CLAIRE O’REILLY
Staff Writer
Originally born with the name “Samuel Adams Wisner” in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the 28-year-old rapper, Sammy Adams, has spent the past few years making a name for himself in the music industry.
He may be best remembered as the 22-year-old college kid who remixed Asher Roth’s “I Love College” into the YouTube hit “I Hate College” back in 2009. Since then, he’s come a long way from Boston.
Music became a part of Adams’ life at an early age. He began learning piano at age 7, and by age 11 he was testing his skills and creating his own melodies. Once he hit college, he released songs such as the popular “I Hate College” along with “Kimber,” “Opening Day” and “Hard Shit.” This began his underground college-scene success.
Surprisingly, Adams has said in interviews that his musical influences come from rock, classic rock, classical music and blues. He also had originally dreamt of becoming a producer, not a rap star.
Following the release of his 2009 works, in March of 2010 Adams put out his EP, “Boston’s Boy,” with his song, “Driving Me Crazy,” among the most popular on the track list. “Boston’s Boy” would go on to reach No. 1 on iTunes. The huge success came as a surprise to the artist.
“I expected to have fans; we had a pretty good fan base before of about 14,000 [or] 15,000 people,” he said in an interview with itsbongoboy.com. “But I didn’t think that it would go that hard the first week, so it was really dope to see that.”
In 2011, Adams was given the chance to perform at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. The next year, he released his hit single, “All Night Longer.”
“I think that’s a great party song,” said sophomore psychology major Paige Jaworowicz. “[It’s] definitely something I enjoy listening to when I wanna have a good time.”
In an interview with The Campus Socialite a few years back, Adams talked about his many successful college campus appearances.
“We go out to schools and a ton of people come out to the shows,” said Adams. “A lot of people show love, a lot of people know the words. Most concerts, the people are fucking louder than us.” With Adams’ history of successful college campus shows and historical popularity among college kids, it makes sense that he agreed to perform here at Fredonia.
Jaworowicz commented on people’s reactions of not knowing of the artist when Spectrum announced the Boston rapper as the Spring Concert headliner.
“I knew who he was because I used to listen to his music back in high school,” she said. “I just haven’t recently because he really hasn’t come out with anything new.”
This is not necessarily true. Back in early March, Adams released his songs “Long Way” and “Helluva,” teasers for his album released over Spring Break, “The Long Way.”
Most of the songs on this album have a party, dance-like feel. “Love Again” stands out from the rest of the 15 songs. It still has that techno vibe, but it sounds like more than just a typical rap song. The addition of the female vocalist, Madison Love, adds to the less upbeat, more intimate feel of the song. It describes being afraid to love again because of getting hurt in the past — a much different message than “I Hate College,” which talks about loving to party and “getting laid.”
Even with Adams’ track record of success and “great party songs,” not all Fredonia students approve of his scheduled visit to campus in April.
“I think they could’ve done better,” said sophomore English major Morgan Henderson. “He’s like one of those artists that everyone knows one song by, but no one actually likes them.”
“I think he’s good overall, but I don’t think he fits to the Fredonia scene,” said sophomore computer science major Christian Lozach. “He’s like a techno-rapper, and I don’t think that’s what people were really looking for.”
Some might disagree with Henderson and Lozach — just ask senior early childhood education major Sammy Zalewska.
“I’m super pumped — I know a lot of people are disappointed, but I’ve seen [him] like four times and he puts on such a great show,” said Zalewska. “He’s underrated, in a way, because people only know one or two of his famous songs.”
Sammy Adams is set to perform in Steele Hall on April 23 at 7 p.m.