Christmahanukwazaakah has come early this year. Team 31 announced the W.I.L.D. line-up before I’d even thought to look up my textbooks at the bookstore so I can buy them online at half the price. And that line-up is pretty good, pretty, pretty, pretty good. (This Larry David reference will make sense later).

At midnight, Team 31 released a video on their website, revealing that on October 9, the adroitly talented DJ-ing duo Major Lazer and critically acclaimed hip-hop artist Wale will put on a performance that hopefully survives the hazy hangover scheduled for October 10.

The opening act: Major Lazer

Pop Quiz:

Major Lazer is…

(i) a one-armed vampire fighting Jamaican commando and covert zombie war veteran who rides on a rocket-powered skateboard

(ii) a naval officer who saved his wrecked crew from sharks by using a laser to remove a leg and catapulting it to the middle of the ocean away from his troops

(iii) a musical collaboration between DJs Diplo and Switch

If you chose i and iii only, you may skip down to the next section.

Diplo (real name: Thomas Pentz) and Switch (real name: Dave Taylor), engendered Major Lazer after working together on M.I.A.’s album “Arular.” Philadelphia-based Diplo, who has been releasing albums since 2004, is renowned for two things: For his ability to mesh diverse sounds into catchy, dance-worthy club beats, and for dating—or as some critics argue, exploiting himself through the talents of—M.I.A.

The London-born Switch has been known to remix songs by a wide variety of artists, including Kelis, Nine Inch Nails, and Bjork. The sound engineer-producer-DJ has produced tracks for numerous artists and has created the music genre “fidget house.” As of press time, I could not figure out what type of music “fidget house” actually is.

Together, Diplo and Switch have worked with Christina Aguilera, Santigold and Snoop Dogg, among others. In 2009, the DJs met at Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong studio in Jamaica to produce Major Lazer’s first album, a reggae-dub-electronica-fusion joint, entitled “Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do.” As a tribute to its recording locale, every track features a Jamaican artist. If you’ve ever been in the presence of a DJ, or even just seen one on TV, you’ve heard pieces of their song “Pon de Floor.” I promise—even if you don’t think you’ve heard it, you’ve heard it.

This year, the duo performed at both Coachella and the Pitchfork Music Festival, released an EP entitled “Lazers Never Die” which features the likes of Thom Yorke, and collaborated with La Roux on the mixtape “Lazerproof,” which opens with a captivating remix of La Roux’s most popular song, “Bulletproof.”

Major Lazer as an opening act should be enough of a reason to attempt to blackout after W.I.L.D., not before it.

The Headliner: Wale

Hailing from Washington D.C., Olubowale Victor Folarin has titled himself “Ambassador of Rap For the Capital.” Wale, pronounced ‘wah-LAY’, is a discerning, witty, upbeat rapper with an affinity for “Seinfeld.” He claims to have watched every episode at least 30 times, which explains why two of his mixtapes pay homage to the sitcom.

After dropping out of college to focus on recording, Wale found mid-Atlantic fame with his song, “Dig Dug (Shake It)” in 2006. His third mixtape, “100 Miles and Running,” features one of my favorite remixes of all time, “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.,” a remix of—you guessed it—Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” Wale even performed this song at the 2007 MTV VMAs alongside his future record producer, the British music mogul Mark Ronson. Ronson, who has described Wale as a Lil’ Wayne-Lupe Fiasco-Nas hybrid, demonstrates that Wale’s sound is hard to pigeonhole. Wale manages to both deconstruct and reconstruct rap through the influence of his D.C. origins, creating insightful and cleverly-constructed social commentary.

In 2008, he released the first of his Larry David-inspired mixtapes. On “The Mixtape About Nothing”, Wale samples conversations from “Seinfeld,” and it works. Could Lil’ Wayne pull that off? When asked about his incorporation of the show into his music, Wale responded, “I feel like there’s a lot of things in that show that inspire me to write and talk about different issues.”

In 2009, he followed up with another mixtape, “Back to the Future,” and the Ronson-produced, underachieving studio album “Attention Deficit.” Although given less praise than his mixtapes, “Attention Deficit” features the likes of K’Naan, Pharrell and Lady Gaga. Highlights include “90210” (featured in Team 31’s reveal video) and “Pretty Girls.”

Wale has toured with Jay-Z, N.E.R.D., and J. Cole. On August 3, 2010 he released the second of his Seinfeld-themed mixtapes, “More About Nothing,” which is receiving extremely early positive reviews; and on October 9, he will be gracing Wash. U.’s campus with his presence. And I bet he leaves us with a slightly classier goodbye.

Team 31-Approved Song Recommendations

Major Lazer

“Pon de Floor”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxD_7S7bl8k”]

“Hear the Bassline”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lU2NAiWe8A”]

“Hold the Line”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeYN_hyR9YI”]

“Jump Up”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggHqrS2XNGA”]

Wale

“W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6b6MuwFqoo]

“Chillin” featuring Lady Gaga
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrfFtWsINY]

“Pretty Girls”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8YxSzXnZ40&feature=av2e]

“90210”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPeSxMygBIg]

Random Additional Information

Wale’s twitter (he updates a lot) and his latest mixtape.