(Beside: photo of performer Yung Gravy at the concert. Photo credit: Lauren Davis)
An excited and eager crowd awaited Yung Gravy as he took the stage in the Skyhawk Fieldhouse at 8:15 p.m. on Friday, April 22.
Yells of admiration filled the gym when introduction music blasted from the speakers and the concert began. Yung Gravy looked forward to seeing the crowd saying, “We’ll see what’s good here. I’ve never been disappointed by Tennessee in the past so I think it should be a good night.”
This concert was anything but ordinary. Yung Gravy engaged the crowd by throwing out water, cereal, and Lunchables. When a fan returned the Lunchable pizza he shared it with his D.J. and another crowd member. He continued to interact with the crowd by trading a towel for a crowd member’s shirt (the shirt was later given back and he got to keep the towel). Fans soon returned the favor by throwing clothing, money, and school identification cards up onto the stage.
The artist performed songs ranging from “Magic” to “Mr. Clean”.
“Mr. Clean” was written in the early parts of Yung Gravy’s career which took place while he was still in college. Yung Gravy talked about his early career saying he would often have to be excused from class to be flown somewhere by Republic Records. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received his degree in Marketing, thereafter switching majors in order to graduate sooner and get a jump start on his career. In class, Yung Gravy would use examples from his own experience in marketing his music to answer questions. When talking about school work during this period in his life he said, “I started businesses in high school and businesses in college. It was just first nature.”
After graduating in December of 2017, he began working full-time in the music industry. He describes his music as, “smooth [and] fun”.
When asked about the joking nature of some of his lyrics, he replied, “It’s kind of been that way since day one. [It] just feels right.”
He said his favorite music to produce is music based on samples and he uses samples or inspiration in most of his songs. The rapper also gave advice to future musicians saying, “You’ve just got to be different. Be unique.”
