It has been confirmed that Jhene Aiko will no longer be performing at this year’s homecoming concert.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s Student Government Association posted a statement on Instagram from Ticket Master.

“Due to an internal decision made by Jhene Aiko’s management team, Jhene Aiko will not perform at the 2014 A&T Homecoming Concert. Jhene sends her sincere apologies and hopes to reschedule her performance in the spring of 2015. Jhene Aiko was the opening act on the 2014 A&T Homecoming Concert. She will be replaced by artist Cash Out. The new line-up will be Future, Lil Boosie, Migos, Rich Homie Quan, and Cash out.”

After only 55 likes on SGA’s Instagram post, the word of her cancellation from the homecoming lineup spread rapidly.

“I just found out today,” said Kaya Williams, a sophomore biology student from Charlotte N.C. “It was a bit disappointing because I heard that she cancelled her Winston concert and then she cancelled on us too; so I’m kind of upset about it, but I mean, Cash Out is a little bit better. I’m glad that Cash Out is coming because the concert is going to be a whole lot hyper than what it was.”

Some students who are attending the homecoming concert were disappointed at Aiko’s cancellation.

“I’m very upset because I really wanted to see her. Even though I want to see the other people more, I still wanted to see her too,” said Rae’Ghan Foster, a junior fashion merchandising and design student from Spartanburg, S.C. “I would have preferred somebody like August Alsina, K. Camp or Drake over Cash Out.”

Other students were not as affected by her cancellation.

“I’m not shocked,” said Cierra Mayo, a junior biology student from Washington D.C. “I feel as though she didn’t know the lineup and then she saw who was coming and thought she was too cute for that. I’m only going for the Migos so I wasn’t really paying attention to her in the first place. It’s whatever; I can listen to her on the radio.”

James Brown, vice president of external affairs learned about Aiko’s cancellation last week.  Brown called Raquan Cotton, SUAB president, and Tony Williams, president of Diamond Life Concerts in order to replace Aiko.

“We came up with a list of artists and we contacted them,” Brown said. “The first person we contacted was August Alsina. Due to his incident, he had to use his free dates which one of those dates was our concert date to make up those dates he missed for other concerts.”

Alsina collapsed and fell off stage during one of his concerts of his Testimony Tour. He suffered multiple seizures and was in a coma for three days due to severe exhaustion and dehydration.

“We went down the list and ended up with Cash Out,” Brown continued. “We needed someone to open the show which Jhene was doing. We came up with a solution to what we’ll do to release it to the public about the information and we were going to do that sometime this week once we got a contract back.”

After receiving confirmation of Cash Out replacing Aiko, Brown called Cotton, Williams, and Lake’ Laosebikan-Buggs, executive director of the office of student activities and campus involvement to address the rumors of Aiko’s cancellation.

“Last night, some people contacted me and Raquan and it was on twitter that Jhene wasn’t coming anymore,” Brown said. “So I brought that to the attention of Raquan, Tony Williams and also Dr. Buggs. We had a conference call today about the situation and how we were going to handle it. We were pretty much waiting for the contract from Cash Out to announce it. We had to push that through the agency and we released that.”

Although Brown deems himself an optimistic person, he was not looking forward to Aiko’s cancellation.

“I’m a little disappointed because we’ve been planning for a while for her to come, but we understand that things happen and that’s part of business,” he said.

Aiko was also set to perform at the concert last year during Aggie Fest. She and Future cancelled.

“During Aggie Fest, Future was doing some promotional tour dates and appearances before his Honest album,” Brown said. “I don’t have the full details on it, but he and Jhene are on the same agency so once he cancelled, she cancelled. I don’t know if it was a deal or anything like that.”  

As VPEA, Brown fulfilled his responsibility in coordinating, planning, and booking artists for the homecoming concert.

“We did everything on our end to prevent cancellations,” Brown explained. “Sometimes things just happen and that’s just the nature of doing concerts and events with people of this magnitude. You just have to sometimes factor that in when we are doing these events. We don’t blame her for the last cancellation or this cancellation. We understand things happen so that’s why we did it in the demeanor that we did. We did it in a professional manner because in the future we might want to bring her back for another homecoming or Aggie Fest if that’s what the students want.

Brown is encouraging students to participate in N.C. A&T’s 2014 Homecoming.

“Everyone go out and buy a G.H.O.E. ticket,” Brown said. “We are 19 days away! Make sure you follow us on Instagram and Twitter @GHOE14.”

Corey Lamar, manager and father of Dequantes Lamar, also known as Rich Homie Quan, was shot four times at his own barbershop in Atlanta after an apparent robbery attempt Monday, Sep. 29. He is in stable condition. Rich Homie Quan is still set to perform at N.C. A&T’s homecoming concert. Rich Homie Quan has not yet made a statement in regards to the shooting.

Aggies are looking forward to an eventful homecoming experience.

—Email Mija   at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @heelson_check

• Mija Gary Register Reporter