Multi-platinum selling rap group Three 6 Mafia will join Chamillionaire and local artist Ambrose Gardner for a performance at the Humphrey Coliseum Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. The concert is presented by Music Maker Productions.
Student and general public tickets will go on sale Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Bryan Building ticket office. A limit of two student tickets can be purchased for $18 each with a valid MSU identification card.
General public tickets are $28 and can also be purchased by calling the Music Maker office at 325-2930 or by visiting mstateathletics.com.
Music Makers adviser Samantha Musil said organizers wanted their first major concert event of the season to coincide with an SEC football weekend.
“We are hoping to make this concert part of the big football weekend against Vanderbilt,” she said.
Madison Gartman, student director of Music Maker Productions, said the organization wanted to bring both acts to campus because the rap genre is often underrepresented at university concerts.
“We wanted to change things up a bit,” she said. “We have not had a rap artist since Yung Joc performed at the Old Main concert last year; he brought in a major crowd.”
Coliseum doors will open at 7 p.m.
“The opening act will be of the same genre as Three 6 Mafia and Chamillionaire,” Musil said. “Local radio stations have been helping us find a native-based rap group.”
Music Makers announced Gardner as the local, opening act Monday.
With rap music becoming a staple on most Top 40 radio stations across the nation, MSU students started to question whether music organizations like Music Makers would bring more hip-hop acts to the university.
Gartman said minority student groups have not been happy with recent concerts on campus.
“The BSA [Black Student Alliance] was not happy with this year’s Old Main concert line-up [.] and told us that we had not had rap in a while,” Gartman said. “We [Music Makers] are an organization for the students, and we wanted to bring a diverse crowd to the show.”
Freshman broadcast meteorology major Patrick Ellis said he plans to attend the concert because of both groups’ prominence on the rap landscape.
“I have listened to Three 6 Mafia for three years now and Chamillionaire for almost as long,” he said. “Each group’s music has a really good beat; it’s something I can dance to.”
Three 6 Mafia took the music and film industry by surprise in 2006 by becoming the first hip-hop group to receive an Academy Award for its song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from the motion picture “Hustle & Flow.”
The Memphis-based act began in 1991 and has since released nine albums, producing hits “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body),” “Stay Fly” and “Doe Boy Fresh.”
The group’s current album, Last2Walk, was released in July and currently sits at No. 23 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
Co-headliner Chamillionaire burst onto the rap-music scene in 2005 with his debut album The Sound of Revenge. The album spawned singles “Turn It Up” and “Ridin’.” The latter hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and garnered the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
Chamillionaire recently released the album Mixtape Messiah IV. He has also made guest appearances on albums by Jamie Foxx, Xzibit and Lil’ Flip.
Gartman said her hope for the concert is for MSU students to realize Music Makers’ efforts to bring rap to campus.
“We have not done rap in a very long time, and we are just testing the waters to see how it goes,” she said.
For more information about the concert, contact Gartman or Musil at 325-2930.