Rolling Loud Miami Day 1 Recap

Photo Credit: Rolling Loud / @itchyeyephotos

Rolling Loud Miami is the World’s Largest Hip-Hop Festival, bringing the genre’s best and brightest together for an unbeatable weekend of music. The 2023 edition of the festival brand’s flagship event began with a bang, offering fiery performances by some of the most exciting names in the genre

Playboi Carti closed the night with a fiery performance, filled with guttural screams and wailing guitar solos, thrilling the fans on the GoPuff Stage.

Credit: Rolling Loud / @henryhwu

Previewing his upcoming “Antagonist Tour,” Carti brought friends along, with his OPIUM label signees Destroy Lonely, Ken Carson, and Homixide Gang performing earlier in the day.

Photo Credit: Rolling Loud / @jordankelseyknight

Elsewhere, the fest brought Lil Yachty, who performed songs from his rock album Let’s Start Here and welcomed streamer Kai Cenat to the stage, Polo G stood up for Chicago, Anuel AA became the first reggaeton superstar to perform at a Rolling Loud Festival, and meteoric risers Central Cee and Ice Spice cemented their newfound stardom.

Photo Credit: Rolling Loud / @a_ciggs

Rhymers like Kodak Black and Babyface Ray fed the streets, while Sexyy Red was “out here in Miami,” thrilling the crowd with her X-rated anthems.

Photo Credit: Rolling Loud / @jordankelseyknight

Rolling Loud Friday featured a special activation designed to spread awareness about a serious issue facing rap music today. The festival partnered with the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) to host a rally with two sitting U.S. congressmen: Jamaal Bowman (D, NY-16) and Hank Johnson (D, GA-04). Congressmen Bowman and Johnson are co-sponsors of the Restore Artistic Protection (RAP) Act, which seeks to protect artists from the wrongful use of their creative expression against them in criminal and civil proceedings. Festival goers had the chance to dialogue directly with the Representatives at BMAC’s on-site activation, to have questions answered, and attain a better understanding of the impact of the pending legislation. Later in the evening, after Ice Spice finished her set, Rolling Loud co-Founder Tariq Cherif joined the two congressmen on the GoPuff Stage for a brief rally, calling on fans to learn about an issue that impacts their favorite rap stars and imploring lawmakers across the nation to protects artists’ rights to free expression.