey, that’s a trash can.”

A lot of people there were not only U of L students, but also students from Bellarmine University and surrounding high schools.

SAB was pleased with the success of the concert and it was clear most students were as well. Despite the concert’s early 9:30 p.m ending, each artist showed up and performed with dedication.

The crowd was into the music and for those who enjoy rap and dance music, the songs were really good. The best response about the concert? It was “hype.”