SPEC-TRUM announces lineup for Relays concert

The annual Penn Relays weekend concert this year will feature the groups 112, Mobb Deep, Spragga Benz and Cam'Ron as part of what organizers are calling "the Hip Hop/R&B;/Reggae event of the year." For the fifth year in a row, the Social Planning and Events Committee to Represent Undergraduate Minorities is sponsoring the concert for Penn Relays, an international track and field tournament that brings tens of thousands of people to the University over the weekend of April 23. Last year, SPEC-TRUM brought legendary hip-hop artist Busta Rhymes to headline the Relays concert and past years have seen such luminaries as the Fugees and KRS-1. Though she said that the acts booked for this year's concert were "not necessarily" the organizers' first choices, SPEC-TRUM Co-Director Sharese Bullock said her organization is still "very excited about the event." "It was a tough time to book urban shows," the College junior said, noting that there is "very limited availability right now for hip-hop artists." Even so, Bullock said, "We're really pleased with the choices that we have." She said that Mobb Deep was added "at the 11th hour," noting that the group that has had two platinum albums and is "a great choice, given the availability." This was also the first time that SPEC-TRUM booked the concert's acts on its own, without the use of outside agents, Bullock said, noting that this made the process more difficult for the planners. She attributed the late announcement of the acts for this year's concerts to "trying to get artists" to book for the event, adding that many were either unavailable or too expensive for SPEC-TRUM's budget. "The feedback so far has been really, really good," Bullock said, though she noted that "right now, the buzz is just [beginning]." This year's event will be held at The Armory at 33rd and Market streets, the first time that the concert has ever been held at an off-campus venue, she said. Tickets for the concert are being sold at the Annenberg Center's box office and on Locust Walk this week and next. The Armory has a special meaning to many hip-hop fans, Bullock noted, because the 1994 hip-hop documentary The Show was filmed there. Mobb Deep "rose to fame with the revival of hardcore New York reality rap," according to a review on Amazon.com, the Internet-based book and music store. The duo hails from Queens, N.Y., and has been compared to such rap artists as Wu-Tang Clan and the late Notorious B.I.G. Mobb Deep's albums include Hell on Earth and Juvenile Hell, as well as the soon-to-be-released Murda Muzik. And rapper Cam'Ron is described by an Amazon.com review as being "often plagued by a serious case of New York-pseudo-gangster-beat-itis," though it notes that with his "thuggishness" comes a "personality" and "style" and calls him a contender for the place of the Notorious B.I.G. Cam'Ron's latest album is called Confessions of Fire. Spragga Benz's latest releases include Jack it Up and The Best of Two Bad DJs with Beenie Man. 112's latest album is the self-titled One Twelve.