Monster Energy Up & Up Joins IDK for No Label Graduation Event

CORONA, Calif., Aug. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Monster Energy Up & Up, the leading national college music event brand, will join rapper IDK to host a graduation cerebration for the No Label Academy at Harvard. The show, taking place August 28 at 7 p.m. at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, will feature "sugar trap" rapper Rico Nasty, 17-year-old rap sensation YoungManny, IDK and friends. 

The unprecedented 10-day No Label course, which takes place at Harvard University, targets BIPOC students and offers them the unique opportunity to travel to Cambridge, MA to learn the fundamentals of the music industry.

Rapper and producer IDK (Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge) is an innovator with few equals. He subverted genre tropes with his 2015 debut project SubTrap, a nuanced and inventive exploration of the intersection of drug dealing and addiction. Early into his career, IDK created some of the first Instagram auto like scripts, finding a new way to market himself on social media without a label or a team. Since then, he's continued to make unprecedented moves both in and outside of the studio.

"I am excited to partner with The Monster Energy Up and Up Festival on the No Label Academy Graduation," said IDK. "This show will feature talent from No Label Academy. The goal of the show is to curate an experience that students from NLA and nearby schools can enjoy. NLA students will celebrate the completion of the program and students from local colleges will kick off the new school year."

"The essence of Monster Energy Up & Up is to curate experiences for aspirational students and youth who are on the rise. When IDK first approached me with this concept, we thought it was a special opportunity that aligns with the Up & Up and important to support," said Monster Energy Up & Up Co-Founder Steve Ferraro.

No Label is a nonprofit media platform empowering and showcasing new and underrepresented stories. The platform partners with universities and brands to create unique experiences bringing these stories to light. Over the past two years, No Label has worked with the likes of Travis Scott, Bad Bunny, Sweetie, and many others.

No Label Academy features 28 students taking part: 5 Harvard students, 3 featured students, and 20 accepted applicants. The program is a continuation of IDK's relationship with No Label Live, a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit founded by Harvard College students Marcelo Hanta-Davis and Miles Weddle in order to use pop culture to promote education and address social issues.

Upon graduation, the students will have unique opportunities to formally put their learnings into practice through internships and joint venture partnership deals with No Label's major record label partners.

To learn more about No Label Academy, visit https://nolabel.live/nla.

To learn more about the Monster Energy Up & Up Festival, visit https://upandupfestival.com/.

ABOUT THE MONSTER ENERGY UP & UP FESTIVAL:
Monster Energy Up & Up is the largest national college festival promoter in the US powered by a community of ambassadors. We produce festivals by empowering student bodies to compete and win them. The Up & Up's innovative guerrilla ticketing system is simple: students crowdsource demand on their campuses leading up to a 48-hour competition period and the top colleges with the most pre-sales earn their way to work with our team to craft music experience of-a-lifetime, while also gaining unprecedented industry experience. Past live headliners include Cash Cash (2016), Alan Walker (2017), GRYFFIN (2018), and Two Friends (2018), Slushii (2019), Lost Kings (2019) and Elephante (2019).

SOURCE Monster Energy