REVIEW: Rolling Loud Southern California 2023
STARTING FESTIVAL SEASON OFF STRONG— Southwest Los Angeles sees the first of 2023’s Rolling Loud installations as it sets up camp at the Sofi Stadium, formerly Hollywood Park, in Inglewood; this marks the third year of Rolling Loud taking place in the city since the Miami-originated, three-day Hip-Hop festival extended to California back in 2017. The festival acts were split between three stages by sponsors Levi’s, GoPuff, and Culture Kings, with carnival rides and countless vendors to keep the crowd entertained between commutes. Year after year, its name remains a euphemism for the series of events that tend to follow, as last weekend certainly proved to be, ahem, loud– in more ways than one.
The star-studded bill sold out the festival by the end of the weekend, headlined by Rap’s hottest artists Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Future, and a special appearance by Lil Wayne. As Hip-Hop constantly expands and evolves, so does the listener demographic. The Rolling Loud crowd was anything but traditional, as fans in attendance reflected the genre’s emerging influences in alt, rock, punk, R&B, and more. While the melting pot of music-lovers leaves some room for the unexpected, the real showstopper (literally) was the large age gap between the attendees, with this year’s cutoff starting at 16-years old and below– to put that into perspective, we’re talking about kids born as late as 2007. The crowds ranged anywhere from teenagers without a license to full-blown adults with a mortgage, many of the kids in attendance even had their parents in tow. Music is and always will be for everyone, but with a huge age gap like that comes a huge cultural disconnect– the combination of TikTok’s rise in the music industry and a post-epidemic era introduced a new wave of concert-goers who lack basic concert etiquette. Rolling Loud and its artists already uphold reputations of hosting rowdy crowds, but the addition of the low age-cutoff raised some concern when it came to the common issue of crowd-rushing. Luckily, the Rolling Loud team came ready to avoid any critical issues, as they constantly implemented crowd control protocols between sets, had security equipped with water bottles to pass around, kept multiple medics posted at every stage, and even cut headliner Playboi Carti’s set short at the end of Day 1 to tend to a reportedly injured fan.
The issues of crowd-rushing and concert etiquette are always going to be present within high-energy crowds, like those of Hip-Hop and Rap fans, but can be taught with the right resources; Rolling Loud has over the years stepped up its measures to ensure an equally safe and thrilling experience for Hip-Hop fans worldwide.
Other small flukes throughout the weekend were more inconvenient– and admittedly funny– than they were serious: always-sunny Los Angeles had snowed for the first time in over a decade just the week before the festival, so the merchandise line ran ridiculously long as people desperately tried to bundle up from the wind and mild rain. There were also planes constantly flying overhead, with the stadium standing less than five miles away from LAX. And what’s a music festival without a few technical issues? Lil Wayne brought out special guest, rap queen Nicki Minaj, for a Young Money reunion, performing “BedRock“, “High School“, “Super Freaky Girl” and “Truffle Butter”; the tracks later started skipping and playing off-beat, prompting Minaj to (maybe) jokingly call to “Kill the DJ” as Wayne giggled in the background.
Despite the internal and external challenges the festival faced, weather, planes, security, technical issues and all, Rolling Loud’s staff and artists put their best foot forward and successfully brought the heat to an otherwise chilly weekend.
Tap into some highlights of Rolling Loud California 2023 below:
NEVER-ENDING SPECIAL GUESTS
Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj by Sebastian Rodriguez, Courtesy of Rolling Loud Media
Stars on stars on stars– Nicki Minaj was not the only unexpected friend brought to the stage that night. Lil Wayne also brought to his set 2 Chainz to perform “Rich As F*ck“, “Duffle Bag Boy” and “Watch Out“, and Gudda Gudda for “Bedrock”.
Tyga invited YG to his stage and the two teased a collaborative album in the near future, while Saweetie brought out rapper and producer Too $hort for her hit “Tap In”, where she samples his Bay Area anthem “Blow the Whistle”.
Don Toliver brought out girlfriend and crooner Kali Uchis to perform “4 Me”, Justin Bieber for “Private Landing” and James Blake for “Let Her Go”, songs they feature on from his newest album “Love Sick”.
WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH PRESENTS
Su’lan by Obsilet Cardozo, Courtesy of Rolling Loud Media
While we were graced by the OG Nicki Minaj stealing the show and sentencing the crew at Lil Wayne’s set, the rap game has come a long way since her come up in the early 2000s. This year’s lineup included roughly 20 female acts, from emerging artists such as Cam & China, Skodi, and Su’lan, to breakout stars like Ice Spice and Coi Leray. Finally on a level playing field as their counterparts in a male dominated space that is the music industry, specifically Rap, it was deeply refreshing to watch them claim the stage with their powers during the first weekend of Women’s History Month, immediately following Black History Month in February.
RISING STARS
Barely Legal by Christina Posztos
Rolling Loud may have had a tight time slot for their performers, but it allowed for so many emerging artists to have their hard-earned moment. Some Luna favorites include artists whom we got the chance to speak to before their performances (peek our recap video):
Barely Legal: The 8-member collective– 4 performers (Chowder Band$ and JØ, Kid Dre, and Miguel Morales) and 4 media creatives (Tymain22, Devin, Danny Boy, and 23themanager) – hit the Culture Kings stage early afternoon of Day 2. Despite people just starting to pile into the grounds during their set, they brought full energy to their set, at some point jumping off stage to mosh with the crowd shortly after Kid Dre publicly shot his shot at Coi Leray.
Skodi: The alternative rapper performed an hour into the festival’s opening on Day 1. true to her fearless and relatable personality, she made sure that her fans had sustenance for the rest of the weekend, bringing childhood favorite snacks to the Culture Kings stage for the audience before “accidentally crowd surfing” and joining the mosh pit for the rest of her set.
Cuuhraig: Hitting the GoPuff stage as one of the first performers on Day 1, the artist took a lot of pride in not only his first Rolling Loud, but in being the first Polynesian artist to perform for the festival. During our chat, he recalled breaking the stereotype of Polynesian men typically positioned outside of the stage as security guards, as he now takes it for himself and the culture.
LUNA’S PICK: STANDOUT PERFORMANCE
Lil Yachty by Breanna Lynn
Considering the talented lineup, the bar for this year’s Rolling Loud performance sat high– by the end of the weekend Lil Yachty managed to pass it effortlessly. His latest album, “Let’s Start Here.”, has received equal praise and criticism for the experimental route it takes from Yachty’s usual sound. Known widely for upbeat and catchy tunes like “iSpy”, “Broccoli” and “Poland”, “Let’s Start Here” is a pivotal album for Yachty, steering away from the “SoundCloud rapper” reputation and marking the start of a more serious discography as an artist. Immediately, you can tell that synth-driven project has heavy influences in psychedelic-rock and soul.
Even with this foreknowledge, nothing could have prepared us for Lil Yachty’s set on the last night of the festival. Even in the dark, it was clear as soon as the crew started setting up the stage for his performance that it was going to be something different. Yachty emerged with his face covered in skin-toned band-aids, accompanied by an all-female band. The trippy visuals and multi-colored lighting were almost as unbelievable as the performers he selflessly shared the stage with– each of the backup singers, and even the guitarist, got their own solo nearing 1-2 minutes of his already limited time slot. Not a single soul in the audience was complaining, though, as every element was essential to create not only a performance, but an entire intricate art production. A few times throughout the set, it lightly drizzled— the finishing touch to an experience that truly makes you feel like this:
