Profstock music fest to welcome Cash Cash, Aloe Blacc and We The Kings

Three thousand students are expected to celebrate spring—and uphold a longstanding Rowan University tradition of welcoming talented entertainers to campus—during the University’s seventh annual Profstock music fest on Saturday, March 28, in Esbjournson Gymnasium.

This year’s lineup includes: Cash Cash, an electronic dance music group that has provided official remixes for artists such as Katy Perry, Bruno Mars and Kelly Clarkson;  R&B artist Aloe Blacc, whose “Lift Your Spirit” album was nominated for a Grammy Award this year; and We The Kings, a rock band that has had two Top 40 singles.

Tropical Nasty, an experimental blues/funk rock band, will open Profstock. Founded in 2013, the band won the University’s Battle of the Bands on March 6, earning the honor of kicking off the music fest.

An annual rite of spring for Rowan students, Profstock is presented by the Office of Student Activities and Student University Programmers (SUP). Tickets for the concert, which begins at 7 p.m., are $10 and are on sale at the information desk in the Chamberlain Student Center. The desk is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

‘A staple of the Rowan experience’

“Profstock is a staple of the Rowan experience,” says senior advertising major Cody Molowski, director of live events for SUP. “The event gives students something really fun to do outside the classroom each spring. It’s great to have a concert of this size right on campus.”

This year’s lineup offers a little something for all musical tastes—rock, pop, R&B and electronic dance music, says Molowski.

A Roseland, N.J. band, Cash Cash is signed to Big Beat/Atlantic records. “Take Me Home,” featuring vocals by Bebe Rexha, is their highest charting song, while their song, “Lightning,” features vocals from the Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik. The group has released three albums.

“Wake Me Up,” Aloe Blacc’s single, went to No. 1 in 102 countries around the world. A rapper-turned-singer/songwriter, Blacc’s “Lift Your Spirit,” his third solo album, was nominated for a Grammy. He has teamed up with producers Pharrell Williams, DJ Khalil (who worked with Eminem, Drake and Kendrick Lamar) and Rock Mafia (who has produced No Doubt and Miley Cyrus).

A band from Bradenton, Fla., We The Kings has released four albums, including “We the Kings,” “Sunshine State of Mind,” Smile Kid,” and “Somewhere Somehow.” In 2011, the group was the MTV Music Award winner for Most Innovative Music Video of the Year for “Say You Like Me.”

Top musical artists

The challenge in organizing the concert, Molowski says, is securing top musical artists within the event’s $160,000 budget. The majority of funding for Profstock comes from the per-semester student activities fee paid by students. The fee supports all OSA and SUP programming, including Rowan After Hours, the wildly popular, thrice-weekly late-night programming.

Past Profstock artists have included, among many others, Reel Big Fish and Third Eye Blind (2010); LMFAO, Ke$ha and Ludacris (2011); All American Rejects (2012); Sublime w/ Rome (2013); and Lupe Fiasco (2014).

It’s thrilling, Molowski says, to work on an event as large as Profstock. Altogether, 50 undergraduate student volunteers, 10 graduate students and five professional staff members in SUP and OSA organize the music fest, paying attention to every detail, large and small. The work has given him, he says, an opportunity to book talent, work with agents, and do promotion—all skills he’ll use in his chosen field of advertising.

“It’s fun to put this together and have a project you can see. It’s going to be a very well-planned, well-run Profstock,” says Molowski.

Hall of Famers on campus

While Profstock is in its seventh year, the music fest continues a decades-long Rowan/Glassboro State College tradition of hosting major musical talents. Many up-and-coming artists played in Glassboro before making it big in the music business.

They include: Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Temptations and The Isley Brothers (1966); Elton John, The Four Seasons and Sam and Dave (1970); Bonnie Raitt (1972); Billy Joel (1977); Tom Waits (1978); The Kinks and Blondie (1979); and The Beastie Boys (1987).

Just eight months before his death in 1972, Jim Croce performed on campus, while Chubby Checker, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, Cab Calloway, the Count Basie Orchestra, Art Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and Kool and the Gang also played in Glassboro. Though he performed at a slew of colleges and universities nationwide early in his career, Bruce Springsteen was scheduled to play on campus in May of 1974, but was forced to cancel due to illness.