About
Rolling Loud Goes From a Homegrown Festival to a Global Brand.
Mesmerized by its rapid growth, the New York Times called it "a playground for the young." Billboard proclaimed it "the be-all of hip-hop festivals." Pollstar assured its readers that "its hip-hop tastemaking status is no fluke."
"It" is Miami-based Rolling Loud, the homegrown music festival that started as a single-day event in Wynwood in 2015 and within five years has grown into one of the biggest hip-hop brands in the world. Locally, it has surpassed rival events Ultra and III Points in stature and rivals prestige festivals like Coachella. Last year's festival at Hard Rock Stadium attracted more than 210,000 attendees over three days, while two-day editions in Los Angeles and New York counted 120,000 and 100,000 fans, respectively.
Rolling Loud's success is not an accident.
Founders Tariq Cherif and Matt Zingler have been able to tap into the hip-hop underground and book relative unknowns destined to become global superstars. Travis Scott, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, and Future all played the festival before becoming household names. Rolling Loud's winning formula essentially boils down to one big case of FOMO — if you don't go, you won't be able to claim you saw that act "before they were big."
The festival was set to return earlier this year to Hard Rock Stadium, but the pandemic forced it to reschedule — a date has been tentatively set for February 12-14, 2021 — with the promise that the same lineup, headlined by A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, and Post Malone, will perform.
Rolling Loud's winning formula essentially boils down to one big case of FOMO.
Five years ago, Cherif and Zingler were booking concerts around the state as Dope Entertainment when they noticed that something was missing from Florida's live-music landscape.
"We were already booking all these [SoundCloud rappers] month after month in Florida," Cherif recalls. "We were like, 'Dude, why are there these other genre-specific festivals, like Ultra and Electric Daisy Carnival with EDM, and Stagecoach for country, and how come there aren't any for hip-hop?'"
Of course, there was Rock the Bells, the annual hip-hop festival that started in Southern California and ran from 2004 to 2013. Cherif felt the event was wildly inconsistent (the last year the touring festival made its way to Miami was 2008) and ignored the more alternative and experimental forms of the genre that were incubating in places like South Florida. Local acts like XXXtentacion, SpaceGhostPurrp, Kodak Black, Lil Pump, and Denzel Curry were already bubbling up from the underground, and Miami seemed like a natural place to launch a festival dedicated to the newer and more forward-thinking styles of rap.
Cherif and Zingler were able to capitalize on the subgenre's growing popularity and rabid fanbase.
"You'd see new people at every show, but you'd also see the same people at every show," Cherif says of those early concerts. "That's how we were able to identify the scene and different sub-scenes. At the lyrical rapper's show — at a Curren$y, Big Sean, J. Cole, or Mac Miller — I'd see all the same fans. But when I added a Denzel Curry, Robb Bank$, Pouya, XXX, Smokepurpp, Wifisfuneral, at their shows, I'd see all the same fans but [also] different fans. So I was like, 'Wait, we can unify that and books all these scenes under one name.'"
In 2015, the partners announced Rolling Loud at Soho Studios in Wynwood, with a lineup that featured Schoolboy Q, Juicy J, A$AP Ferg, and Action Bronson. Despite some logistical issues — the warehouse flooded after a sudden rainstorm — Cherif and Zingler knew they were on to something. They returned the following year at the much larger Mana Wynwood space with Ty Dolla $ign, Young Thug, and Future as headliners.
After a stint at Bayfront Park in 2017, the festival settled into its current home at Hard Rock Stadium, where it grew larger in size and stature in 2018 and 2019. At the same time, the festival expanded to Los Angeles, Oakland, New York City, and Sydney. Next year, it's scheduled to make its European debut with Rolling Loud Portugal.
"We were the first to book the Kid Laroi at our Australia show, and now look at him: massive."
The festival's international expansion is intentional — Cherif and Zingler recognize hip-hop's global appeal and are interested in connecting with emerging scenes in other countries.
"We were the first to book the Kid Laroi at our Australia show, and now look at him: massive," Cherif boasts.
Zingler notes that the international shows — which are produced with help from local partners who facilitate the logistics — allow Rolling Loud to engage with local talent, which truly expands hip-hop's reach.
"For our show in Portugal, we try to bring out artists that are based in Europe or local Portuguese artists. We will always show love to where we're at," Zingler explains. "And we definitely tailor the lineup according to what we feel like [the local audience] would want — there are different acts that maybe have a larger draw there."
But Rolling Loud's global reach isn't limited to in-person festivals.
