WITH AUDIO: Chiddy Bang and The Cool Kids perform at Finch Fieldhouse
The bass boomed and rhymes flowed through the microphones Friday night at Finch Fieldhouse as Chiddy Bang and The Cool Kids performed in front of hundreds of lively students.
Central Michigan University's Program Board brought both the groups to the school, delivering the first big performance of the year to campus.
The show began shortly after 8 p.m. as The Cool Kids members Antoine "Sir Michael Rocks" Reed and Evan "Chuck Inglish" Ingersoll, of Illinois and Mount Clemens respectively, took the stage.
Grand Rapids senior Clayton Stedman was eager to see The Cool Kids again after attending some of their performances in the past.
"I've seen The Cool Kids live a few times," Stedman said. "They bring a lot of energy to the stage and usually have a great setlist."
Chiddy Bang, composed of Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege and Noah "Xaphoon Jones" Beresin, entertained the crowd with some of their biggest hits including "Truth," "Opposite of Adults," and their popular track with Big Sean, "Too Fake." Beresin filled in for Big Sean's verse on "Too Fake," asking audience members for a snap-back hat and sunglasses to help imitate him.
"Right now, we're doing a lot of colleges. In September, we played a lot of welcome weeks," Chiddy said. "It's been exciting. A lot of early flights though."
Chiddy is renowned for writing freestyle raps and broke the world record for longest freestyle rap in April with more than nine hours of rhymes.
At the concert, Chiddy put together a freestyle with random words given by audience members including "giraffes," "chubby," and "bacon strips."
"After rapping for nine hours, your lips will just start burning and you feel as if you've exhausted yourself," Chiddy said. "They gave me three seconds. I had a three-second pause time and while peeing, I had to continue rapping."
Garden City junior Ben Miskulin was excited to see both Chiddy Bang and the Cool Kids and arrived early hoping to get a good spot. Miskulin had never seen either of the artists before, but knew that Chiddy would show off his freestyle rap abilities by asking the crowd for input.
"I'm here for Chiddy Bang, but I do love the Cool Kids though. It's a good one-two combo," Miskulin said. "I've watched the video of (the record.) This guy's the man, he could rap about anything."
Chiddy and Xaphoon attended Drexel University for a year before gaining popularity for their music. Both said their passion for music was too great to do anything else for a living.
"I was doomed to be doing music, successfully or not," Xaphoon said.
The group was thankful to CMU but was excited to head back home and have an opportunity to rest for a few days.
"Central Michigan — it was a wonderful show," Chiddy said. "And we're just gonna, you know, keep grinding."
