Sophomore Afsary Ahmed has never heard of the hip-hop artist Saigon.

Neither has junior Mina Nous or senior Chris Hazle-Cary.

But, that’s the idea University Union is going for.

Saigon, a rising hip-hop artist, will perform at 8 tonight in the Schine Underground as a part of UU’s Bandersnatch Series. Bandersnatch is a subdivision of UU Concerts that brings in under-the-radar music acts to play concerts in Schine Underground. The last Bandersnatch concert featured singer/songwriter Jason Reeves.

‘We want to bring different music acts,’ said Bandersnatch co-president Andrew Friedman. ‘We can be chill with someone like a singer-songwriter, then bring a hip-hop act and move on from there.’

Friedman said the idea of bringing Saigon was tossed around a few times before the group settled. He also said that this Saigon concert would be different from the other usual Bandersnatch concerts.

‘We’ve done two out of three seated shows, but this one will have a standing audience, so I think that provides a good contrast,’ Friedman said.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Saigon gained notoriety by releasing several mixtapes on the Internet. Saigon had a recurring role on HBO’s ‘Entourage’ during the second and third seasons in which his song ‘Don’t Do That’ was featured. Another one of Saigon’s better-known songs is ‘Shock TV.’

His first mixtape, ‘Da Yard Father-1,’ was ranked No. 14 out of 20 by XXL magazine. The rapper was hospitalized in 2006 when he was stabbed in the temple with a wine bottle outside of a New York diner. A street mugger was trying to rob him for an $18,000 chain he was wearing at the time.

The rapper was also involved in a fight with Prodigy, a rapper from the group Mobb Deep, in 2007.

Friedman said Saigon is a great rap artist, and anyone who likes hop-hop should attend the concert because Saigon is going to become big in the near future.

Saigon’s style is a more street-style than pop. His sound is similar to other hip-hop artists like Nas and Mobb Deep, which was part of the reason UU wanted to bring him to SU.

‘With Bandersnatch you get something new. You may like something and never know about it until you hear something new,’ Friedman said. ‘There’s just so much music out there.’Syracuse band Sophistafunk will open the show.

Despite all the music out there waiting to be discovered, some students still aren’t that interested.

Adam Bernier, junior political science and international relations major, heard Saigon was coming to perform at SU, but he hadn’t previously heard of him before and doesn’t really care about the concert.

‘I’m not really interested in it, because it’s not like I can go, anyway,’ Bernier said.

Friedman said the Bandersnatch program is a good way for smaller and underground acts to reach their niche markets, establish themselves and break out into the entertainment scene.

For the spring semester, Friedman said Bandersnatch is considering a mainstream DJ and party atmosphere for their next show.

kaoutram@syr.edu

Published on November 11, 2008 at 12:00 pm