Music Hall officials would “absolutely not” have rented out the Music Hall for A Dollar Production’s Lil’ Flip concert Friday if the company had come to them individually instead of in conjunction with NIU’s Bright Idea Entertainment, said Charles Blickhan, renter of the Music Building’s Concert Hall.

“As our contract specifies, we make our facilities available on a very limited basis to NIU and community organizations that fit specific criteria,” Blickhan said. “We do not deal with outside production companies.”

The music building hosts between 200 and 300 recitals and concerts each year, and most of those are in-house events, he said.

Lonnie Pollard, president of Bright Idea Entertainment and management major, booked the concert hall, Blickhan said. Pollard signed the rental contract, along with BIE adviser Van Amos. The fee for one-day usage came out to be about $270, Blickhan said. Pollard told him that the event was a multi-band hip-hop concert. Blickhan did not realize Lil’ Flip was part of the show until he read it in the Northern Star’s Weekender the day before the event.

“My impression was that the performing groups would all be local campus talent, which all of them but Lil’ Flip were,” he said.

Amos also confirmed by telephone that the organization was connected to NIU Black Studies, Blickhan said.

“Had this confirmation not been given, we would not have allowed them use of the hall,” he said.

But Amos insists Black Studies had nothing to do with the events, in which Lil’ Flip was a no-show, according to Wednesday’s Northern Star.

“All contracts have been paid,” Amos said. “It’s unfortunate that Lil’ Flip did not honor [his] contract, [but] things like that happen.”

An outside organization sponsoring an event is not an uncommon practice, Amos said.

“There’s nothing inappropriate [about that],” he said.

The School of Music is in the process of re-evaluating its policies and procedures for making its facilities available to on-campus and community organizations. The process was started prior to the Lil’ Flip concert, but the “incident certainly gave us cause to speed up our timeline,” Blickhan said.

The new policies will likely require greater documentation from groups who do not have an “ongoing relationship” with the School of Music, Blickhan said.

As of press time, Pollard was expected to issue a press release regarding the concert. He declined to comment when asked for an interview.