In August, the festival announced it was partnering with Twitch. The streaming platform had mostly been known as a place for gamers to broadcast their gameplay, but after the pandemic descended in March, the service saw an influx of other creatives looking to remain connected to the outside world. Twitch's union with Rolling Loud seemed like a natural evolution, given what had been unfolding over the past few months.
The announcement brought the promise of a steady output of content by Rolling Loud on the platform, but the biggest news was that the festival would premiere a streaming music event series, dubbed Loud Stream, on September 12, with a lineup that featured Swae Lee, Ski Mask the Slump Gob, Polo G, and NLE Choppa, among others.
Cherif and Zingler managed to pull off the event, which originated from an undisclosed studio in Miami, with only three weeks of preparation.
"There was a lot of coordination with talent, because a lot of them didn't know what to expect," Zingler says. "A lot of people are doing livestreams and prerecorded sets, and a lot of them don't have set design or proper audio or visuals or cameras. I think for us it was just executing the best performance area and the best video team so we could capture the best content."
Zingler says the biggest challenge was figuring out how to involve the audience in the broadcast so that it didn't feel like they were just watching TV.
"We set up projectors [in the studio] so that fans could join in by Zoom and Google — so they could see the artists, and the artists could see them," he says.
Because Rolling Loud had been doing livestreams at its festivals before the shutdown, the infrastructure was already in place. The trick was to implement COVID-19 safety parameters for the safety of the acts and staff.
"We were rotating the artists in and out, so there is only one artist in each area at any one time," Cherif says.
Loud Stream is set to return over Halloween weekend, on October 30-31, from the same undisclosed location (a safety measure to keep fans away) with Gunna, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, Young Dolph, and Iann Dior leading the bill.
For Cherif and Zingler, the second event presents an opportunity to improve on the first stream.
"I'm excited about the whole Halloween theme," Cherif says. "We are going to be doing some really cool activations and dressing up the whole place like a haunted house/house of horrors-type thing. And the fans at home are going to get the chance to participate with us in a costume contest, which has a cash prize as well as a ticket prize for a future Rolling Loud of their choice."
Do the partners anticipate that the second Loud Stream can beat its predecessor's viewership mark?
"I think that we will," Zingler predicts. "I think we will always do more streams than we did the time before. I think that it being Halloween and it being a longer promotion time, it would only make sense that we draw more viewership."
Loud Stream. With Gunna, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, Young Dolph, and others. 6 p.m. Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31; rollingloud.com. Stream via twitch.tv/
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Jacob Ricch is the associate editor of RicchTimes. He's the strategist behind the publication's eyebrow-raising Facebook and Twitter feeds. He has also been reporting Twitch, Instagram, YouTube,Vine, SoundCloud,cultural scene since 2010 Tiktok, Snapchat, and Spotify 2020 He has a BS in music engineering, journalism, web design and business management.
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Naturally, Bar Lab will lead the park's beverage program while the Space crew will handle the bookings, but all events will be a joint effort between the two teams.
"It's an opportunity to test a bunch of different concepts," Kaboomsky tells New Times. "COVID-19 is going to be around for a little longer. So we're going to test a bunch of different ideas like food and beverage and expand our team."
Space Park will debut on New Year's Eve with the Ukraine techno duo Artbat and DJ/producer Rony Seikaly at the helm, followed by Nii Tei and Club Space resident Ms. Mada's back-to-back set. Bedouin and Eduardo Castillo are set to take over the decks on Saturday, January 2.
Space Park is a massive venue with a 6,000-person capacity.EXPAND
Space Park is a massive venue with a 6,000-person capacity. Photo by Ben Heartland
Partygoers will have to wait a little longer before Space Park can unleash the full potential of its 6,000-person capacity. For the time being, staff will strictly enforce safety guidelines — facemasks and temperature checks are required, attendance will be limited to 25 percent occupancy, and the oak tree-pocked venue will comply with the city's curfew: 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. for New Year's Eve and 3 p.m. until midnight thereafter.
"Doing a big event will have a lot of people, and there are a lot of emotions about it for the past eight months," Zvi says. "So our concern is keeping everyone safe. We want to go with the guidelines and do it the right way."
What the Year of the "WAP" Means for the Future of Women in Hip-Hop
SHANAE HARDY | DECEMBER 22, 2020 | 8:00AM
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion in a "WAP" funhouse.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion in a "WAP" funhouse. Screenshot from music video
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As the gates to the "WAP" mansion swing open and transport the viewer into Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s gaudy playhouse, the Frank Ski’s “Whores in this House” sample embodies their brash verses and the music video’s seduction. Almost simultaneously with the video’s premiere back in August, the floodgates opened to Internet criticism about the song and video’s X-rated content and the question of whether the two women took the notion of championing their bodies and sexuality too far.
In op-eds defending "WAP" and the video, cultural critics pointed to the misogyny and sexism embedded in the critiques, a constant for female rappers in an industry laden with male gatekeepers.
Even politicians weighed in. James P. Bradley, a Republican congressional candidate in California, tweeted that he "felt sorry for future girls if this is their role model.”
Despite all the sexist sneering, 2020 was a year in which women rappers dominated.
Flo Milli, Mulatto, Sukihana (who made a memorable cameo in the "WAP" video), and Bbymutha charmed fans with debut projects, while follow-up albums from Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls proved they have a long-term stake in hip-hop. And as much as fans applaud these artists for their unabashed reclamation of female sexuality, the scope of freedom for women in hip-hop should continue to be broadened as the genre evolves.
Yet, even as we laud the sexual overtones of 2020’s pussy-rap anthems, there also has to be space for female rappers who exist outside of and intersect with sex-positive rap to garner acknowledgment for their creativity and musical prowess. Dissenters like Rico Nasty, Kari Faux, and Tierra Whack provide an alternative sound that pulsates along the same vein of rebelling against the patriarchal limitations placed on women rappers. It’s not enough to just add their discography to playlists and charts in order to break up the male dominance when misogyny often bleeds into every facet of womanhood.
Back in July, a month before "WAP" dropped, Megan Thee Stallion’s credibility came into question after an altercation with Canadian rapper Tory Lanez resulted in the latter allegedly firing four shots at her from his car, hitting her feet with two of them. Even after the “Savage” rapper posted pictures of her wounds, a swarm of skeptical commentators attempted to poke holes in her story, pointing to her salacious rhymes and half-naked IG twerk videos as proof that she was the aggressor.
Paralleling that altercation in the midst of this summer’s social-justice reckonings were the murders of black transwomen and young black activist Oluwatoyin Salau, evoking the trending #protectblackwomen slogan. Yet, what was supposed to be a reflective moment on how black women were at the helm of cultural awakenings (see Stacey Abrams) but were not afforded basic protection turned into performative social-media fodder.
In a GQ article titled "Protect Megan Thee Stallion From Tory Lanez," culture journalist Ivie Anie challenged that hypocrisy, stating, “But phrases like 'believe women' or 'protect Black women' or 'Black lives matter' are empty without the commitment to an overhaul of harmful ideologies, behaviors, and systems."
As we near the end of a year that saw so many people railing against so many harmful deep-seated systems, it's important to remember that such a dismantling must also influence the way we critique and engage with female rappers. Whether they’re provocative, whimsical, intuitive, or unconventional, women must be afforded the same freedoms as men to explore and reinvent hip-hop.
Earning top spots on Billboard charts and Artist of the Year accolades doesn’t compensate for the misogyny that occludes female rappers’ careers whenever their power becomes an affront to the male ego. A robust future for hip-hop must be one untethered from sexism, archaic standards, and power dynamics. Because in the words of the late civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, "Nobody’s free until everybody’s free."
In 2021, let’s make liberation for women artists as grandiose as the tantalizing "WAP" mansion, where everyone takes turns in reveling in their
"We set up projectors [in the studio] so that fans could join in by Zoom and Google — so they could see the artists, and the artists could see them," he says.
Because Rolling Loud had been doing livestreams at its festivals before the shutdown, the infrastructure was already in place. The trick was to implement COVID-19 safety parameters for the safety of the acts and staff.
"We were rotating the artists in and out, so there is only one artist in each area at any one time," Cherif says.
Loud Stream is set to return over Halloween weekend, on October 30-31, from the same undisclosed location (a safety measure to keep fans away) with Gunna, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, Young Dolph, and Iann Dior leading the bill.
For Cherif and Zingler, the second event presents an opportunity to improve on the first stream.
"I'm excited about the whole Halloween theme," Cherif says. "We are going to be doing some really cool activations and dressing up the whole place like a haunted house/house of horrors-type thing. And the fans at home are going to get the chance to participate with us in a costume contest, which has a cash prize as well as a ticket prize for a future Rolling Loud of their choice."
Do the partners anticipate that the second Loud Stream can beat its predecessor's viewership mark?
"I think that we will," Zingler predicts. "I think we will always do more streams than we did the time before. I think that it being Halloween and it being a longer promotion time, it would only make sense that we draw more viewership."
Loud Stream. With Gunna, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, Young Dolph, and others. 6 p.m. Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31; rollingloud.com. Stream via twitch.tv/rollingloud.
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