Kid Cudi skips into town
The artist in question is Kid Cudi, who performs at 8 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center in a show also featuring Gorilla Zoe and Chip Tha Ripper.
It would have been great to ask Kid Cudi about his musical influences, and how he feels performing close to his hometown, Shaker Heights. Maybe he just didn’t want to talk about his June arrest for cocaine possession.
Faced with yet another artist, after Demetri Martin, who wouldn’t talk to the students he’s performing for, Jeff Hammond, Undergraduate Student Government’s director of programming, offered some inside information on bringing Kid Cudi to Kent State.
As Hammond reflected on the big-name acts brought to campus (Demetri Martin, 30 Seconds to Mars and Kid Cudi), he said the feedback he’s received about programming has been mostly positive. A good thing, considering the amount of money spent to bring these acts to Kent State, some of which comes from student tuition.
In the case of Kid Cudi, his fee plus costs like lighting, tech support and security totaled around $100,000, said Judy Ripple, senior business manager for the Center for Student Involvement.
Hammond said this is the concert he’s been looking forward to putting on since before he was even elected director of programming last year. Luckily for him, it also appears to be a lineup students are anticipating as well. The concert is sold out, with around 4,200 tickets sold. Floor seats for the event, 2,000 in total, sold out in two hours when they went on sale Oct. 2., Hammond said.
“It’s the first time in recent history we’ve either sold out or come close to selling out,” Hammond said.
The show has been booked since late August, after three months of waiting to hear back from Kid Cudi’s agent. Once all the logistics fell into place, which mostly meant finding a date when both the M.A.C. Center and Kid Cudi were available, it didn’t take a lot of persuasion to get him to come, he said.
“He’s not on tour right now,” he said, but has been doing shows at other Ohio campuses, including The Ohio State University and Bowling Green State University.
So if you find on-campus entertainment lacking in variety, frequency or cost-effectiveness, stop complaining about it to your friends or roommate. Instead, do something productive, like calling USG, to change whom the programming board tries to book. Just remember to be realistic, because sadly for all of us, Lady Gaga is just not in the budget.