NYU students have worked hard to get to this point in the year. We’ve survived Storm Jonas, we’ve survived the construction around Washington Square and we’re on our way to having survived midterms. Violet 100 Week has come just in time to give the student body a well-deserved party.

Future was just the one to give it to them. The Wednesday of NYU’s spirit week, the prolific rapper graced the stage of Terminal 5 for a night of hip hop and vibes. The evening began with three opening sets, starting with rapper BPE. CAS student Thandiwe Young and Tisch student Niambi Sala followed as OSHUN. The set, complete with the support of a live band, was a beautiful reminder that rap should never be an exclusively male-dominated scene. The girls were the perfect representation of NYU spirit — unapologetic, powerful and original. Topaz Jones primed the crowd one final time with a set full of positive vibes and love for life, and then Future took the stage to an ecstatic crowd of students who were more than ready for his show.

The room was filled with fog, or possibly smoke, and the lighting on the stage went well with Future’s trippy drugged-out music. Snapchats featuring the night’s custom geotag were sent to friends. Wednesday night be damned; it was time to party.

Future did not disappoint. With three huge LED screens behind him displaying a carefully curated B-roll of city scenery, purple ocean waves and the occasional Matrix-esque gun scopes and scrolling numbers, he brought a full experience to his set. Rotating strobe lights lit the air above the crowd’s heads, and the whole place pulsed as students lived in the beat. If it was a music video, it would be something like Beyoncé’s “Flawless,” complete with the always well-dressed NYU students dancing along and gritty bars being spit on stage.

The atmosphere never let up for a moment. Future kept the love coming all night long, throwing out multiple shout-outs to the student body and lending bits of encouragement between songs. The crowd was so hyped up that one student particularly full of the entrepreneurial spirit managed, however briefly, to crowd surf for a glorious moment before he was made to come back to the ground.

If one could find focus through the energetic dancing and the glowing wrists throwing their two’s up in the air, they could have heard the sincerity in Future’s singing. It was a party, to be sure, but one that went beyond that. It was a night of pride and accomplishment for all, and who better to celebrate Violet 100 with than the man with the Purple Reign?

Email Hailey Nuthals at [email protected].