MIAMI — Mykia Powell didn’t buy her Rolling Loud ticket just for Kanye Omari West.
The South Miami-Dade resident had been itching to get back since the 2019 festival — “you can’t beat it,” she recalled — yet Powell would be lying if she said potentially seeing West didn’t influence her purchase. Then she saw the news that the self-described “Shakespeare in the flesh” had pulled out five days before his July 22 performance.
“He’s the reason why a lot of people got tickets this year,” Powell said. “I already plan on leaving early that day. It’s that disappointing.”
West’s abrupt exit less than a week before the three-day festival’s July 22 opening puts a stain on the otherwise successful run of Rolling Loud. Having navigated a global pandemic, international shows and, now, the first ever exit of not just a headliner but arguably the festival’s biggest artist to date, it’s clear that the Rolling Loud team can handle the unpredictable. Still, it’s worth wondering how such a drastic loss will affect the brand.
Universal Music Group executive Andrew Howard, for one, doesn’t foresee any negative impact.
“No not at all,” said Howard, UMG’s vice president of digital marketing and commerce. “It’s just an artist doing what artists do: they’re either super reliable or they’re not.”
Howard listed everything that makes Rolling Loud unique. He pointed to the diverse festival lineups that include greats like Gucci Mane, A-listers like Kendrick Lamar but also up-and-coming artists like Sleepy Hallow, as well as the brand’s successful handle of internet culture.
“Rolling Loud has benefited from not being regional: they’re smart enough to know that they got to have East Coast rappers, Southern rappers, West Coast rappers,” Howard said, later adding that this keeps the festival “neutral and the audience engaged.“
On the topic of West’s replacement, Howard approved.
“They got Kid Cudi. Cudi’s not Kanye but he’s a headliner.”
Rolling Loud organizers declined to comment for this story due to legal reasons linked to West’s departure. When asked about what legal repercussions the brand may face, Andell Brown, a South Florida-based attorney, estimated that it depends on West’s contract and who stood to benefit from Ye’s performance.
“Somewhere along the line, millions of dollars were exchanged and now he’s not going to show up so now there could be some litigation about why he’s not showing up,” said Brown. Vendors, producers, people who manufactured merchandise with West’s name on it and even ticket-holders could have grounds to sue, Brown continued, though the festival’s ticket terms and conditions state that the talent could change and all sales are final.
“If you bought a ticket for $400 and the biggest artist on there is Kanye West, you bought your ticket months ago, you saved your money, you bought your flight, you booked your hotel and then they say ’Well, we’re not going to have Kanye, we’re going to have Kid Cudi,’ ” Brown added. “I like Kid Cudi but he’s not Ye. So is that $400 ticket still worth $400?”
Artists do pull out of festivals somewhat frequently. West did it earlier this year with Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In June, Migos dropped out of Governor’s Ball three days before their performance. The Atlanta trio was subsequently replaced by Lil Wayne, who later bowed out the very day he was set to take the stage. Although these incidents do rightfully rankle fans, Cyrus Dennis, the operating partner at Afropunk, emphasized compassion.
“Artists are human,” Dennis said. “They got families, they got things they’re going through, things they’re living through. It happens.”
The Cudi replacement, however, still certainly struck a nerve with some fans who expressed their frustration under Rolling Loud’s social media posts of the new lineup. Many thought Travis Scott, who wowed fans at Rolling Loud Miami 2021 roughly four months before 10 people were killed during the artist’s set at his Astroworld Festival in Houston, would be a natural replacement for West. Scheduling conflicts prevented Scott from being available, according to Rolling Stone Magazine, yet that didn’t necessarily change Powell’s feelings about Cudi.
“I don’t plan on staying there for his set,” Powell said. “I just don’t think he fits the vibe of Rolling Loud at all. I just feel like it’s going to be a downer.”
Not all fans share Powell’s disappointment. Others, like Ariana Mubanda, can’t wait to see Cudi perform — though she thinks his last-minute inclusion could slightly tarnish the brand.
“I kind of wish they would’ve said something sooner because I know so many people did buy tickets just to see Kanye perform,” said Mubanda, a 2022 University of Miami graduate. “I’m explaining to my friends like ‘You guys don’t understand; they made a great decision picking Kid Cudi because they know one, he’s reliable, and two, he’ll definitely get the job done.’ ”
Ye or no Ye, Rolling Loud is already cemented as the “premiere hip-hop festival,” according to iHeart Radio hip-hop editor Tony Centeno, who added that “it would take something more serious for them to even start seeing some effect towards the brand.” Centeno echoed many of Howard’s points about the lineup and social media strategy, the latter of which he believes sets them apart. Rolling Loud Miami slotted in at No. 12 on Billboard’s best music festivals of 2022 list, yet of the 11 ranked ahead of it, only two — Coachella (No. 1) and Tomorrowland (No. 6) — had bigger Instagram followings.
“They know how to capitalize off of their moment and keep that moment lasting for as long as they want to,” said Centeno, who has covered the festival since 2016. He described their posting as nonstop — “literally right after a show, they’re promoting their pictures, their merch or really anything they have left for weeks,” Centeno added — and used the silhouette photo of Lil Uzi Vert captured at the recent Portugal festival as an example. “That photo, I reposted instantly because you’re never going to see another image like that ever. It’s things like that I feel like where I feel like they definitely dominated as well: they know what their fans are going to like.”
And though fans might be split over West’s exit, the truth is Rolling Loud was doing fine before Ye. The festival has grown from a one-day showcase with dozens of artists in Wynwood to a three-day extravaganza with a lineup of more than 100 performers at a football stadium. More than $2 million was made off of merchandise alone at the 2021 Miami festival, according to Pollstar. In a sense Rolling Loud’s current situation resembles Drake post-Pusha T beef: losses happen but only one of us is known across the globe.
“People who know Kanye and know how he operates, I feel like they would know that it’s not Rolling Loud’s fault,” Powell said. “Rolling Loud is not just a little festival. Everyone knows about it. I think they’ll be fine.”
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