Camille WrightIt’s official: Young Dolph, Tee Grizzley and H.E.R. were announced as the N.C. Central University Homecoming Hip-Hop Concert performers at an “8:40 p.m. break” last Thursday in the Alfonso Elder Student Union.
The artist reveal, hosted by the Student Activities Board (SAB), was highly anticipated by students, as they themselves had a hand in the artist selection process last semester.
An online survey titled “What would you like to see from SAB?” was distributed to the student body in order to find out their music preferences and help SAB fully advocate for them from there. Over one thousand students responded.
“I feel like the survey gave me a voice in the homecoming experience because in the past, I haven’t necessarily been happy with the selections of the artists,” said junior psychology major Gina Dees, who said she is most excited for H.E.R. “This year, I can at least enjoy one of the performances.”
According to SAB vice president Myles Alston, the artists were selected based on the survey results, availability of the artists, and the financial tiers they fell into. Each artist was selected from a different tier.
45 to 50% of the $75,000 budget is devoted to performer fees, said Student Leadership and Engagement director Orok Orok. This does not include venue and production fees, which vary each year.
“We started at number one and went all the way down the list until we found somebody that was one, available, and two, within our price range,” said Orok. “We had Young Dolph come in at number five.” Because of this, Young Dolph will be the headliner for the concert while Tee Grizzley and H.E.R. open the show.
Orok said that SAB wanted to excite students about the university’s concert offerings. To do this, they decided to have a specific event to release the artist names to students before the general public reveal.
“Students love 10:40 at night,” Orok said. “In fact, it needs no introduction. 8:40 is a spinoff of the 10:40 break but doesn’t go into the late hours of the night. When we say 10:40, we start attracting a lot of people and we really wanted this to be for the students and not necessarily a party for everybody.”
An inclement weather forecast moved the artist reveal from the library bowl to the student union lobby, but over 350 students were still lined up from the lobby doors to George Street before 8:40 p.m. awaiting entry.
The artist selection announcements were individually displayed on the projector screen as their music videos played. In addition to students dancing, Greek organizations including Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. made appearances, strolling through the crowd.
The concert will take place on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. in McDougald-McLendon Arena. Homecoming ticket package sales will begin at the NCCU Ticket Office on Tuesday, Sept. 8 with a special $76 price for current student that includes tickets to both the hip-hop and gospel concerts, the Ultimate Homecoming Step Show and Pre-Dawn.
