A Dickinson lacrosse player will be the opener for the fall concert.

While the headlining performer for this year’s fall concert will not be announced until Oct. 18, according to MOB, it is certain that Zach Blumenstein ’18 and his hip-hop collective Rxn|n (pronounced Ronin) will be performing the opening set.

“Music has always been something that has been a big part of my life,” Blumenstein, who started listening to hip-hop music in the eighth grade, said.

Blumenstein started rapping while studying abroad in Copenhagen because one of his friends randomly sent him some beats.

“I really liked [them] and I thought it would be fun to rap over them.” said Blumstein.

After releasing his first original raps to SoundCloud just over a year ago, rapper and songwriter, Blume – as he is known by his fans, has generated a growing fan base on social media.

Julia Primeau ’18, one of Blumstein’s fans said, “I’ve been following his music since he dropped his first track, I’m excited to see where his talents will take him.”

Blumstein’s favorite of his original raps is, “Ride With Me,” which debuted on SoundCloud seven months ago but remains one of his most popular songs.

He said, “a lot of it draws from different important experiences in my life so putting all of that together in one song was fun to do and relatively easy to write about because it was all truth’ and at the same time [is] a catchy song to vibe to.”

Blume describes his work as “versatile.”

“I can sing, I can rap, sometimes you get some hardcore stuff and sometimes it’s relaxed and chill.” explained Blumstein “I can kind of do it all, you can never really expect what kind of song I’m going to make, it all depends on how I’m feeling in that moment.”

Max Menkes ’20 said, “his rhymes are fire.”

Over the years, Dickinson college students have been opening acts for major headliners.

“We historically offer the first set of the show to students and we like to think of that set as a way to get the artist’s name out, give them promotional material, and give them a large audience” said Mikey Kmetz ’19, MOB’s concert chair, last year Manny Ocampo ’18 [DJ Manny Fresco] opened for Steve Aoki. Similarly, in 2015 Alex Schechter ’18 opened the show for Hoodie Allen.

Zach initially approached us, asking if we were going to have a student opener and sent us links to his collective’s SoundCloud.” said Kmetz, “We enjoyed the group’s sound and felt that they would fit our show well.”

If you are interested in listening to Blume’s beats in anticipation of the fall concert go to @blume_gotit on SoundCloud.