About Us
As this new academic year begins, Boston College students looked forward to kicking their new semester off with the annual Stokes Set concert. Stokes Set features popular artists hand-selected by the Campus Advisory Board (CAB). This year’s event was headlined by KYLE, a rapper and actor, who is most known for his song “iSpy (ft. Lil Yachty)” which went viral on the platform Musical.ly, and has since been acquired by TikTok. DJ Jadaboo also performed as KYLE’s supporting act.
KYLE first began recording and producing music in high school after being inspired by Kid Cudi’s debut studio album, Man on the Moon: The End of the Day. It truly felt like a tribute to KYLE’s inspiration to create music when his DJ played “The Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi from this very album only a few moments before KYLE’s set began. Before he released his first commercial mixtape, entitled Beautiful Loser in 2013, KYLE released numerous mixtapes from the years 2009-2012. Later, in 2015, he released his second commercial mixtape, entitled Smyle. KYLE began to gain notoriety after being featured in one of G-Eazy’s music videos and after Chance the Rapper was featured on Smyle in the song “Remember Me.” “iSpy,” originally released as a single in 2016, was included on KYLE’s third album, called Light of Mine, which was released in 2018. Light of Mine also features another one of KYLE’s most popular songs, “Playinwitme (ft. Kehlani).” He went on to release another album in 2020, and in January 2022, KYLE released his most recent album, It’s Not So Bad. Today, KYLE has 5,872,219 monthly listeners on Spotify and has close to one billion streams on “iSPY,” his most streamed song. His most popular song on Spotify right now is “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love,” which has spiked in popularity since becoming a trending song used in TikTok videos. Its clean and clear-sounding production provides an interesting contrast to KYLE’s unique voice and his ad-libs that occur throughout the song. Most recently, KYLE performed his latest album, It’s Not So Bad, released in January 2022 on a massive North American tour. His tour began on February 10th in Minneapolis, and ended in March 2022, with stops made in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and many other notable cities. His supporting acts for his “I MISS U” Tour included Col3trane and Leven Kali.
KYLE has collaborated with many other artists who are popular in the rap, R&B, and hip-hop genres, such as Kehlani, Lil Yachty, G-Eazy, Chance the Rapper, Miguel, and Ty Dolla Sign. These collaborations helped boost KYLE’s popularity by introducing fans of these notable artists to KYLE’s work. Just like Dominic Fike and Jason Derulo, the artists that Boston College hosted last academic year, KYLE also has engaged in the acting world. He made his acting debut in The After Party, a Netflix original film that was released in 2018. KYLE also played a role in the 2021 film Cherry, starring Tom Holland. These acting roles have also boosted KYLE’s popularity, making him a known name in the film industry in addition to being well-known in the music industry.
Overall, Stokes Set was a massive success and an extremely enjoyable and entertaining experience for the Boston College students who attended. DJ Jadaboo livened up the audience and prepared them for KYLE with innovative and energizing remixes to popular songs. Then, KYLE’s DJ played a set that included many of KYLE’s musical influences as a way to both entertain the audience and pay tribute to the inspirations that led KYLE to create music. After his DJ’s set, KYLE entered on stage and truly gave each song he performed his all. The audience could see how much work he put into his craft and his performance, which created a truly enjoyable experience for both the audience and KYLE, who felt the electricity from the crowd of students excited to be attending Stokes Set.
