Having established itself as the biggest hip-hop festival in the world, Rolling Loud’s Australian debut comes at an interesting time.
On one hand, it comes at a time of unprecedented demand for hip-hop. Last year, hip-hop overtook rock to become the most popular genre in the US for the first time, and Australia felt the effect. Splendour in the Grass, Falls and Spilt Milk festivals all nabbed hip-hop headliners to perform at their 2018 events; local artists like ChillinIt, Kwame and Tkay Maidza are all making waves abroad; and on 27 January – the day of Rolling Loud in Sydney – US hip-hop acts Travis Scott and Childish Gambino hit #3 and #4 of the Triple J Hottest 100.
So in 2019 an Australian festival dedicated to the genre, hosted by an established brand, makes a lot of sense. The sales reflected this demand: Rolling Loud sold all 20,000 of its tickets in a single day.
But, on the other hand, Rolling Loud is diving headfirst into an increasingly unstable festival landscape in New South Wales. After a string of drug-related deaths at music festivals over summer, the pill-testing debate has raged furiously from parliament to street protests. New regulations in March will enforce stricter requirements on festival organisers, and give gargantuan fines and jail time to those who fail to enforce them. Additionally, Australia has a tumultuous relationship with hip-hop events, which are often plagued by visa issues, no-shows and countless cancellations due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Remember those ever unpredictable Supafest tours?
And, in many ways, the final 24 hours before Rolling Loud felt like Supafest all over again. Lil Uzi Vert and Ski Mask The Slump God both cancelled their appearances, and were replaced by Rae Sremmurd, a duo who toured Australia just a fortnight ago for Fomo festival.
But despite considerable backlash on social media, and an arduous 80-minute entry queue (which meant some of us missed the line-up’s sole woman, rapper Sophiegrophy), the crowd is in good spirits once it steps into the event at Sydney showground.
Inside the expansive hall, Manu Crooks is one of two Australian acts on the Rolling Loud line-up, and electrifies the audience with his high-energy anthems Everyday and Day Ones, and cameos from frequent collaborators B Wise and Anfa Rose. Playboi Carti is just one of many new wave rappers injecting a punk rock energy and aesthetic into his brand, and his later performance is filled with ominous imagery and endless calls for mosh pits. The crowd obliges and bashes into one another with vigour, as Carti raps, screams and head-bangs his way through a devilish set that peaks with his biggest hit, Magnolia.
After dominating the snapback era of pop-rap earlier this decade, many critics (especially Soulja Boy) have criticised Tyga as a has-been – but his 2018 single Taste triggered a swelling 2018 comeback that warrants his inclusion on the Rolling Loud line-up. With a fanbase that appears to consist exclusively of Culture Kings costumers, Tyga’s upbeat twerk anthems and club bops are a welcome change of pace, even if it’s mainly for nostalgic purposes (Rack City and Faded are undeniably infectious, while Ayo delivers fun R&B flavour.)
After that, fellow Compton rapper YG – also in Australia just a few months ago – arrives for a short set, and things take a blood-red turn. Strutting the stage in a bandana and Nike Cortez, the west coast revivalist runs through newer staunch singles such as Suu Whoop and carefree favourites like Left, Right. His brazen anti-Trump anthem F.D.T (no prizes for guessing what that stands for) earns a healthy cheer, and remains as relevant as at its inception back in 2016.
Deviating from YG’s gangster narratives, Rae Sremmurd’s style of catchy trap is more endearing than menacing, and brings a lively splash of colour to the day. Yes, we heard them perform the same hits earlier this month, but it’s still easy to get sucked into their pop hooks, hyperactive ad-libs and call-and-response chants. No Flex Zone and Powerglide are an absolute treat for anyone who hasn’t seen them live yet.
Closing the night is Future: the southern rap mainstay who arrives fashionably late but is soon forgiven as he runs through an arsenal of hard-hitting, hazy anthems. From designer brand name-dropping on Same Damn Time to drawling mixtape cuts like Wicked, Future covers plenty of territory, also inviting surprise guest Gunna back on stage after his set earlier that afternoon.
As a rap fan in Australia, seeing a diverse spread of today’s biggest names on a single stage (with no clashes and mostly short intermissions) is certainly something that I could get used to – and as Rolling Loud expands into Europe and Asia, its Australian iteration showed plenty of potential.
But it felt too soon to tour Rae Sremmurd and YG again. At a time when the local hip-hop scene is gaining so much global traction, the line-up could have benefited from a few more homegrown acts instead. With hip-hop’s reign looking to stretch on for some time, we’re hoping that Rolling Loud Australia returns bigger and better in 2020.
