The K-State Student Union was crowded for a performance of the Dreamville rapper, Lute, on Wednesday night. The Union Program Council teamed up with MHK Music Scene to make the event happen.
“We felt like hip-hop and rap specifically was kind of an underserved artist population that we’ve brought,” Andrew Marsh, graduate advisor for UPC, said. “We thought Lute was great because he’s signed by J. Cole’s “Dreamville” so that’s very eye-catching. He’s just very up and coming.”
I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of Lute before until I heard he was going to be performing on campus. The only song I knew about was “Under the Sun” featuring J. Cole and DaBaby.
“I just think that his journey’s been amazing and his music’s awesome,” Krys Williams, emcee for the night, said. “You can relate to his lyrics and you can just feel the passion in it.”
Lute had never performed at a college or university before and didn’t know what to expect.
“My favorite part about performing is not knowing what the hell I’m about to get into. Like tonight — I have no ideas how tonight’s going to go,” Lute said.
Related:
REVIEW: ‘To Hell With the Hustle’ challenges reader to quit cycle of working, wanting more
The crowd quickly got into the music and enjoyed themselves. Throughout the concert, Lute stopped between songs to talk with the crowd.
He mentioned he has a lot of anxiety whenever it comes to interacting with other people.
“Honestly, I’m just as human as everybody else,” Lute said. “I hope my music comes off as that as well. I’m just like everybody else when I go out I interact with people, I like to feel like the people. I like to just mingle with the people and be amongst the people.”
Nas Sanders, freshman in social work, said Lute had a nice personality.
“It was my first live concert, so it just made me feel so happy inside and he was so chill,” Sanders said. “It was funny, I felt like it was a little comedy show mixed with a little rap.”
Lute performed a few songs from his first album, “West 1996 Pt. 2.” Lute said he got into music after stumbling upon the topic.
“I had a group of friends that were into music and one of my friends’ older brother was actually in a music group, cause we looked up to his older brother so we were like ‘We should do a music group too,'” Lute said. “But when I started out, I was trash. I mean, I still feel like I got work to do but when I started out I was like super trash. But I would say my influencers got me into music.”
Throughout the night, he skipped around from his latest single “GED” to songs from the album “Revenge of the Dreamers” where he’s featured along with J. Cole and other Dreamville rappers.
“Honestly, when people talk to me about how I got signed in Dreamville, to this day I’m like ‘I’m just as shocked as you are’ I didn’t see it coming,” Lute said. “I was literally at Wal-Mart when Cole called me and told me he found my music. I went on my lunch break and I talked to him and how he found my music. I was literally at work at Wal-Mart. So I look at this like a huge blessing because to this day I don’t know how it happened.
“I didn’t hand out mixtapes, I didn’t put in what most people have endured, some of these things I haven’t endured like even with me being signed,” he said. “Cole reached out to me and found me, so it wasn’t like I was handing my mixtape out or I was just knocking on doors and handing stuff out.”
Related:
From a hobby to a record deal: One student’s road to making music
The highlight of the night were the auditions for J. Cole’s verse. Three students took to the stage trying to prove who knew the words the best.
Towards the end of his performance, Lute joked about coming down again for Fake Patty’s Day, but said that he was going to be in Los Angeles recording music. However, he said he would come down again.
Lute’s performance was without a doubt an experience I won’t forget. His lyrics are inspirational and give powerful messages. I recommend to anyone that hasn’t yet listened to him to do so.
“My music is about people overcoming their circumstances, I’ll put it that way,” said Lute. “Like you know, start from the bottom and making your way up to the top with whatever it is. I don’t care if it’s you starting from the bottom and you’re making the top of your 9-5 or you want to pursue music. Whatever it is, whatever it is you’re trying to pursue, whatever your dreams are.”
