On Saturday, April 17, Chicago-based hip hop-artist, Lupe Fiasco will perform in the Lund Arena for the biennial “Big Concert” sponsored by the Campus Activities Board (CAB). The highly-anticipated performance will include an opening act provided by Minneapolis native hip-hop band the Unknown Prophets.
As of this past Monday, approximately 78 percent of the 3,000 available tickets have been sold, which first went on sale on February, 16, 2010 for Gustavus students. Kyle Goodfellow, the CAB concerts executive and senior psychology major, said that “close to 1,000 of those tickets went to students on campus, so we’re really proud of the response so far.”

“We expect to sell out by the time of the concert, so if you don’t have your tickets yet, now is the time,” CAB Co-President and Senior Psychology Major Maggie Hansvick said. Tickets to see the concert are $13 for Gustavus students or $18 for community members pre-sale. If you wait until the day of the concert, the price jumps to $20 apiece at the door.

CAB has a certain amount of money provided by student activity fees to organize the Big Concert every other year, but the sales of tickets do play a role in the planning process. “If we can manage to turn a profit [via ticket sales], that means that we can bring bigger and better artists the next time, which is the only place that the proceeds go,” Hansvick said.

The selection of Fiasco as the featured artist has generated an interesting response on campus. “It’s clearly a little outside of [some people’s] comfort zones, but Lupe is a great artist who has great morals and values that epitomize what Gustavus is all about,” CAB Co-President and Senior Management Major Adam Toppin said. “You know, I’ve hadn’t ever heard of [Fiasco] before … and hip hop really isn’t my taste of music,” Senior Elementary Education Major Roxi Brace said “but at the same time I know a lot of people enjoy it, and that is really CAB’s job … to bring the kind of music that the students will like.” Fiasco decisively won the campus-wide tabling vote that was held during November being selected over other artists like Augustana, Motion City Soundtrack, Jack’s Mannequin and The Decemberists.

Andrea Junso, assistant director of student activities and CAB’s advisor, said that “we are representing a genre of music that we have never brought to campus before and are reaching out to connect with the diverse interests of our students.” Fiasco’s hip hop concert follows the Ben Folds concert provided in 2008, the last Big Concert event supported by CAB.

“You can’t appease everyone with the selection,” Toppin said, “but we are really proud of the choice.”

Fiasco, who has been nominated for eight Grammys for his music, has also been recognized for his philanthropic efforts. “He is not just a rapper,” Goodfellow said. “He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro [in Tanzania] to support the global search for potable drinking water and performed concerts to raise proceeds to go towards relief efforts.” Fiasco also took part in the writing of the L.A.S.E.R.S. Manifesto, a popular Internet movement that supports a variety of social causes, including the elimination of the culture of over-consumption, an end to global wars and a call for political transparency according to Fiasco’s blog.

Lupe Fiasco will be opened for by another hip-hop group, the Unknown Prophets. Group members MaD SoN and Big Jess were both born and raised in north Minneapolis, and they have been making music together since high school, with their first album released in 1997. A year later, they added DJ Willy Loose to the group. Their latest and seventh album is called Le System D, and was released in November of 2009. “[The Unknown Prophets] actually have a full band, which will add a nice dynamic to the show,” Toppin said. The Unknown Prophets were chosen over Boston-based artist Sam Adams, who was rumored early in the process to be the possible choice. “There was a little confusion about the opening act … [Adams] just didn’t fit in well with what our hopes were for a reflection of the values of Gustavus,” Goodfellow explained.

The Campus Activities Board is expecting a warm response for both Lupe and the Unknown Prophets after months of hard work by the Concerts Committee. “CAB has been doing a great job staying focused and getting the work done for this event while maintaining the rest of the events they put on at Gustavus,” Junso said. “A great deal of work and passion is put into all of the work that CAB does, and this is one event which every student at Gustavus should be proud of.”

It’s really great that [Concerts committee members] can take their passion for music and translate that into a service at Gustavus,” Hansvick said.