Freaker’s Ball: How It Became The Method Man and Redman Show
Redman and Method Man were the real show stoppers at the annual Freaker’s Ball when they played a set twice as long as B.O.B’s — no small feat when their songs are older than most freshmen.
Miranda Schumes and Sally Nieves
April 6, 2014
This year’s Freaker’s Ball may have been a B.O.B concert according to the flyers, but advertising isn’t always accurate.
Also, most people don’t leave a concert without actually having seen the headliner, either.
The annual hip-hop concert hosted by FAU’s Program Board ended up centering on the opening acts who took us back — way, way back.
The show was to feature B.O.B as headliner, 90s hip-hop legends Redman and Method Man as openers, and DJ Skribble as host.
Photo: Max Jackson
But it should have been advertised as a Redman and Method Man concert instead because the hip-hop duo performed a much longer set than B.O.B. — an hour and a half compared to B.O.B’s nearly 20 minute set.
“I was kind of hoping that they’d speed things up a little bit. It was going a little too slow, all the sets,” Julian Wellchild, a senior computer science major said.
Wellchild came to see B.O.B perform, but because the opening acts and DJ Skribble (another artist who was popular in the 90s but not as musically relevant now) went on for over two hours, he and many other students left before B.O.B performed.
The concert was held in the Outdoor Stage this year (behind the Student Union, in front of Live Oak Pavillion) which gave concert goers a lot more space to dance than last year’s ball in the Barry Kaye Auditorium.
“I was able to enjoy the experience by being outside and not cramped in the chairs of the auditorium,” sophomore film and new media major Matthew Elfenbein said.
The outdoor arena provided more than just a spacious atmosphere, though. There was also a fire truck that sold fresh pizza, an ice-cream truck and a snow cone van. Being outside made it possible for more crowd surfing too — which all three artists did.
Photo: Max Jackson
B.O.B took advantage of the outdoor arena by smoking a blunt offered by someone in the crowd, lighting it up and taking a hit before passing it back. He managed to do all of this while lying on top of the crowd after having crowd surfed on top of them.
Junior nursing major Malika Hart didn’t go to the concert this year because she didn’t like the lineup.
“Last year was amazing because Kendrick Lamar was fresh and new and he had new and great music,” said Hart. “This year was old and lame artists so I decided not to go.”
B.O.B hasn’t had a chart topping song since 2012 so most of the songs he performed were from that year. Meth and Red haven’t had a hit song for over 10 years.
The average age of full-time FAU students is 22 with an overall average of 24. If you do the math, the average FAU student was born between 1990 and 1992. This age gap caused quite a few awkward silences during their set because students didn’t know the lyrics.
Despite the crowd not knowing the songs, Method Man and Redman made up for it with their emcee skills combined with the energy they had on stage.
Photo: Max Jackson
“Method Man and Redman stole the show even though it was about B.O.B,” said Junior architecture major Javier Hernandez. “To be quite honest, it was a lot better than the B.O.B concert but then again do you expect any less from old school?”
Method and Redman’s set was filled with marijuana jokes (which was expected from the “How High” movie stars), Method Man throwing water at the crowd and Redman’s shoes being thrown at people. The duo had a few mishaps while on stage, like calling us FSU (Kendrick Lamar made the same mistake last year), but it only made the crowd laugh harder.
“Redman and Method Man in Fort Lauderdale, ya’ll,” said Redman which caused the audience to laugh and prompted Method to correct him.
“Man, this Boca Raton,” said Method Man. “but I heard mother fucking Florida smoke a lot of bud!”
At 10:45 p.m. the hip-hop duo and their two DJ’s, Dice and Allah Mathematics, left the stage to a cheering crowd and raised W’s signifying the Wu Tang Clan Method and Redman are a part of.
At 11:10 B.O.B took the stage with his hit song, “Magic.” During his set, he interacted with the crowd, even inviting a few girls to twerk on stage.
Most of the vocals for his set were background tracks while he added lyric and rap over it.
B.O.B performed old hits like “Nothin’ on You,” “We Still in This Bitch” and “Headband” before leaving the crowd with some last minute guidance:
“Don’t drink and drive; smoke a blunt.”
Photo: Max Jackson
Too bad most of the crowd had already left before they could hear his advice — approximately 30 minutes earlier to be exact.
I guess this year’s B.O.B concert was FAU’s April Fool’s joke on us all.
