Destroy Lonely & Ken Carson are the future of Rolling Loud
The kids will be alright.
THE BEAT DROP
A pulse of the culture
If you’re reading this, it’s another Sunday in Hip Hop and this week, we’re still recovering from Rolling Loud and outside of that, it seems like the Feds did a sweep. Lefty Gunplay was picked up before he had a chance to perform at the festival, and following that, Rollin’ 60s leader Big U and Texas rapper Yella Beezy were both picked up, separately, by authorities.
THIS WEEK’S TRACKLIST
The most important news items of the week.
Playboi Carti took over the Rolling Loud stage to perform MUSIC for the first time ever and gave a damn about a curfew. He brought out The Weeknd and Nav, too, while Kai Cent streamed live.
Destroy Lonely and Ken Carson Rolling Loud pits were insane.
Will Smith stopped by PlaqueBoyMax’s Twitch streamed and listened to some Playboi Carti for the first time and had the same reaction as my mom when I played her “Pop Out.”
Lefty Gunplay was arrested before his Rolling Loud set.
Rollin 60s leader Big U was arrested on RICO charges and suspicion of murdering his artist and dumping his body in Las Vegas
Yella Beezy was arrested for allegedly hiring someone to kill Mo3.
Meanwhile, Kay Flock beat a murder charge but found guilty on RICO charges. He faces life in prison.
Plies dropped his lawsuit against Soulja Boy over GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Wanna Be” sample.
In other news, it was announced that Kendrick Lamar would be considered as 2028 Olympics performer.
Lastly, Key Glock signed to Republic Records and announced his forthcoming project Glockaveli.
BARS OF THE WEEK
Notable quotes or lyrics that made waves.
“I ain't on J. Cole, I ain't on Drake, I ain't on Kendrick side/I choose homicide, they gon' see a different side.” — A$AP Rocky on an unreleased song he debuted while hanging out of a helicopter for his Rolling Loud performance.
“I liked the rhythm.” — Will Smith after hearing “OPM Babi” for the first time.
“Baby, if Mama called it Twitter, Im’a call it Twitter.” — Lizzo on Sirius XM talking about her affinity for Bluesky and Twitter? Not so much.
“I think I mentioned that I would love to write with her and build some things together. I love her storytelling. She was open to it.” — SZA on possibly working with Taylor Swift in the future.
“It never ends so this year I thought maybe I'd be the one to guide it, I started a mosh pit, sh*t started unlocking.” — Saba on “Woes of the World” From The Private Collection of Saba and No ID.
CHART TOPPERS
Notable top-performing rap and R&B tracks on streaming platforms and charts.
Playboi Carti’s MUSIC is expected to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 302K units sold the first week. It’s the biggest debut of 2025 for a rapper rockstar vamp.
SZA’s SOS became the longest running Top 10 album by a Black artist in Billboard 200 history, surpassing Michael Jackson. Mind you, we still don’t have the music video for “Low.” That’s impact.
SOUND WATCH
Upcoming releases and recent drops worth noting.
Saba and No ID’s From The Private Collection is OUT. Enough said.
NAV and Metro Boomin released “Real Me” off the brown boy’s upcoming project, OMW2 REXDALE, which is set for release March 28.
1900 Rugrat tapped in with Bossman Dlow for "Cheat Codes" off Porch 2 The Pent.
Doja Cat gave Jack Harlow her best on “Just Us.”
Ski Mask The Slump God and Kyle Richh shared “Spin” on behalf of Rolling Loud and we love music we can rage to.
Nettspend brought in his 18th birthday with “Impact” featuring xaviersobased.
JT shared her first single of the year, “Ran Out” and it came with a music video.
Rob49 also released his first single of the year, “WTHELLY.”
Jada Kingdom dropped “g.a.d.”
PlaqueBoyMax released a London: 5$TAR SESSIONS pack from all those Twitch streams he’s been hosting, including Lancey Foux, Skepta and more.
Lil Durk and Jhene Aiko dropped “Can’t Hide It.”
Leon Thomas and Chris Brown linked for the “MUTT” remix.
Moneybagg Yo released a new one called “Close The Door” in the form of a music video.
Wiz Khalifa hopped on Luh Tyler’s “Florida Boy” remix.
