Occidental’s annual FallFest was held Oct. 22 in the Greek Bowl, featuring headliner 070 Shake. 070 Shake is a rapper and singer who has worked with artists such as Kanye West, Pusha T and Nas. FallFest was organized by the Occidental Programming Board, a student group that runs FallFest, SpringFest and various other campus events. Téa Murphy (senior), manager of the Programming Board, said that she and the rest of the board looked for a headlining artist based on the results of student polls.
“It was very important to us to get someone who was representative of what a lot of people wanted to see,” Murphy said. “We landed on 070 because she’s rap, hip-hop, R&B and has a pop vibe also.”
Despite the rain, 070 Shake delivered a high-energy performance with songs like “Ghost Town,” “The Pines” and “Cocoon.”
The student openers were duo DiddyK & Drizz, also known as Danny Kim (senior) and Bryce Endrizzi (senior), and solo artist DJ Nice and Nasty, also known as Chloe Ford (sophomore). Murphy said that both acts stood out for their energy and relevant sounds.
Kim and Endrizzi first met here at Occidental and collaborated through the label Kim created called Rooted Collective Records. They performed two songs together and one each separately. Both write music in the hip-pop genre. Kim said he is inspired by lyricists and performers like Eminem and Lil Wayne, and Endrizzi said he gets influence from various hip-hop, rap and R&B artists.
“I really like wordplay, and I’m super fascinated by double entendres,” Endrizzi said. “I try to implement those as much as I can, and more recently I’ve been thinking about the song as a whole instead of just bar for bar wordplay.”
The pair said that they have put in a lot of hard work to get to this point, and hope that opening for an artist like 070 Shake can help kick start their music careers.
“I go by this mantra that you have to fall in love with the process,” Kim said. “You’ll reach your destination eventually, but you can’t get too obsessed with [it]. We just want to have fun on stage, fun with the crowd, because we’ve been here loving what we’ve been doing and we’re trying to share that with a lot of people.”
Ford said she shares a similar hope of getting the crowd excited with her DJ set, inspired by the likes of NIA ARCHIVES, Maya Jane Coles and Frankie Knuckles. She said she first got interested in house and EDM music in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, which inspired her to try it out for herself.
“I just started playing around with it,” Ford said. “It became an everyday thing, I would go into my brother’s old room, I would connect to [his awful] speakers, put on my Amazon headphones and rock out.”
Though it started as a hobby, Ford said she has played at a few small parties and is excited to start doing more performing. FallFest, she said, is her biggest audience thus far.
“I just love it so much. I love the music. I love the art,” Ford said. “Even if I do have to put myself in front of so many people, which sounds really scary, but at the same time it’s such a rush afterward. It’s worth it.”
All three artists said that they were very grateful for being chosen and being showcased to the student body.
“Nothing happens without people hearing and just exposure, connections, networking, all that, and that comes with putting on shows,” Endrizzi said. “Everyone’s story needs to be told and we are so excited to tell ours.”
Ford said that FallFest has given her something to work toward as she continues learning more about DJing and improving her craft.
“It’s nice to have these goals within school,” Ford said. “[It] gives you a taste of what it would be like to perform outside of school, so I think that’s really important for any kind of student artist.”
Murphy said having student performers has always been an important part of FallFest. Not only do the artists get to have a resource for their talent, but the students in attendance also have a chance to be more involved in the community, Murphy said.
“We don’t have that many major events on campus every year,” Murphy said. “But I think it’s important that we create a place where the Oxy community can come together and just have fun, where all students feel welcome and safe.”
Listen to more of 070 Shake and DiddyK & Drizz, and follow the artists from this year’s FallFest on Instagram @070shake @_diddyk @b_endrizzi @cchloeford. You can follow the Programming Board @oxyprogrammingboard for more fun things to look forward to.
Contact Kawena Jacobs at jacobsk@oxy.edu