IUPUI Welcomes T-Pain to the Jungle to Kick Off Homecoming Week

T-Pain and Slater Hogan made us all feel a little nostalgic Saturday night as they played the music we grew up with.

By Leighann Strollo 10/25/16

To start off homecoming week at IUPUI, T-Pain was able to gather nearly 2,000 students in the Natatorium “Jungle” Saturday night to play every hip-hop song that any college student would stop and say, “Oh yeah, I remember this one from middle school.”

The show began promptly at 7 p.m. as promised with an opening act of Slater Hogan, an Indianapolis native who describes himself as a house music DJ. The usual fear of not knowing any music by the opening act at a show was erased when instead of playing originals, Slater Hogan gave the crowd an endless stream of Top 40 Hits, ranging anywhere in time from N'SYNC to The Chainsmokers.

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Playing until 7:50, Hogan showed no signs of stopping until he absolutely had to and did a great job of hyping up the crowd for the main act.

In the ten minutes it took to get the stage resituated for T-Pain, a question everyone was asking was:

“Is he going to sound good without all that auto-tune?” He proved most people wrong when he slowed things down for a few brief moments to showcase his raw vocal ability as well as his freestyling skills in the middle of his set. It was good enough to wonder why he doesn’t incorporate that in his music more often.

Notorious for being the guy featured on viral hip-hop songs with obvious assistance from auto-tune, T-Pain broke up his big solo hits like “Bartender,” “Buy You A Drank,” and “I’m ‘n Luv (Wit A Stripper),” with short verses from songs by other artists that he had a hand in like “Kiss Kiss,” by Chris Brown and “Low,” by Flo Rida.

The crowd couldn’t stop jumping, and singing along with the high-energy music coming from the stage. About halfway through the show, however, T-Pain paused the craziness, asking if it was alright if he played something new.

“Hold on, I have to bring it up on my phone. I’m not supposed to be showing it,” he told everyone. The name still a mystery, the song followed suit with everything else he has put out before: catchy, fun, and well-produced.

The highlight of the hour and fifteen minute long set was when “Up Down (To This Day)” began playing, followed by a sample of “All I Do Is Win,” as both of those songs gave direction to the crowd on how to participate, keeping them engaged.

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The SAPB, who puts on a concert annually at IUPUI hit the jackpot this year. T-Pain was the most entertaining, talented act here in years. The only disappointing moment may have been when the reality set in that T-Pain was not going to play any part of “I’m On A Boat.”

T-Pain released a new single “Come Around” on Sept. 6, 2016 and plans to release his fifth studio album “Stoicville: The Phoenix,” but no release date has been made.

For more information on what is going on during Homecoming week at IUPUI, click here.