"You could be anywhere in the world, but you're here tonight," Playboi Carti's DJ said on Sunday night of the 2024 iteration of Rolling Loud Miami, reflecting what many performers and attendees were likely thinking — the 10th anniversary edition of the massive hip-hop festival felt more meaningful than usual.
Artists shared fond memories of their past performances and mused on the festival's importance to the culture. Lil Yachty, for instance, closed his set on Friday reminiscing about how his first big festival set took place on the Rolling Loud stage; even Future demanded his fans put their lighters up in honor of the anniversary near the end of his headlining set.
In the last decade, no event has been as central to hip-hop culture as Rolling Loud. Beginning as a humble one-day festival in Miami in 2015, the promotion ballooned in size over the next few years, taking advantage of the city's prominence among hip-hop luminaries and the emerging SoundCloud rap scene. It's become so huge, in fact, that the Miami edition — now one of many Rolling Loud iterations across the world — is now a three-day affair that hosts upwards of 80,000 fans.
Fittingly, Rolling Loud's 10th anniversary saw some of the most electrifying spectacles the festival has seen to date — including a major artist debuting his new album and a wild incursion from Hollywood that literally made Rolling Loud a movie.
Read on for some of the standout performances from Rolling Loud Miami 2024.
There were other South Florida rappers at Rolling Loud on Friday, Rick Ross being arguably the most notable example. But none of them put on a show quite like JT.
Newly solo after the breakup of City Girls last year, the 305 native put on for her city with a powerful set that recalled fellow Miami artist Trina's charismatic performances from past editions of the festival. Backed up by a squad of female dancers displaying fierce choreography, JT ran through her solo back catalog and City Girls hits with serious swagger, always with an eye on celebrating local culture. "Don't try to judge me if you ain't from round here / I'm a City Girl, born and raised down here" she declared on "Brick Talk."
Utilizing a wide variety of stylistic inspirations from trap to classic club sounds, vintage samples erupted from the sound system, including TLC on Miami Bass-referencing "Uncle Al" and "Planet Rock" on City Girls track "Twerkulator." By the time she finally got to the group's hit "Act Up," the audience was in the palm of her hand.
"Rage rap" has become a category all its own at Rolling Loud, a festival that has long injected elements of the hardcore and heavy music scene, such as moshing, into hip-hop culture. As one of the rage scene's leading lights, California rapper Yeat's Friday evening set with DJ and 2023 GRAMMY nominee BNYX — who played a brief opening set remixing hits by Drake, Sheck Wes, Meek Mill, and others — made a compelling case for the young subgenre and its anarchic energy.
Pulling together aggressive, minimal trap beats and Auto-Tuned vocals, the balaclava-clad performer shouted his way through the set, keeping the energy high the whole time. Occasionally placing himself on top of a cubical platform in the middle of the stage, Yeat's visuals — which appeared to be AI-generated — referenced a corporate surveillance state and included skulls and other demonic figures, adding to the dark, gritty ambiance of the show. It's clear from this performance that the rage will continue.
You could certainly say that Future and Rolling Loud got on like a house on fire. The Atlanta legend's headlining performance on Friday night featured exactly that, a replica of the Dungeon Family house in Atlanta that occasionally burst into flames courtesy of pyrotechnic effects. But there was also plenty of heat in the set itself.
Decked out in a red leather jumpsuit and white durag, "Mixtape Pluto" played a career-spanning set of his biggest hits, from "Mask Off" and "Wicked" to "Stick Talk" and "Bugatti." He didn't jump around or scream at the top of his lungs like other rappers — that would have penetrated his carefully-cultivated aura of cool. And he also refused to share the stage with anyone else, guests or otherwise (not that he needed any).
Raunchy, bass-heavy and unapologetic, Sexyy Red displayed her nasty brand of St. Louis street rap on Saturday evening in all its gritty glory. Strutting around the main stage in a devil horn headband, the bespectacled rapper played a set full of her hits and features, including recent track "Sticky" for Tyler, the Creator and Drake's "Rich Baby Daddy."
Midway through, she brought out Orlando rapper Hotboii to perform two songs of his own, including his 2020 hit "Don't Need Time." Yet that didn't distract from the provocative rapper's own sexed-up stylings on tracks like "Pound Town," "Get it Sexy," and her biggest hit, "SkeeYee." Florida may be known for its commitment to filthy rap, but Sexyy Red makes a compelling case that Missouri is part of the dirty south too.
It's hard to talk about Don Toliver, or even Rolling Loud in general, without paying mention to Travis Scott. Much of the festival's carnivalesque atmosphere, complete with rides, sports courts, skate parks, fried foods, and other amusements, owes much inspiration to the Astroworld Tour and its similar traveling circus theme. Toliver — a signee to Scott's Cactus Jack label who broke through thanks to a star-making feature on the Astroworld album — is very much a student of Scott, and everything about his Saturday evening Rolling Loud set, which preceded his mentor's at the mainstage, feels indebted to the Astroworld era.
