By Aaron Williams–
Kendrick Lamar performed at the Louisville Palace on Thursday. The show was presented by SAB, who plans to continue their spring concert series.
The University of Louisville’s Student Activities Board (SAB) continued its string of success with its spring concert series on Thursday evening March 21. This spring’s guest artist was none other than Compton emcee Kendrick Lamar and his Top Dawg Entertainment label mate ScHoolboy Q.
SAB Director of Marketing Eli Wood, a senior English major and political science minor, said the biggest influencing factor on deciding to book Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q for SAB’s spring concert was a survey put out by the organization over the summer during orientation sessions that asked students what they would like to see out of a spring concert.
“We put out surveys at our events in the fall semester too. We took in over 3000 responses and put them into our database. We were looking for a specific genre,” said Wood, adding, “Alternative hip-hop won that battle.”
Wood also said that the orientation surveys were responsible for the impetus to create an SAB concert committee whose goal would be to book a talented, upcoming artist from the genre most requested by students. The artist the committee found Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick Lamar entered the mainstream scene with the release of “Habits & Contradictions” and by recording with big-name artists, such as Lady Gaga, Drake, and Dr. Dre.
The duo of Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q, half of the Cali collective that goes by the name of Black Hippy, sold out the Louisville Palace and performed in front of a packed house of U of L students and fans. ScHoolboy Q opened with a few select tracks from his most recent album. Songs like “There He Go” and “Nightmare on Figg Street” got the college crowd rowdy for the main event. Kendrick’s set, which lasted for over an hour, featured songs from his first project, “Section.80” and his major debut album “good kid m.A.A.d. city.” Kendrick performed crowd favorites such as “Backseat Freestyle” and “A.D.H.D.” before closing with his smash single “Swimming Pools (Drank).” Not yet ready to call it a night, the U of L students demanded an encore of the talented West Coast rapper and Kendrick came back out to perform “Cartoon & Cereal” to close the night.
It is clear that the U of L students enjoyed what they got out of the SAB spring concert this year. Townsend Jones, a freshman art photography major, made the most of his experience at the show.
“It was amazing, his energy was high and made the crowd even more excited for one song after the next. Plus being able to give Kendrick Lamar a high five handshake was pretty rad,” said Jones.
The Student Activities Board has plans for further concerts in the future. Wood promises another concert in April that will highlight local Louisville talent. As for the spring concert series, the University of Louisville’s 20/20 plan calls for the establishment of a regular spring concert series by the time it is in full implementation. Wood says that the concert committee is a tradition that SAB will continue to use as it progresses towards that goal.
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Photo courtesy of startrident.com
