Another rising star —Ace Hood — will make his claim in the hills of Athens, Tuesday.
Hood will perform a unique show in the Baker Ballroom at 7:30 p.m. along side local rappers Jean P and UDrop. The university paid $12,500 for the artists’ combined contract fees according to Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center.
The last time the ballroom was used as a music venue was for Vanilla Ice in 2007, Holzaepfel said. While Baker Center was in its early stages of construction, the center’s originally intended to use the space for music. However, plans changed as its creation progressed.
“We always envisioned that space working out for these types of concerts it’s just that we never used it in a way that we had all planned,” Holzaepfel said. “It’s not a seated auditorium environment. I’m very optimistic.”
Terence “Teuro” Robertson, a member of UDrop, said he’s excited about the venue because the seats at buildings like the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium can make it hard on performers to energize the crowd.
UDrop has experience opening for national acts including Corina Corina last week and Machine Gun Kelly when he performed at MemAud in the fall.
“MemAud was cool but we really had to bring the energy to the crowd more than we thought we would,” Teuro said. “Sitting kind of takes away from the show. You’re more likely to be engaged with the opening acts if you're standing.”
As the budding artists hope for the best, Ace Hood is certainly getting there as his newest single “Bugatti” peaked at No. 35 in the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. He will also release his album, Trials & Tribulations, this summer.
The album’s track, “Bugatti,” features fellow southern rappers Rick Ross and Future, highlighting Hood’s sudden lunge into fame and fortune.
“I got the name Ace as a child. My family always thought that I would be the one who would succeed in whatever I did,” Hood said, according to his website’s bio. “I feel like I’m an army in myself. I carry my own weight and since I represent for the hood, why not attach that to my name?”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
