Brookfest 2014: Childish Gambino and Diplo

When spring hits Stony Brook, one question starts circulating around the campus: “who is performing for the spring concert?” So far this year, rumors have been bouncing around on social media sites, but it was not until today that the announcement was made official. Diplo and Childish Gambino will be coming to Stony Brook.

“They weren’t our first or second choice,” Garry Lachhar, the Vice President of Student Life. “But they were in our list of options that we narrowed it down to.”

Lachhar sat down with The Statesman to break down the process of how the artist is picked.

It is a procedure that involves the Student Activity Board, with the four voting members, the SAB director and the VP of Student Life and can start as early as November.

The first thing that is needed is to secure the venue and the date. Since the concert will take place in Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, the SAB has to ask Athletics for their schedule and the dates that would work best for them.

From there, Athletics gave them the dates of April 17, a Thursday and April 23, a Wednesday.

Once the venue and dates are secured, they can start worrying about the artist.

The process starts by members of SAB researching any relevant artists and compiling the names onto a list. This year, the original list contained over 300 names of artists from all genres and prices.

Once the list is compiled, they send all 300 names to their agent and he gives back a filtered list.

That list is filtered by performers’ availabilities during the week of the approved dates.

From there, the SAB can get pricing estimates on artists still on the list.

This year, those two steps narrowed down the list from 300 to 100-150 possible artists. And when you have that information, you can start the next step which is eliminating names.

One thing Lachhar said the board takes into account is, “Will this person be a good headline for our show?” Keeping that in mind, the list got narrowed down even more until they were left with just 20 names.

They then try to figure out the price and if the name “pops out to you.” Now, for those who are unfamiliar with these artists here’s a little background information.

Diplo, Thomas Wesley Pentz, is a DJ/rapper and is popularly known for his guise, Major Lazer.

Although he doesn’t have one particular genre, Major Lazer’s music can be described as Jamaican inspired dancehall. Diplo has worked and collaborated with big names like M.I.A., Beyonce, Steve Aoki, Kid Cudi, Bruno Mars and numerous others.

Childish Gambino, the headliner, is a multifaceted performer like Diplo. Other than performing as a rapper, he is also a singer, writer, actor, comedian and producer. Gambino, whose real name is Donald Glover, has released many mix-tapes through his website, but his most recent album under a label is “Because the Internet,” which came out in December, 2013.

Gambino’s style is a mix of R&B and hip hop and he has collaborated with Danny Brown, Chance the Rapper and Jhene Aiko.

So there you have it. Now you are well equipped to dispel any false rumor you run across on Facebook or Twitter. The spring concert will be held at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on April 23.