By | Gabrielle Kennedy
This past month Kent State students had the pleasure of seeing Mariah The Scientist in concert on September 23rd for our annual fall concert. Mariah is an up-and-coming hip-hop/R&B artist, who recently had her song Spread Thin off her 2022 album Buckles Laboratory Presents: The Intermission, trending on TikTok. Tickets for her concert went on sale in August for $20, but unfortunately, as the concert date got closer not enough people bought tickets. Instead of canceling the concert, the USG made the tickets free to anyone who wanted one and gave everyone who paid a refund and priority entry.
Since my friends and I bought our tickets ahead of time, we could enter the venue at 7 and additionally, the first hundred scanned tickets were entered in a raffle to win tickets to Flashfest. When we entered the venue we were able to get a spot right in the first and second row which was amazing because we got such a great view of the show. Around 7:30/8, DJ Smillz came out and performed before Mariah came out. As soon as he started DJing you could tell there was such a great vibe of old-school and new-school R&B, rap, and hip-hop music flowing through the room. Though the crowd was intimate it didn’t feel like it because everyone was vibing, singing, and getting excited to see Mariah. His set ended and shortly after Mariah went on at 9 and her set lasted for about an hour and a half. During her set, she was engaging with the crowd because it was a smaller size it felt more personal. Everyone who genuinely wanted to see her and listen to her music was there. The whole crowd was singing all of her songs so even though the crowd was smaller it didn’t give that impression. Mariah sang a mix of songs from all three of her albums, The Intermission (2022), RY RY World (2021), and Master (2019).
Mariah The Scientist Set List:
1. Stone Cold
2. Only Human
3. 2 You
4. Church
5. Brain
6. Note to Self
7. Beetlejuice
8. Aura
9. Thanks 4 Nothing
10. Reminder
11. Spread Thin
Review of Concert:
She came out pretty quickly and got right into singing as soon as she touched the stage. She was very engaging with the crowd, taking notes that fans wrote, keeping t-shirts, etc. She also took pictures of people in the crowd and posted them on her Instagram. Her performances themselves were amazing, she had a great stage presence and you can tell she has a really sweet personality. For me, this is the second time I’ve seen her perform, the first time was a Broccoli Fest which had huge crowds. In my opinion, I preferred the most recent time I saw her because the environment was very personal, and again because it was smaller there was more of a connection between the artist and the crowd. Even if the concert would have stayed at the original cost and had not become free, I still feel like it would have been worth the $20. Seeing her in concert with my friends was a great experience and an amazing vibe. If you haven’t heard any of her music I highly recommend you stream her music on Spotify and Apple Music, you won’t regret it!
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