The lights shut off, red smoke started filling the stage and a restless crowd cheered non-stop as 21 Savage entered the stage in Fant-Ewing Coliseum last Friday. The rapper performed as part of  the annual spring concert organized by the Campus Activities Board (CAB).

The night started with an opening act from Main Main, real name Jonathan Commings. Commings is a political science major at ULM. He got the crowd hyped up with songs like “Shimmy,” for which his sister performed on stage with him. Throughout his performance, there were beach balls and candies flying through the crowd. 

Sydney Canfield and her sisters, who bought VIP tickets for the event, shared that they were very excited to see the rapper perform live.

“They (VIP tickets) sold out in like two hours. I got them in 20 minutes of them (CAB) posting the tickets,” said Canfield, a political science senior.

Some attendees like Gaurav Phuyal, a biology sophomore, bought their VIP tickets from other people, since they got sold out so quickly. Although not a huge rap listener, Phuyal said he bought the tickets to “see him (21 Savage) face to face and maybe get a picture with him.”

21 Savage started the night with “Dip Dip” from his 2015 mixtape “Slaughter House.” He kept the crowd entertained for about half an hour with singles like “Baby Girl” and his features with other artists like “Gucci On My.”

The rapper also performed “Bartier Cardi,” a feature with Cardi B. Phuyal’s favorite 21 Savage song, “Bank Account” was played later, during the end of the concert.

According to Canfield, one of her sisters is a huge fan of 21 Savage and knew each of his songs.

The Canfield sisters were at the very front row of the crowd. They even manage to take few selfies with 21 Savage performing in the background.

“My favorite performance was ‘Baby Girl,’ because it’s my favorite song, and he pointed at me during that song,” said Ashley Canfield, Sydney Canfield’s sister.

The stage lights changed with the songs and there were also points in the concert where the coliseum was lit by cell phone flashlights only.

Lazeria Cook, a medical laboratory science senior, said she bought the VIP ticket since she was a huge fan of 21 Savage. Although his raps, sometimes, didn’t make any sense to her, she shared that she was prepared to shout “pull me on stage,” as soon as the rapper began performing.

The annual spring concert is open to everyone. This year, it brought people together from places all over Monroe. Few sang all the songs word to word, while most of the others enjoyed the raps and cheered at top of their voices.

“I think events like these bring us all together. I don’t even see half of these students. The fact that we can come together and party as one, I’m down for it,” Cook added.

VIP and floor tickets were sold out whereas general admission tickets were up for sale until the concert day.