A few hours before the doors would open, the artists invited to the Black Artist League’s hip-hop showcase started to conduct mic-check. Over snippets of tracks coming on and off of the loudspeakers, Red Eyes the Don [12], of Union, New Jersey, and Static Shocca of the group Penthaüs Savages [13], of Newark, New Jersey, said to the audience that college shows restricted what could be performed in terms of content, but they said they still enjoyed doing any show. "We enjoy blowing the house down," they said. “We drove five hours just to get here, so you better be excited."
Imani J. Wallace, public relations senior and the Black Artist Leagues’ president, said the show was pieced together. “We wanted to bring back a traditional event, that B.A.L. event, that was thrown annually in order to celebrate hip-hop culture and expression," Wallace said. "So we wanted to bring together different artists from different places in the name of creative artistic expression.”
The artists set the tone and showed themselves to a new crowd. While many of the artists had never been to Syracuse before, there was someone connected to the city and the school. Recent SU graduate, Jonathan Wigfall, returned as part of Mir Fontane’s [14] management team. He said "definitely" when asked if he was excited to be back on campus. "One of my biggest goals was to bring an artist that I manage to perform here," Wigfall said. "Whether it's a big or small show it's an awesome opportunity."
At the beginning of the show, a student-created video appeared on a projector. The video was created by the staff of Mixtape Mag, a newly established music magazine on campus. When asked about the video and the upcoming performances, public relations and marketing sophomore Regina Cho said, “I'm excited to help spread the word about the magazine we are starting. We hope to get a lot of new people. I am really excited to see the talent Syracuse has to offer."
The rappers brought hard bars. The singers serenaded. The poets delivered with impact, and the DJs spun great tracks. Many of the artists engaged with the audience during their performance. Penthaüs Savages made the crowd bounce. Josiah Hotwire [15] had them spitting back hooks, and Zeyi [16] brought them to their feet. Finally, Quindell and Bryan Durieux [17] slowed things down.
Some of the highlights involved a crowd-inclusive cypher that broke out in the middle of the show. Many of the artists were joined on stage by crowd members brave enough to show off their freestyle skills. Throughout all the performances, the crowd’s energy never seemed to wane completely, only shifted to reflect whoever took the stage.
“I just feel like I completely connect with what he was saying," environmental chemistry senior Rhea Joseph said when asked about Durieux’s special performance. "It hit my heart, and it made me reflect on the things I'm going through."
Economics junior Victoria Mobolaji said her favorite part of the show was “the cypher, the energy, the freestyles,” but she also wished there were no chairs.
The crowd turnout was lower than expected, but it didn’t seem to impact the performers. They all delivered their best. Regardless of crowd size, they are still grinding because they are doing what they love. This show and the artists were special for that reason.
