This Spring Fling, the Student Association Programming Board (SAPB) is bringing double the music to the Binghamton University campus with two headlining performances. American rappers GoldLink and Playboi Carti will be co-headliners at the annual concert, which is set to take place on May 4.
D’Anthony Carlos, better known by his stage name GoldLink, is a Washington, D.C.-based rapper who was featured in Christina Aguilera’s single “Like I Do.” Carlos dropped his debut mixtape, “The God Complex,” in 2014, but rose to commercial fame with the release of his first 2017 studio album “At What Cost.” The album’s lead single, “Crew,” rose to number 45 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned him his first Grammy nomination.
According to Christopher Wright, concerts chair for the SAPB and a junior majoring in political science, the concerts committee chose Carlos as a co-headliner because of his continuous popularity on the annual student survey.
“For years, GoldLink has been in our recommendations list,” Wright said. “And unfortunately every single time we tried we weren’t able to get him to confirm a show. This year we saw that he was still receiving that positive feedback on the survey, and we’re so excited because we got a lot of positive feedback on GoldLink so far and we were finally able to get him.”
Rapper and songwriter Jordan Terrell Carter, also known as Playboi Carti, will be the second headliner to perform at Spring Fling this year. Carter first garnered attention from the underground rap scene, where he signed on to his father’s independent label and released singles including “Broke Boi” and “Fetti” on SoundCloud in 2015. In 2016, Carti was featured on American hip-hop collective A$AP Mob’s single, “Telephone Calls,” which later led him to sign to A$AP Mob’s music collective, AWGE, and record label, Interscope Records.
Carti is known for his fashion style as well as his music, which is defined as “leader of a youth style” by GQ. The rapper has modeled for luxury brands including Louis Vuitton and Yeezy Season 5.
Wright said that the reason for choosing a hip-hop artist for Spring Fling was heavily influenced by the student response survey.
“We focus on the survey results so that’s why we’ve gone in that direction,” Wright said. “We typically don’t choose a genre and go in the direction, we try to follow up with artists that are doing really well on the survey and go from that direction. We want to have a diverse show and make sure we’re bringing different types of music to this school, but in the end, these artists were one of the most recommended.”
The Spring Fling concert will take place on Saturday, May 4 in front of the Classroom Wing. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and is free for all BU students. In the case of inclement weather, the concert will be held at the Events Center.