Nov 1

Nov 1 Amazon Prime Students and Big Noise Live present: FYG U on the USC Campus

Thursday, October 24th at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall on the USC campus with students were ready to enjoy the FYG U Music + Tech Festival presented by Amazon Prime Students and Big Noise Live. FYG U has made stops at multiple campuses across the country. The focus of the festival go beyond great music, technology, education, and entertainment are also highlighted.

Creator of FYG U Nick Gross said he created this festival because “My personal experience on my journey to "finding my grind" didn't always happen through academics but typically though the people I met, the things I did, and knowing how to grow my talents into real opportunities for my life”.

Students had the opportunity to play games and win an Amazon gift cards or Alexas. When they were not competing for cool prizes they had a chance to let their inner child out with an inflatable slide and football field goal set up. Inside the event there were booths were students could get some swag from Ethika , they specialize in underwear as well as active wear that are both high quality and affordable. AWS Educate which an affiliate of Amazon offered students free cloud computing courses along with Tshirts, glow in the dark bracelets and glasses. In the Twitch Prime booth, which is a premium extension of Amazon prime. Gaming competitions were held, where cash prizes were awarded. If competing isn’t what you’re into, students were able to sit play. .

It wasn’t just all about the fun and games FYG U had educational panels. The first panel focused on the horrors of modern day poaching and its impact on the natural world. Damien Mander is the founder and CEO of IAPF (International Anti-Poaching Foundation). After serving in the Australian Defense Force, he traveled to Africa and was shocked by what he discovered. When IAPF was first created Mander said that he was “training the rangers as if they were soldiers.” He said he learned that they needed to approach this in a different way. Mander said that he noticed that the way women resolve conflict is more holistic and requires more communication.He says once they changed the way they interacted with locals, they were able to save more animals then he had been with the more aggressive approch. Manders says “The rangers IAPF have supported or trained protect over 6 million acres of wilderness everyday in Africa.”

Another Panel was ran by members of the Universal Music Group, and the impact of tech on the music industry. Jacob Pace who is well known on the app TikTok discussed how it went from edits and remix and now people are getting better at creating content that can “trancensed to other social media sites and all the organic engagement that is coming from the app.” Pace also shared that creating content for TikTok is different from other social media sites because “the content finds you, compared to Youtube where you are usually looking for something specific.” Social Media has been helping artist for years Nick Gross Accredited YouTube for being his Mentor. Stating “you don't always have to seek out the in-person mentorship to have success and gain inspiration and knowledge”.

What really set the tone for the night were all the musical acts. DC area rapper Wale was one of the first performers of the nights, getting students ready to dance the night away. MADEINTYO started with his older tracks like ‘Uber Everywhere’ to some of his newer tracks like Ned Flanders. Next to preform was Lil Tecca with hits like “Ransom” featuring Juice WRLD and “Somebody”. This wasn’t just a boys club New York Rapper TEYONAHHH showed us that she is a star that is on the rise. Her set was cut short though due to technical difficulties. The final act of the night was Playboi Carti after the crowd was yelling his name all night during FYG the time for him to perform arrived and he did not disappoint. While rapping hits like “Magnolia” Mosh pits formed and the crowned looked like a sea of illuminated bracelets and sunglasses while they sang and rapped along.