Cameron Yong/HIGHLANDER
Cameron Yong/HIGHLANDER

New and returning Highlanders were welcomed back to campus with UCR’s annual fall concert, Block Party. Performers included rapper Vic Mensa, reggae-pop band MAGIC! and DJ Dillon Francis. Attendees were greeted with various student organizations, food trucks and tents selling everything from boba to quesadillas. The energy was high as concert-goers flooded onto campus in hopes of experiencing a fun, music-filled night — and UCR certainly did not disappoint.

Vic Mensa:

First to take the stage was Chicago native Vic Mensa. “When I say Vic, you say Mensa!” screamed his DJ, in an attempt to excite the small crowd. Onlookers cooperated but, judging from their stiff body language, were unsure of what to expect from the Save Money rapper. Luckily, they were in for quite the treat. Mensa was a ball of energy, hurling onto the stage determined to hype up the growing crowd. He began with a few of his newest songs, including “Wimme Nah” and “Feel That,” carefree anthems with catchy lyrics that helped the crowd participate effortlessly and consequently bring life to the concert. However, some die-hard Mensa fans were still not feeling the lackluster attitude of the crowd. “What the fuck you doin’ just standing there?” an audience member yelled in frustration.

Mensa continued by covering fellow Save Money member Chance the Rapper’s hit “Cocoa Butter Kisses.” Everyone chanted the lyrics along with Mensa, who seemed relieved to know that the crowd could, in fact, be interactive. He surprised the audience by performing two new songs off of his upcoming album and songs from his 2013 breakout mixtape “Innanetape.” Mensa appeared to be having the time of his life, bouncing around and making it hard for anyone to look on without dancing along. He really got the crowd moving when he performed his hit “Down on My Luck,” an electronic-infused dance song that proved to be a nice contrast to his hip-hop filled set.

Mensa continued to display his versatility as an artist through lyrical content as well. He went from rapping about drugs and women in songs like “Tweakin” and “Major Payne” to a song about personal doubts and growing up in the harsh streets of Chicago entitled “Holy Holy.” Mensa encouraged everyone to wave their lighters in the air during the song as he preached on the value of togetherness. He encouraged students to embrace help from one another and never be discouraged by authority figures who may not see success in their future. He further proved that he was an advocate for unity and love by asking everyone to put their arm around the person next to them while they continued to bounce and sway to the music.

If you follow Mensa and his performances, you’d know that he is quite fond of crowdsurfing.  Mensa was met with screams and hollers as he jumped into the crowd, undoubtedly creating an unforgettable moment for every Highlander in attendance. Mensa ended his set with a bang, and although the entire world may not know who he is just yet, based on this performance, they soon will.

MAGIC!:

After being so pumped up by Mensa’s energy and with nearly no wait between performances, MAGIC! took the stage, basking in the screams of the newly filled-out crowd. Right off the bat, lead singer Nasri showed himself interested in keeping the energy going, coming onstage without so much as a word and breaking immediately into song.

Only two years old, the band opened by playing music from what is currently its only studio album, “Don’t Kill the Magic,” giving the audience a chance to dance and sing along to music that was still fresh in their minds. After a few songs, the band introduced themselves and explained their passion for reggae, feeding off the audience’s applause.

MAGIC! definitely knew how to work the crowd, using the leftover energy from Mensa’s verve, and encouraging the audience to clap to the beat and sing along in songs like “Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool” and “Let Your Hair Down.” As the crowd — who was still pumped up from the last performance — participated, a new fervor that belonged entirely to MAGIC! was born, leading to a widespread swaying and jamming along with the slightly upbeat reggae style.

Once he had the crowd in his hands, Nasri worked the excitement for all it was worth, crouching near the edge of the stage in an effort to serenade the girls in the front and dancing with so much hip movement that it would leave even Elvis green with envy.

As well as playing previously unreleased songs for the audience, MAGIC! took advantage of their somewhat limited discography to entertain the crowd with old familiars like Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” The former song worked perfectly into the band’s reggae style, and though not quite able to capture the passion of the original performance, Nasri proved himself able to hold his own against a vocalist as strong as Stevie Wonder. The latter, on the other hand, came as a pleasant surprise to everybody in the audience, as they all grooved and sang along to the reggae-styled cover of the 80’s pop hit.

After having worked the crowd so well and having run up to the stage divider to let the audience pull and grope, MAGIC!’s performance drew to a close. It’s unfortunate however that their ending came off as somewhat weak compared to the rest of their performance. Their final two songs were “Don’t Kill the Magic,” for which the album was named, and “Rude,” the song that rocketed the band to the top 10 in the Billboard charts. What handicapped the coda to MAGIC!’s performance was the tone of each song, with “Don’t Kill the Magic” being a high energy reggae-rock tune, while “Rude,” — though their most popular song and a logical end-cap to their concert performance — was far too mellow for a crowd expected to keep the energy going for another performance. Overall though, MAGIC!’s cod reggae had a charm to it that blended well with the audience, and it’s easy to see how they continue to climb in popularity.

Dillon Francis:

MAGIC!’s last song was far from being the best way to keep the energy going as Vic Mensa had done before them, but the waiting time between performances left a good portion of the audience bored with expectation and ready to get on with the concert. All of this said, Dillon Francis may have been the best choice to wake the crowd up and get them hopping once more. Climbing the light-strewn tower that had been erected on an elevated center stage, Francis wasted little time getting things started, shouting only a quick hello to the crowd and breaking immediately into his signature moombahton sound with a new remix of “Some Chords” by deadmau5.

The light show emanating from Francis’ podium was as good as a shot in the arm for the audience, waking up anybody left in a stupor from the gap between performances and mesmerizing anybody who wasn’t seizing from the sporadic strobing and lasers. Throughout his set, Francis took to spending more time actually letting the crowd enjoy the music rather than spending his entire set shouting over the mic. Generally, his music would be mixed in with intermittent shouts of encouragement that served fairly well to pump up the audience, but that was pretty much what his interaction with the audience was limited to. The two exceptions to this, however, came when he told the audience, “Now I’m gonna teach you something,” before breaking into a spelling lesson with his song “What’s That Spell,” and again when he told the crowd to “piss off security by having every girl get on somebody’s shoulders.” By limiting his time on the microphone, Francis was effectively able to shift the audience’s focus to the music instead of the DJ.

While Francis’ set mostly gave way to the heavy moombahton and bassy bangers that listeners have come to expect from him, the middle of his set brought a brief change of pace when Francis dropped “When We Were Young,” a pop-inspired pick-me-up tune, which got the crowd singing along as if they were drunk patrons at a karaoke bar.

During the conclusion of his set and after over an hour of anticipation from the crowd, Dillon Francis appeased the fans in attendance and played his signature track “Get Low.” Preparing the crowd for the massive drop, he instructed everyone in the audience to “get low” by way of the signature festival “sit-down.” With thousands of fans low to the ground anxiously awaiting the drop, Francis exclaimed, “Everybody get low! Low! Low! Low!” When the drop finally hit, on came a glorious display of a sea of human beings popping up from the ground in sync, nothing short of the perfect culmination to an electrifying performance by Francis.

To listen to our interview with Dillon Francis, please visit our YouTube channel, UCRChannelH.