Students and locals gathered in Al Lawson Thursday night to experience some of their favorite musical artists live. The Florida A&M homecoming concert featured R&B artists Toosii and Mariah the Scientist and rap artists Rob49 and Nardo Wick.
The concert began at 7 p.m. with FAMU students Tatiana Bell and Huncho Live greeting the crowd. Bell is a second-year business administration student, and Live is a senior journalism student. The two cohosts promised the crowd a show they wouldn’t forget.
Student headliner ‘Mr.1k’, from Polk County, graced the stage first and performed four original songs. During his second song, he encouraged the crowd to end violence and show their support by waving their phones’ flashlights in the air.
“Let’s stop the violence, y’all,” 1k said. “Just love on each other.”
Despite having several headliners, the crowd waited hours for the advertised artists to hit the stage. To kill time, FAMU’s official DJ, DJ Loosekid, played a variety of songs to keep everyone entertained.
Three hours after the start of the concert, Toosii came on stage as the first official artist, encouraging the crowd to engage for the first time since the event started. Toosii performed some of his most famous songs, including “Love is…” and “Heartaches.”
Toosi came down from the stage during his performance and interacted with fans in the crowd. Some fans had the opportunity to come on stage with him and sing songs from his newly released album, “Naujour.”
Despite previous controversy surrounding this year’s show lineup, many students attended the concert. Students like Kanisha Clark were very excited and thought the concert prices were reasonable. Ticket prices ranged from $30 for general admission to $55 for floor seating.
“Mariah is my favorite artist,” Clark said. “I was so excited to hear that she was coming. Before the homecoming concert lineup was released, I considered going to another school’s homecoming to see her.”
Throughout the concert, students used the popular app “Fizz” to express their thoughts on the show. One user was fed up with the wait times between artists.
“If y’all missin’ the concert, just listen to random music in your car,” a comment from an anonymous user read.
Shortly after, Rob49 performed, bringing along special guest Boston Richey, and Nardo Wick closed out the show.
This year’s show left rattlers wondering, “What’s in store for next year?”