On Sunday, students and their friends came together to celebrate Syracuse University’s annual Juice Jam Music Festival. Featuring lively performances by co-headlining artists A$AP Ferg and Playboi Carti, the concert — hosted by University Union — brought in a raucous crowd, excited to rap along with two of the hottest artists of 2018.

This year’s lineup was particularly groundbreaking as it featured two artists who are popular but are not often listened to in mainstream rotations. UU’s headliner choice was an acknowledgment of the rising popularity of rap music as a genre.

Omar Apollo was born in Indiana and still lives there full time, but he’s traveling internationally with his current tour, W.A.N.T. Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

Opening for A$AP Ferg and Playboi Carti, Anne-Marie, Loud Luxury and Omar Apollo each gave solid performances. Apollo, a singer-rapper from Indiana, was the first act slated and kicked off the show with songs from his latest album, “Stereo.” Loud Luxury, a dance duo, came to the stage with a high energy set to get students moving. Anne-Marie, a singer with top hits on U.K. singles charts, capped off the opening performances with her smooth voice and poppy bops.

Playboi Carti came out with high energy in his performance. Rapping along to the audio of some of his hit songs like “Magnolia,” “Half & Half” and “Poke It Out,” he hyped up the crowd, inciting mass jumping, waving and screaming. While his performance started off exciting, he abruptly left in the middle of his set due to a malfunction with the main speaker. Before leaving, he made sure to let his fans know it was “nothing personal against you guys,” and said he hoped that “this doesn’t happen to the next artist that comes up here.”

Playboi Carti, the 22-year-old rapper signed with A$AP Mob’s label AWGE, performed songs like “Magnolia,” “Half & Half” and “Poke It Out” at Juice Jam yesterday. Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

After the disappointment over Carti’s decision simmered down, members of the UU staff came on stage to energize the crowd before A$AP Ferg.

Luckily for fans and UU, A$AP Ferg came out with a dynamic set that lasted more than half an hour. He warmed up the crowd with familiar songs from his latest mixtape, “Still Striving,” with featured performances including “Trap And A Dream.” He continued to energize the crowd, telling them their energy was a “seven out of 10” before going into classic cuts from the A$AP Mob. His performance of “Yamborghini High” and “Shabba” helped get the crowd up to a nine before taking a moment to pay respects to his late group mate and “brother,” A$AP Yams. After taking this moment, he came back with increased momentum, performing his hit songs “Plain Jane” and “Work REMIX.”

While it wasn’t a perfect event, it was successful in bringing the students and the community together for a day of partying, dancing and good times. In what was an extremely hot and sweaty day, Juice Jam quenched students’ thirst for solid rap acts many have been wanting for the past few years. Hopefully, with increased considerations for a variety of featured acts, the event will get better and better with time.

Jalen Nash is a junior political science major. His music column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email him at janash@syr.edu or follow him on Twitter @ja_nash3.

Published on September 17, 2018 at 1:06 am