Courtesy of Yale Spring Fling

The Spring Fling committee announced rapper Ken Carson as this year’s Spring Fling headliner. Ken Carson’s addition to the line-up comes after the previous headliner, NLE Choppa, had to cancel due to medical reasons.

After finding out about NLE Choppa’s withdrawal, almost two weeks before the event, the Spring Fling committee scrambled to find a replacement act. Despite this last-minute line-up change, the committee is still confident that Ken Carson is the “right choice for the student body,” said Morris Raskin ’26.  

“Carson’s music is stylistically very different from NLE. It’s so energetic,” said Raskin, talent chair of the Spring Fling committee. “They’re both rappers, but on two very opposite sides of the rapper continuum.”

Even before his arrival to Yale, Ken Carson had already associated himself with the school through the eponymous single, “Yale.” This made Carson an “exciting and immediate choice,” Raskin said.  

Carson, whose real name is Kenyatta Lee Frazier Jr., is an Atlanta rapper and producer known for his high-intensity music, electrifying performance style and unique blend of musical styles. 

He rose to fame in 2015 after signing to 808 Mafia, and later solidified his fame after signing with Opium — a label owned by Playboi Carti, who performed at Yale’s Spring Fling in 2019. 

“It was very surprising and disappointing because we were very excited to have NLE come, but now that we have a new option, we are excited,” Raskin said. 

Finding and securing an artist usually takes months of work, but committee members expedited this process to select Ken Carson in a matter of days. 

The process of recruiting Ken Carson was an “uphill battle,” according to Raskin, especially as late April marks a busy time for college music festivals. 

“We’ve already had a lot of reps and experience of trying to figure out who to book, so it was just about getting right back into the flow of thinking about who our school would want to see and who would please the most people,” Raskin said. “I’m very proud that we were able to pull this off.” 

With the new lineup locked in and the event fast approaching, the committee looks forward to seeing the campus’s reaction. The concert has been a “long time coming,” said Raskin. 

Yale’s Spring Fling will take place on April 26 on Old Campus.