Going in a different direction since last year’s Walk The Moon concert, this year’s Spring Fling headliner will be rap artist Mac Miller.
The Student Association Programming Board (SAPB) announced today that the artist, perhaps best known for his (now topical) 2011 song, “Donald Trump,” will be performing at the May 6 concert.
Miller, whose real name is Malcom McCormick, hails from Pittsburgh and rose to the scene in 2010 with his mixtape “K.I.D.S.”
The “Senior Skip Day” singer has also been featured on the song “The Way” by pop-singer Ariana Grande, whom he is currently dating.
According to Max Maurice, the vice president of programming for the Student Association, Miller will be performing an approximately two-hourlong set. Maurice says that the concert will also feature a one-hour set by rapper Ty Dolla $ign.
The rapper, whose real name is Tyrone William Griffin Jr., has collaborated with artists like Wiz Khalifa and B.o.B.
Opening the show with a 45-minute set will be Binghamton student band POOL, which won this this year’s Battle of the Bands competition. Also performing will be CLOCKWORKDJ, who is traveling with Mac Miller.
According to Maurice, out of the top 12 artists that won on this year’s Spring Fling survey, seven of them were rap artists.
He also said that this year the survey saw a 62 percent increase in respondents.
“We had a record number of 4700-plus survey participants,” said Maurice, a senior majoring in electrical engineering. “[This was] most likely generated from the sheer hype of Chance the Rapper.”
According to Maurice, the SAPB was trying to get Chance the Rapper as the headliner.
“We planned on coordinating with other universities to create an upstate kind of “mini-tour” to incentivize him [to come to] Binghamton after his multiple Grammy nominations,” Maurice said.
He said, however, that this did not pan out because other nearby universities either did not have the budget, or had recently had Chance the Rapper perform.
According to Maurice, Mac Miller was in the top six artists in the survey results.
“I tried my best to choose a lineup that was reflective of the survey results,” Maurice said. “I may not listen to Mac Miller personally, but I’m extremely excited for the festival and concert.”
The concert will be in the same place as last year’s event, in front of the Student Wing. Doors to the free concert will open at 6:30 p.m., and the show will begin at 7:30 p.m.