By Libby NelsonThe Daily Northwestern
Hip-hop groups Jurassic 5 and Clipse will headline A&O Productions’ Nov. 5 concert, the group announced Monday night.
The $10 tickets go on sale today when the Norris Box Office opens.
The announcement follows in the hip-hop vein of last year’s concert, when A&O drew more than 3,500 students by bringing hip-hop superstar Kanye West, one of the biggest headliners ever to visit Northwestern, to campus.
A&O traditionally puts on a hip-hop show in the fall, followed by a rock act at the A&O Ball during Spring Quarter, said chairwoman Rachel Cort, a Weinberg senior.
“Jurassic 5 has a lot of appeal to students, and they’re great live,” Cort said. “They’re well respected musically and doing interesting things.”
Clipse, a hip-hop duo from Virginia Beach, Va., has not released an album since its 2002 debut “Lord Willin’.” But the duo’s second album is scheduled for release Nov. 28 and has already been given hip-hop magazine XXL’s highest rating, Cort said.
Still, Kanye is a tough act to follow.
“It’s kind of hard to compare any concert to Kanye because it was just so huge,” said A&O concert director and Medill junior Liz Korutz, who is in charge of booking artists. “I don’t expect this to have quite the pull that Kanye did.”
A&O traditionally picks artists by looking at who will be touring at the right time and determining which of those bands will fit into its budget, said Korutz, a former Daily staffer.
“There’s not that much choice (among artists),” Cort said. “There’s a smaller pool of bands that we know will do well and that we can afford.”
This year, A&O got a financial boost through a partnership with Muslim-cultural Students Association. The idea formed when A&O wanted to bring another artist, Muslim rapper Lupe Fiasco, to campus, Korutz said.
Though that deal fell through, McSA was still interested in a co-sponsorship because Jurassic 5 has Muslim members, said the group’s president, Amir Siddiqui, a Weinberg senior.
“The cool thing about it is having Muslim artists coming into the mainstream,” Siddiqui said. “I think in America that’s very important.”
A&O has not co-sponsored its fall concert in at least the last three years, though it has co-sponsored for other events.
“It’s helpful to have financial support and to work with a different group of students,” Korutz said. “We can reach out to a different segment of campus.”
Reach Libby Nelson at [email protected].
