The future of rap was on East Campus Friday night. With him came inclement conditions but the general attitude seemed to be encapsulated by the response of one student when asked how long he was willing to wait for Wale: "Forever."
The concert, featuring opener J.Cole and an unannounced appearance from senior Mike Posner, was sponsored by the Duke University Union. It was slated to begin at 7 p.m. but was delayed about half an hour due to rain.
Once underway, however, the festivities saw a consistently growing crowd that peaked as Wale-widely recognized as one of the three most up-and-coming national hip-hop artists-closed with his singles: "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.," "Nike Boots" and "Chillin."
Though this concert took place on the first Friday of classes rather than orientation, this marks the second year in a row that DUU has held an August concert on East Campus. Last year's show starred Illinois band the Hush Sound. Both years saw rain delays, and DUU Major Attractions Director Liz Turner, a senior, said whether the budding tradition would continue is uncertain.
J.Cole opened to a small, somewhat subdued audience that included Duke, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students as well as community members. The Fayetteville, N.C. native was recently signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label and is featured on the New York artist's upcoming record Blueprint 3.
The crowd included a number of students visibly excited to see J.Cole at Duke.
"My friend knows him, so that's why I decided to come," said N.C. State sophomore and Fayetteville resident Taylor Creedon. "I'm here mainly for him."
His weather-addled performance also managed to draw enthusiasm.
"I have his whole CD, I've been listening to it all summer," said freshman Teddy Okechukwu. "He was tight and I knew all the lyrics, so it was easy to go along with [the show]."
Turner also spoke highly of J.Cole's effort, noting that she does not think the rain inhibited the performances. She estimated that by the end of the evening, a crowd of "several hundred" turned up for the concert.
"I actually think it pumped them up a bit, especially with J.Cole," Turner said. "I think he was excited to see that many people out in spite of the rain."
Turner stressed the importance of technology in executing the event successfully. DUU posted frequent updates on its Twitter account with information about the status of the show and confirmations that it was still on.
J. Cole expressed satisfaction with his performance, despite an initially lethargic audience.
"It went great, but started slow because of the rain," he said. "Midway through my set the crowd showed up."
Following J.Cole, Wale came on alongside the Washington, D.C. go-go band UCB, a No. 30 Duke basketball jersey draped over his head.
Wale's set lasted more than an hour and included faithful executions of songs from his past mixtapes as well as looser, more improvisational efforts by the band.
A highlight of the performance was when Wale chose three girls from the crowd and serenaded them onstage. Another instance saw him take a camcorder from a student in the crowd and film the audience and his band during their performance of "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E."
Throughout, he peppered in banter promoting Duke basketball, often drawing loud and appreciative cheers.
Toward the end of the performance, Wale was joined on stage by Posner, a fellow musician under manager Elitaste, Inc. Posner was featured on Wale's most recent mixtape, Back to the Feature, and the two combined with the band for renditions of Posner's music, receiving support from students singing along in the audience.
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