Rolling Loud day 1 review & pics (Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, Lil Yachty & more)
Hip hop festival Rolling Loud began Friday (5/5) at Bayfront Park in Miami, the same venue where massive EDM festival Ultra has happened for the last few years. The weekend-long event is sold out and offers just a hint of complete chaos, which is fair considering the venue offers a backdrop of both the ocean and the Miami skyline.
The Friday night headliners were A$AP Rocky and Lil Wayne, with performances earlier in the night from Lil Yachty, Mac Miller, Curren$y, Flatbush Zombies, the Underachievers and more.
I was only able to check out Lil Yachty, A$AP Rocky, and Lil Wayne tonight as a result of my own late arrival combined with the aforementioned mild chaos. Even though there are only two stages, Bayfront Park remains a challenging place to hold a massive festival and lends itself a lot of bottlenecking.
All that being said, the Friday night show was definitely memorable. I’m not particularly a fan of Lil Yachty, but he’s 19 and likes to have fun and his audience is pretty much the same. The same can be said of A$AP Rocky, except he’s ten years older and is dating Kendall Jenner. A$AP Rocky spent most of his set bouncing and rapping over his tracks, but his show certainly wasn’t any worse for it. He comes off as a performer with a deservedly big ego, and that usually bodes well with a crowd.
Lil Wayne, on the other hand, managed to remind us all that not only does he consider himself to be the best rapper alive, but that he also might be one of the most humble. Lil Wayne repeatedly reminded the audience that he wouldn’t be anything without God and that he wouldn’t be anything without his audience. It’s really hard not to get hyped for Lil Wayne, especially when he’s performing exactly what you want to hear, like “A Milli” and his verse from “HYRF.” When Lil Wayne asked where the single ladies were at, I wasn’t about to stop myself from screaming regardless of relationship status. Lil Wayne wanted his audience to love themselves as much as he loves himself.
He also took the time to get a little political, pausing to say that he wanted to tell the audience that his seven-year-old child had written a letter to Donald Trump asking him not to repeal Obamacare. He went from that to performing “Lollipop.” I feel like a bigger Lil Wayne fan after that.
Rolling Loud continues today (5/6) and Sunday (5/7). If you’re not there, you can stream it live HERE. Also check out the set times for Saturday and Sunday at that link.
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photos by Aaron Ricketts, Isaiah London, Kadeem Cobham, Keenan Hairston, Romeo Mercado, Sebastian Rodriguez, and Thomas Dang, courtesy of Rolling Loud.
