Waka Flocka Flame lights up Carrboro for third night

Waka Flocka Flame was greeted by rounds of applause as Chapel Hill crowds welcomed him to Cat’s Cradle for two performances — with one more on the books for tonight.

The rapper, who won “Best Club Banger” at the BET Awards in 2011 for his hit, “No Hands,” is also known for “Round of Applause,” and “Hard in da Paint.”

“Each night got booked separately,” Cat’s Cradle owner Frank Heath said. “We put one show on sale and it sold out really quickly, and the same thing happened when we decided to add a second show, so we kind of rolled the dice with the third show.”

The gamble worked out well — all three shows sold out almost immediately.

“The demand for the tickets was pretty off the charts for a Cradle show,” Heath said.

First-year Lauren Perkins experienced firsthand how difficult it was to get tickets.

“I forgot the days that they were being actually sold, so when I checked back in they were already sold out, so I kept looking and refreshing the Facebook page where people were posting about the event,” Perkins said.

“I ended up seeing this guy that I had mutual friends with and that he was selling tickets for the Jan. 11 show. I messaged him and bought the tickets for $35, which was $10 more than what everyone else paid.”

Heath said that the crowd responded well to Waka’s energy.

“The crowd was really into the show from the get-go,” he said.

“He was pumped about it and fed off of the energy of the crowd. It was a great night. Pretty much the whole crowd was moving and jumping up and down the whole show.”

Perkins, who went to the Monday night show, also praised the atmosphere of the concert.

“Waka only lasted for like an hour on stage,” she said.

“There was a DJ there that started at 9 to hype up the crowd with remixes of new-ish songs. Waka came out at around 10, then he took off his shirt and jumped in the crowd. He walked around for a little bit and people were freaking out, taking pictures of him and touching him.”

For some fans, getting to see the rapper was like a blast from the past.

“It reminds me a lot of having fun in high school,” junior Sarah Hinson said. “Those are the songs that my friends and I listened to on the way to lacrosse games. It’s kind of just reminiscing for us.”

Hinson, who went to the concert as a birthday celebration for a friend Tuesday night, said she was hopeful that Waka would play some of her favorite songs from high school, including one of his most popular, “No Hands.”

“I know a couple of people who went Monday night, and I looked at it on Snapchat,” she said. “I heard he was really good, and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.”

@just_in_kacey

arts@dailytarheel.com