In this interview with Performer Magazine’s Jack M Silverstein, Chicago MC Young General discusses his performance at the College of Idaho’s WinterFest.

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The show got booked through NACA, the National Association of Campus Activities. They act as a broker between independent acts and universities to bring new attractions to campuses across the country. We went to a NACA conference. We were fortunate enough to get selected for a showcase, which allows you to do your act in front of the students that represent the universities at the NACA conference. College of Idaho came to our booth afterwards, just like a trade show, and said “We’re really interested in what we saw on stage, and we’d like to talk to you about booking a show.” They set it up for their WinterFest, which was this past weekend. And it was a blast, man. Me and [manager Jason Garcia] flew out to Boise, and they definitely knew how to treat us. Put us up real nice in a hotel, made sure we were fed. It was fantastic, know what I’m saying? It was a cool experience to go through that entire process.

Not the most diverse place. Felt a little bit like an Avatar in Boise. (Laughs.) If you were to see a blue person walk down the street right now, you’d be kind of like, (makes confused face), “Did you see that?” Just how you’d feel about an Avatar is how people looked at me. And Jay, actually. Because he looks like Avatar Jr. next to me. They’re like, “Where are you guys from?Because it’s obviously not from here. If you were from here, we would know you.” (Laughs.)

What I like about Boise is it’s trying to be metropolitan, but it’s still a small-town feel. Snoop was there when I was there. The other Avatar. Much more popular than General. He did well. There was a line outside, and I was like, “Who?” Because when you see a line, the inherent question is “Who’s performing?” It’s the natural thing for an artist to be like, “Who’s worthy of a line like this?” And they’re like, “Snoop.” And you’re like, “Oh, okay. Of course.” I might be in that line if I didn’t have something else to do, you know? (Laughs.) I like Snoop too. Who doesn’t like Snoop? Everybody likes – Snoop’s for the kids, you know?

College of Idaho is like 20 or so miles outside of Boise in Caldwell. So they don’t get to the city as often as the kids who go to Boise State right there in Boise. When they came, it was like busloads of kids, yellow school buses like pirate ships, like the Trojans. They pulled up like (makes screaming pirate noise). The buses were swaying. Like, “Whoa!” Oh, okay. And then I started asking around, and the kids at College of Idaho are renowned for being rowdy. They are known. There are a lot of places in Boise where they cannot do events. Kids from College of Idaho cannot do events in certain places in Boise. So they came in with high energy.

I’d imagine that as soon as any sounds came on, they were just ready.

Oh, they were ready to go. It was like the little animals in The Lion King at the beginning. Like, (makes trumpet noise, and imitates small animal reaction). Everybody was like, “What’s going on over there?” It was cool to have that kind of attention and energy. Because as a performer, you feed off the energy of a crowd. If the crowd is laid back, you tend to be more laid back and socially interactive. If the crowd is crazy and rowdy and they’re giving you energy, your energy tends to go up. When they were as responsive as they were to the music, and not knowing who I was – I mean, the act after me, Zion I, very well known. It’s a hip-hop group. A singer, a hip-hop artist, and a DJ. They’re great.

How’d they do?

Wow. Crushed it. The energy you see on the video of the “Never Love You remix” on YouTube, it looks crazy. It looks like a club in Vegas, you know? It doesn’t look like Boise. But when Zion I came out, it was triple that. It was literally triple that. Because Zion I had performed there.

They’re from Oakland, and they had performed at College of Idaho twice before. So they had a following. When they came – they were literally chanting “Zion-I! Zion-I!” before they even came out. That must feel good, as an artist, to have a crowd of that amount. It was kids chanting your name serious.

That’s like you coming back two times from now with –

Right, with [Chicago hip-hop punk band] Whammy, and it’s like, “Oh God. I’m gonna wear a diaper.” (Laughs.) That’s how crazy it is. Yeah. It’s great. The energy was fantastic. What I liked about it was they made it very clear: they wanted to hear some rap and check me out, but really they just wanted to party. They were like, “Just crank it up big fella. Let’s get it going.” Once we got it going, it was so funny, because when I stopped they were like, (exhales) “Oh.” You can see at the end of “Wreck the Discotech,” they’re like, “What is this? What is happening right now?” They were freaking out.

So it was great man. College of Idaho was fantastic. Shout out to Casey and Savala and Amanda and Ayesha, the coordinators for the College of Idaho in Caldwell. They really put together a nice event. I had a blast. I look forward to coming back to Boise. “Return of the Avatar.” That’s what we’ll call it.

Jack M Silverstein is an oral historian in Chicago. Hit him on Twitter @ReadJack.