Ché Noir and Superior released Seeds in Babylon EP.
Lil Nas X dropped another banger with “Lean On My Body.”
R&B singer NSTASIA shared something real called “illest.”
Lil Tecca returned with his flirty new single “Dark Thoughts.”
idk, Joey Valence and Brae delivered their collaborative effort “Clover.”
Russ announced W!LD is coming this spring/summer.
Jace! dropped “Karly Wit a K!”
Money Man shared his Insomnia album.
Billy Blue’s project The Life Of Pedro was released.
Florida’s own Lil Poppa has returned with “I Hate You.”
Joy Crookes unveiled her unguarded new single “I Know You’d Kill.”
Boldy James showed off his “Street Cred” with his latest release.
Skrilla dropped the high-energy music video for his single “On That Money” with Rob49.
B.U.G Antman unveiled the Y’all Ugly EP.
Nija shared "32nd Floor" as her new single.
Dumar 1K released his newest single “Homebody.”
Supa King Big Pope called up Tay Money for a fresh verse on "Tell On Me 3."
mgk released a heartfelt tribute for his fallen friend Dingo called, "your name forever.”
THE BLUEPRINT
A deep dive of trending topics, artist profiles and music analysis.
I went to Rolling Loud and asked these rappers: “What’s your favorite bar to perform?” Check out their responses below.
TOUR BUS
Concert and festival announcements, tour updates and live performance highlights.
Coco Jones announced new European and UK dates for her upcoming Why Not More? Tour.
Lil Tracy is set to hit Belasco Theater for The Blood Moon Tour September 17. Tickets are on sale now.
Beyoncé added a second Las Vegas date for July 26 at Allegiant Stadium for her record-breaking COWBOY CARTER TOUR.
Key Glock announced his 2025 GLOCKAVELI Tour presented by SiriusXM’s Hip-Hop Nation
J. Cole announced the final Dreamville Festival lineup with Lil Wayne as the headliner.
FREESTYLE
Memes and viral moments.
scheyeeah!
RAP HILL
Legal matters affecting the music industry.
Drake’s lawyer filed a 4-page response to UMG’s motion to stay discovery — in other words: UMG wants to delay the discovery process because what Drake’s team is asking for would be a lot of work. The full response can be read here.
Drake’s legal team will have until March 27 to amend their complaint.
TRENDSETTERS
Updates on key figures who are driving the culture.
SiriusXM announced the appointment of Anjali Sud to Board of Directors.
Wasserman Music announced the hire of three key executives across its growing Fairs & Festivals, Tour Marketing, and worldwide agent teams. Tim Beeding will be SVP, Fairs & Festivals, Chloe Garcia as Director of Tour Marketing and Doug Singer as VP on Wasserman Music's global agent team, where he will represent major artists including Vince Staples, SiR, Saint Levant, and Majid Jordan, among others.
OUTSIDE
Sightings and appearances.
Tyla and FKA Twigs appeared in H&M's S/S 2025 collection.
SZA made it to J Hud’s spirit tunnel and she was absolute vibe, as always.
BIRTHDAYS
Celebrating artists and industry figures born this week.
Cherise Johnson (Me), Flavor Flav, Danny Brown, Sean Price, Queen Latifah, Bun B, DJ Premier, Jhene Aiko, Tamar Braxton, Large Professor
OUTRO
A final thought.
Let’s talk about Rolling Loud. Touted as the biggest Hip Hop festival in the world — and as someone who has attended numerous Rolling Loud’s all over the country for nearly a decade — I agree.
This year was special though.
For context, the normal headliners tend to be Lil Uzi Vert, A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott and Future. This year we had Rocky and Carti playing point as usual and at some point, I was wondering if the baton would ever passed off to some new headliners. Who will lead the kids to rage next? This particular festival date answered that burning question for me.
The answer? Destroy Lonely and Ken Carson — obviously. Ahead of Carti’s set, the crowd swelled up for Lone, then Ken Carson. Those are the two that I believe will be our next Kings of Rolling Loud. The crowd was so rambunctious when Ken performed I have zero usable footage. You literally had to be there.
It was like a fellowship of ragers and that’s when I knew — the kids will be alright and so will Rolling Loud.
xx