by Taylor Adams, News Staff
It’s the “NUpocalypse.” The Center for University Programs (CUP) released this year’s line-up for the upcoming Springfest concert Wednesday afternoon via posts on social networking sites. The news, that students would be able to see main acts Drake, 3OH!3, and K-OS as well as comedian Kathy Griffin, spread quickly over Facebook and Twitter, where reaction was decidedly mixed.
“Northeastern University is a lot like Canada: about 10 years behind on pop culture trends.” said Twitter user @asomedaywriter (both Drake and K-OH are Canadian artists). Others were more pleased with the news: “…i’m very excited. teenage giggles,” posted user @sooeypooey.
Drake, a rising hip-hop star who is also noted for his role as Jimmy Brooks on “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” will be headlining the Springfest concert April 10. Though his first full-length album hasn’t yet been released, Drake has followed the now-common path of gaining prominence in the rap scene by working with some of its biggest stars: Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and Kanye have all cut tracks with the performer, and his mixtape “So Far Gone” earned him a Grammy nod.
3OH!3 is a product of the current punk/crunk craze, mixing elements of hip-hop with the aesthetics of post-hardcore. A fixture of festivals like Warped Tour, the Colorado duo of Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman has released two albums and worked with big names like Katy Perry. Their most successful single, “Don’t Trust Me,” made it to the top of the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart.
K-OS, hailing from Canada, is described on his website as a “genuine neo-crossover rap n’ roller” whose eclectic beats draw influences from all over the map. He released his fourth album, Yes! in 2009.
Kathy Griffin, a comedian most recently known for her show “My Life on the D-List” and who has recently become controversial for numerous remarks blasting conservative political figure Sarah Palin, will perform April 7.
Despite mixed reaction to the news, CUP representatives claimed such issues would be inevitable due to Northeastern’s large and varied student Body.
Nani Stoick, major concert chair for CUP, said it’s unrealistic to please everyone at a school as big as Northeastern. She also said that between 6,000 and 7,000 students took the MyNEU Spring Fest survey, and most of them said they wanted Top 40 artists.
“One thing that we found on the survey … is that students wanted something that’s relevant right now,” she said.
Stoick also said accusations that CUP rushed the decision of who to book are “outrageous.” It’s not fair for people to say CUP has “one job” and ruined it; they do a lot of programing throughout the year, she said.
“This was an incredibly long process,” she said. “I’ve been working on it since last November. We got the best options with the amount of money that we had and the available artisits.”
Based on their own social-media feedback, CUP is indeed enjoying the culmination of their work booking the upcoming concert. @NortheasternCUP wrote, “ROCKING OUT TO DRAKE in the CUP OFFICE!”
Ashley Dean contributed to this report.
