‘You got a building named after a MILF?’: Yung Gravy expresses Pitt pride at Fall Fest

Pitt joined Yung Gravy’s “gravy train” as hundreds of students watched him kiss the Cathedral of Learning on an onstage screen during Fall Fest on Sunday, calling it a “MILF.” 

Pitt students filled Schenley Drive to see famous rappers Yung Gravy and Waka Flocka Flame, the headliners for this year’s Fall Fest hosted by Pitt Program Council (PPC). Live music began at 1 p.m., when the South Siders, this year’s Pitt Factor winners, opened for the event along with LA-based electro-pop artist Neggy Gemmy.

Just when it seemed the crowd hit peak volume and size, Waka Flocka Flame held an onstage dance party with PPC members and security. When Yung Gravy came onstage at 5 p.m., his love for MILFs took the hype to a whole new level. 

“You got a building named after a MILF?” Yung Gravy asked the crowd in reference to the Cathedral of Learning. “Cathy ー she big as hell… looks like the baddest bitch I’ve seen in a while.” 

Photos: Fall Fest 2022

In the hours leading up to Yung Gravy’s appearance, students showed their anticipation with “I [heart] HOT MOMS” shirts and “SPARE MILFs?” signs. When PPC announced Yung Gravy as this year’s headliner at the beginning of the semester, much of Pitt students’ excitement came from the rapper’s ironic, internet-meme brand 一 his notorious love for older women. 

Alex Firestine, a senior business analytics and accounting major, said Yung Gravy’s ironic meme status impresses him the most.  He sported a pastel-pink “I [heart] HOT MOMS“ t-shirt. 

“To be an ironic rapper is difficult, they might not take you seriously and you might not gain traction, but I think Yung Gravy has broken this niche,” Firestine said.  

In his hour-long set, Yung Gravy played a mix of his recently trending songs, like “Betty (Get Money” and “Oops!” as well as some of his older material, like “Mr. Clean” and “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot.” 

For Emaya Anand, PPC’s special events director, seeing Pitt students come together and enjoy music makes the long-term effort of planning Fall Fest worth it. 

“When I go up on that stage just to see how things are going and I see a crowd of students just happy to watch their favorite artists 一 that’s gonna make me happy,” Anand said. 

Even students who admittedly are not Yung Gravy fans found his charisma noteworthy. Ben Briggs, a sophomore business major, said attending the festival was worth it.

“I went ironically. Yung Gravy was never one of my favorite artists, but I’ll admit the show was great,” Briggs said. “He brought energy, was genuinely funny and engaged with the crowd.”

The crowd seemed to live for Yung Gravy’s oddity. Students cheered on each other’s backs from the front row to the food vendor trucks, trying to catch autographed Lunchables and a towel soaked with the rapper’s sweat from the stage. Yung Gravy proceeded to take off his sweatshirt to reveal a Pitt basketball jersey, a stunt that students raved over. 

With a persona characteristic of current internet meme culture, Yung Gravy boosted Panther pride in his own way, telling the audience they were “litter than Penn State and WVU” which resulted in a “”Fuck Penn State” chant from the crowd. He also boosted the school’s pride with his antics even more by starting an “H2P” chant himself, and then morphing the three-syllable rhythm into four, asking students, “What-does-that-mean?”

For many first-year students, the Panther pride at Fall Fest was more than just rowdy entertainment to blow off steam amid midterms, it was a way to feel more a part of the Pitt community. 

Tori Casarella, a first-year undeclared major, said the festival helped her and her friends feel more at home on campus.

“It seems like [Pitt] wants us to feel like a community,” Casarella said. “I know all of us are a decent way from home so it definitely helps to have a community here as well.”