Fresh off his Masked Singer victory, T-Pain headlined the University Activities Board PackHOWL fall concert in Reynolds Coliseum Thursday, Sept. 19. Opened by North Carolina artist DJ Trellz, the concert attracted thousands of students with hopes of hearing throwback hits and new music.
Ciara Jones, a fourth-year studying aerospace engineering, said T-Pain made her feel nostalgic. Jones said she could not turn down the chance to see T-Pain for only $10.
“I came to this event because I like T-Pain,” Jones said. “I grew up listening to T-Pain and his music. My mom, we’ve bonded over that, so the fact that he’s coming to North Carolina State University, where I go, is unbelievable. It’s kind of like when T.I. came. It was $10, and it was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
DJ Trellz opened the show by playing throwback party staples like “No Hands,” “I Gotta Feeling” and “Party Up (Up In Here)” and more recent party hits like “Mo Bamba,” “Bad and Boujee,” “My Type” and more.
Ashley Belle, a fourth-year studying communication, skipped a Megan Thee Stallion concert that night to go to the PackHOWL concert.
“When T-Pain was announced, I was like ‘Okay, bring me back to the old school,’ because I used to listen to him in middle school and high school,” Belle said. “It got me excited. At first, I was like, ‘Should I go to the Megan [Thee Stallion] concert?’ but I was like, ‘T-Pain is my old school, I should go to him.’”
At the end of his set, DJ Trellz invited the NC State women’s basketball team and men’s basketball head coach Kevin Keatts on stage. Keatts said the turnout was beautiful, and he expected 20,000 students to come out to PNC Arena on Nov. 5 for his team’s first game of the 2019-20 season.
Keatts and the Women’s Basketball Team walked offstage to the Red and White Song with the whole crowd singing along.
T-Pain finally arrived onstage around 8 p.m. and performed several classics, including “I’m ‘N Luv,” “Booty Wurk,” “5 O’Clock,” “Bartender” and more.
T-Pain, in a clear effort to ditch his reputation as an autotune artist, played clips of his performances on the Masked Singer while covering hits like Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock n’ Roll,” Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Want to Be,” Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It” and Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.”
Gabrielle Gregory, a graduate student majoring in school counseling, said she already knew T-Pain could sing without autotune but still had to see it live.
“I love T-Pain, so I had to come and see him because I know he can sing past his autotune,” Gregory said. “I saw his Tiny Desk concert.”
T-Pain ended his set with “Best Love Song.” Several students said T-Pain was a great choice for bringing the campus together. Marcellus Spell, a second-year studying civil engineering, said T-Pain was a great way for students to make friends.
“It’s always cool to be in touch with your youth and be in touch with the kids that go to your school,” Spell said. “I think it’s a good way to bring kids together and bring diversity to campus to meet new people and develop new friendships and relationships that will last for a lifetime.”
Brelynn Hunt, a graduate student in physiology, said T-Pain helped draw students who don’t feel connected to campus.
“I don’t really fit the campus demographic,” Hunt said. “As a black woman, I am the minority of this campus, so my interests will obviously be different than the majority of this campus. T-Pain is somebody who speaks to me because he’s a black man and he’s also a hip-hop artist, and those are both things that I relate to and that I like. It’s an easy match for me.”
Emma Perez-Navarro, a third-year studying biology, said the concert seemed to run more smoothly than the 2 Chainz concert two years ago.
“I feel like I had a smoother time getting in, because I went to 2 Chainz my freshman year and it seemed a little bit smoother than then,” Perez-Navarro said.
Overall, the concert ran smoothly and students seemed to enjoy themselves. Student Body President Emma Carter, a fourth-year studying sociology and international studies, said the concert went well and T-Pain was a great artist to bring to campus.
“It was really successful,” Carter said. “Getting people in went really smooth as well as just the concert in general. I thought it was really cool considering we’re really stepping it up this year, and to have T-Pain, someone that a lot of students know, was really cool. For him to do kind of a mashup of all of his songs I also thought was creative and innovative, so students got a chance to sample a little bit of everything. It was like once the students got hyped up about one song, he’d switch it to the next one.”
DJ Trellz spins his set as he opens for T-Pain at the packHOWL concert. A sold out floor space and crowded upper level attended the concert on Thursday, Sept. 19 in Reynolds Coliseum.
