Every year, Student Entertainment Events presents UMD’s annual Art Attack. For the 33rd year, the event will include daytime activities followed by a concert event featuring T-Pain and Lil’ Dicky.
Lots of reaction, especially on Twitter, emerged after the release of this year’s headliners. In the past, SEE has booked performers like Jessie J, The Chainsmokers, Logic, Big Sean, and Wale. Some students don’t think AA33’s artists live up to past expectations.
“I’ve never heard of Lil’ Dicky and I haven’t listened to T-Pain in years,” said freshman Ayanna Willis, “I don’t understand why they were chosen.”
Another student thought T-Pain and Lil’ Dicky being announced as the performers was an April Fool’s joke.
Students online tweeted how these artists are irrelevant and how T-Pain is particularly outdated.
“T-Pain for Art Attack? UMD is trying to take us back to 2007,” sophomore Austin Jones tweeted.
Other student accounts said they are not going to pay money to see the artists perform and that SEE was going to have a hard time selling tickets. A student even tweeted about starting a petition against T-Pain and Lil’ Dicky performing.
“[I] feel like UMD is too big of a school with too much money to be having artists like [T-Pain] and [Lil’ Dicky] for Art Attack,” junior Mariama Bah tweeted.
In the midst of confusion and dissatisfaction, there were a few students who were excited about the performers coming. Freshman Chandler Parr said, “I’m really excited to sing along to T-Pain’s classics and to see how Lil’ Dicky can perform.”
Another student tweeted, “Art attack gonna be straight fire this year.”
According to a SEE blog, Concert Director Danny Campbell said, “I wanted to have a concert where people would know the lyrics.” He said T-Pain has lots of appeal from his several hit songs and Art Attack corresponds with his new tour and album.
As far as Lil’ Dicky, Campbell said, “I wanted somebody who was up and coming but wasn’t going to break the bank because of limited funding.” Campbell is confident that T-Pain and Lil’ Dicky will put on a good show.
SEE defended their performer choices and said they do not direct all their budget to one big end-of-the-year concert like some other schools because they have more than 70 events each year.
“We would not want to channel all of our funds into one concert because UMD has 26,000 undergraduates and we want to program diversely for them,” they said on their Art Attack XXXII FAQ page.
SEE also said choosing performers outside of their budget would subsequently increase student ticket prices which would contradict SEE’s point of accessibility for all students.
Art Attack XXXIII will be Friday, May 6 at 7 p.m. in the Xfinity Center. Bowl seat tickets are available for $12 for students and $30 for the general public.