The Student Association (SA) announced over the weekend that Akon will headline UB's Springfest 2008 along with T-Pain, MIMS, and Styles of Beyond.
Akon, known for original mix of raps and vocals, released his sophomore album "Konvicted" in 2006. It peaked at number 2 on Billboard charts last year, according to Billboard.com. Akon may be most known by his single "Locked Up," that propelled him forward into the music scene, where he succeed in selling more than 3 million copies of Trouble, his debut album.
The Senegal born singer and songwriter has performed all around the world and collaborated with many of today's music heavyweights, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Gwen Stefani.
T-Pain, this year's Grammy winner for Best Rap Song, featured in Kanye West's "Good Life," will perform with the lead act. T-Pain was signed onto Akon's label Konvict Music Imprint after the two collaborated on Akon's "Locked Up." The duo's latest collaboration effort, "Bartender," has seen much success since its release this year on the Billboard charts, according to Billboard.com
SA's decision was easy this year when it came to which artists to bring to Spring Fest. SA President Peter Grollitsch explained it was a matter of who was available on tour and whom SA could afford to bring to UB. Anticipating mostly hip-hop and R&B artists, the organization went with two acts that were popular requests of UB students and two up-and-coming acts.
Looking at paper requests from UB students, the SA looked into bringing many popular acts to the campus.
"We looked at a lot of people including Chris Brown, Lil Wayne - we went through the whole book and we basically got we what we wanted. Akon will be a great act, T-Pain will also be great. Mims and Styles of Beyond are up-and-coming," Grollitsch said.
Grollitsch believes the UB undergraduate community will appreciate this year's list of artists because of their voiced popularity on campus and through high online list rankings such as on Myspace.com.
"Akon and T-Pain were consistently on top of the list," the SA President said.
Many other popular acts were also looked at, but bringing them here was difficult because of ridiculous personal requests, according to Grollitsch.
"We looked at Lil Wayne who is always ranked high. But Lil Wayne wanted a private G4 jet to fly him to Buffalo. We didn't go after that too much farther," Grollitsch said.
Spring Fest 2008 will be held on the North Campus at Alumni Arena on Friday, April 25 this semester. Doors will open to 5 p.m. to the first 6,500 students. Tickets will be available at the door for free to undergraduate students. General admission tickets, costing $35, will be available at a later date to be announced by SA.
The SA anticipates a Spring Fest show unlike any other because of the possibilities of collaborations between Akon and T-Pain on stage.
"This year's should be interesting they have done songs together so hopefully they can collaborate on stage. It will be something interesting and nice," Grollitsch said.
MIMS, of "This Is Why I'm Hot" fame, and Styles of Beyond, responsible for two independent albums, will be acts to watch out for after they come to UB, according to Grollitsch,
"Styles of Beyond are up and coming... just like at Fall Fest we got OneRepublic before they got really big," Grollitsch said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