That's not a defect by any stretch — the crowd adored Toliver's fiery, leather-studded outlaw stylings, turning up to hit tracks like set closer "Tore Up" and singing along to "Cardigan" and megahit "After Party." They also ate up the most spectacular part of the show: During an extended version of "Bandit," as the drums crescendoed and the cowboy hat-wearing guitarist shredded away, a pair of dirt bike riders entered a spherical cage and acrobatically drove circles around each other, recalling the Astroworld Tour's onstage working rollercoaster. Scott himself has had good reason to enter new aesthetic territory with his own stage setups, but Toliver's performance proves plenty of people aren't ready to get off Cactus Jack's wild ride.
Travis Scott Made Jaws Drop
Though Don Toliver's preceding set tried to compete in terms of spectacle, few can possibly rival Travis Scott for the title of rap's greatest showman. And the Houstonian only furthered the argument on his behalf with his outrageous Rolling Loud set.
Fans could see his Utopia Tour staging — with a set made out of false rocks and weeds covering the catwalk at the main stage — even before he arrived. Finally arriving 45 minutes after posted set time at 11:00 p.m., he staged an entrance that could certainly be called "fashionably late"; he flew into the festival grounds via a trio of helicopters that circled the stage long after the show began and rode to the stage in an armored tactical truck.
From there the show became even more intense as Scott exhorted the crowd with an intensity that outdid even the most hyped-up talents of the weekend up to that point. He started off by launching into a medley of his own songs and feature verses — "Nightcrawler," "Type S—," "backr00ms" — then cycled through his Utopia track list and selected hits. Massive displays of fireworks and pyrotechnics accompanied "Butterfly Effect," and his early hit "Mamacita" was preceded by a sort of dedication to Miami's Latin culture: "One thing about the 305, they got the mamacitas."
Yet the most outrageous moment of Scott's set came near the end, when he played "FE!N," his hit with Sunday headliner Playboi Carti. After the first instance of the track, none other than actor and fellow Texan Owen Wilson stepped out onto the stage, for what is reportedly going to be a scene in an upcoming movie centered (and titled) after the festival. Decked out in festival merch, his ecstatic cry of "I'm fiending for more!" did more than induce four more playthroughs of the song — it also opened up the heavens. Rain poured as Scott spun back the song over and over again until finally dropping that inevitable, iconic track, the Astroworld centerpiece "SICKO MODE."
"GIVE ME YOUR ENERGY RIGHT NOW!!!" Despite Denzel Curry's exhortations to the crowd on Sunday evening, it was clear he had more than enough energy himself — far more than any other rapper the whole weekend, in fact. Raised in nearby Carol City and repping it proudly throughout his set, Curry gave the absolute best performance of the entire weekend, and he did it all without helicopters or celebrities. Sure, there were a few guest spots — Ferg performed his hit "Plain Jane" while TiaCorine, Lazer Dim 700, and Bktherula all came out to do verses — but the local's astounding charisma and thermonuclear, Super-Saiyan energy output could have carried the set all on its own.
Most impressively, Curry rapped nearly every single lyric of his painstakingly technical tracks through an era-spanning set that touched on recent hits and songs dating back nearly a decade. There were recent releases like "Hit The Floor," "G'Z Up" and the Waka Flocka Flame interpolation "Still in the Paint" from his King of the Mischievous South mixtape series, celebrating Dirty South rap in all its filthy, furious glory. There was the personal track "Ricky" from his 305-celebrating record ZUU. And there was also the crowning moment of the set, a powerful rendition of classic track "Ultimate," in which Curry rapped the entire, very difficult second verse faster than the Flash. It's hard to avoid comic book allusions when talking about Miami's greatest rapper — he really is superhuman.
Playboi Carti Finally Premiered New Music
Promises made, promises kept: Despite his track record of dipping out on entire tours, Playboi Carti did indeed preview his new album I Am Music at his Sunday night closing set, featuring previously heard tracks ("h00dbyair," "backw00ds") and brand new ones, as well as past hits like "FE!N" with Travis Scott (as if it hadn't been played enough already that weekend).
His production design was a study in stark, brawny minimalism, with bold black-and-white visuals that occasionally flashed the album title and a two-level scaffolding structure covered in lights and pyro effects. Backed up by a squad of bulletproof vest-wearing dudes who climbed all over the stage and hyped up the crowd from the catwalk, Carti mostly stayed on top of the steel structure, dancing around, screaming viciously into the mic and putting his face dangerously close to the fire effects. The music itself was dark, sinister and wickedly captivating, punctuated by malicious ad libs ("Suffer little babies!") and evil laughter.
The whole show recalled previous album-listening events held by Kanye West, an artist similarly enamored with minimal aesthetics and attention-grabbing spectacles. And indeed, Carti has been teasing the hotly anticipated new record for nearly a year, leading many in the crowd to keep their phones out to capture the history unfolding in front of them.
It wasn't as impressive or involved as Travis Scott's helicopter stunt — what could top that? — but it did feel like the perfect way to start a bold new era for one of contemporary rap's most captivating artists. As Carti's DJ declared near the beginning of the performance, "I Am Music is here," and Rolling Loud provided quite a welcoming party.