15 December 12-18, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | Music | Roll On Rolling Loud cofounder Tariq Cherif reflects on the past ten years. BY OSVALDO ESPINO I t’s the Wednesday of Miami Art Week, and inside the Museum of Graffiti in Wynwood, Tariq Cherif is taking a rare opportunity to relax. He’s busy this week doing interviews, panels, and anything else where he can promote and talk about Roll- ing Loud, the world’s biggest hip-hop festival. Since its inception in 2015, it has grown from a one-day event at Soho Studios in Wyn- wood into a global brand that has a reach far beyond South Florida. This year’s lineup features the usual heavy hitters who have helped make the festival a success. Travis Scott, Future, and Playboi Carti have all become household names, and Rolling Loud has helped boost their careers. “As we kept growing, the genre grew,” Cherif shares. “That’s the crazy thing is hip- hop was not the biggest genre in the world when we launched, but it became the biggest genre in the world as we grew. So it’s like we grew together.” Hip-Hop Boom Before Rolling Loud, acts like Future and Carti hardly appeared atop the Billboard Hot 100, much less command throngs of adoring fans large enough to fill up the field in front of a festival’s main stage. By championing emerging talents, such as XXXTentacion, Ski Mask the Slump God, Smokepurpp, Lil Pump, Denzel Curry, Kodak Black, and more, the festival capitalized on the SoundCloud boom of the late 2010s. “At the time, we just knew that these art- ists are important. We were growing together in the state of Florida, and we saw as we were growing on the internet, they were growing on the internet,” Cherif says. “As Rolling Loud was getting bigger, they were getting bigger. And also, we were just organically, just friends. Like, I consider XXXTentacion, may he rest in peace, he was one of my good friends. We talked a lot, the whole scene. Pouya is my friend. Denzel Curry is my friend. Rob Banks is one of my best friends. We all came up together.” Of course, Rolling Loud’s rise wasn’t with- out its challenges. Cherif and cofounder Matt Zingler had a hard time getting people to be- lieve in the festival. “At first, the challenge was to get people to see the vision. We never used to get sponsors; it took us years to get any sponsorship dol- lars,” Cherif says. “It was very niche, you know? I’d be telling friends of mine, trying to promote the show. And if you weren’t like a hardcore SoundCloud rap fan in 2015, 2016, you didn’t care about us. So I would be telling people, ‘Hey, I’m doing this festival. It’s a hip-hop festival.’ And they’re like, ‘A hip-hop festival? I’m going Ultra. What the fuck do I want to go to a hip-hop festival for? I go to EDM festivals.’ And I would just be like, Damn. One day, hopefully, one day they’ll catch up.” Eventually, everyone did, helping the brand grow not only in the U.S. but also in Eu- rope and Asia, securing big-brand sponsors like Amazon Music, Ksubi, and GoPuff along the way. The festival, which started in a murky warehouse in Wynwood — very punk rock, according to Cherif — now attracts thousands of festivalgoers across three continents. Historic Performances Over the years, Rolling Loud has seen many surprise guests and memorable momentzs, but Cherif doesn’t hesitate when asked which one sticks out to him. “My favorite is XXXTentacion’s final performance, slash when he reunited with Ski Mask on stage in 2018,” he shares. Perhaps that’s why XXXTentacion’s like- ness is currently part of a mural outside of the Art of Hip Hop Museum in Wynwood, along- side Future, Scott, and Carti. Their heads are depicted carved on the side of a mountain, much like Mount Rushmore, but instead of dead presidents, they are some of the most important figures in contemporary hip-hop. “When we first went to Portugal, we had Central C when he was just really starting to buzz,” Cherif says, proof that the festival has its pulse on who’s on the verge of breaking through. “He performed this sunset set. The show was on the beach, looking out at the crowd, the ocean, and the sunset, and him performing. It was just like a movie.” He also fondly recalls Kanye West’s ap- pearance during Future’s set at Rolling Loud California in 2021 and the recent Rolling Loud Thailand. Even the challenging mo- ments, such as the festival’s controversial re- location to Bayfront Park in 2017, are some of Cherif’s proudest moments. “When the City of Miami tried to shut us down in 2017, we threatened to sue the city for $30 million, and then we still got to do the show. We won that. That was fun,” he adds. Beyond Hip-Hop In addition to the usual suspects this year, country singer Shaboozey and reggae act YG Marley are set to perform at Rolling Loud. While the decision can feel out of left field, it isn’t the first time Rolling Loud has kept festi- valgoers on their toes. In the past, the stages have hosted performances by dembow rap- per El Alfa, punk band Turnstile, and corri- dos crooner Chino Pacas. “I think hip-hop culture is bigger than hip- hop music. You see hip-hop culture affecting NBA players and NFL players, but it’s also af- fecting other genres of music,” Cherif ex- plains. “With corridos, I view them as inspired by hip-hop; they’re talking about the same stuff in hip-hop. They’re talking about girls, selling drugs, independence, don’t tread on me — that type of vibe, and that’s big in hip-hop. We’re also a DIY festival, and a lot of artists that have come up in recent times are like DIY artists, and that’s like the spirit of punk rock. It’s very punk rock to hop in the van and go hit as many cities as he can and do as many shows as you can. Hip-hop artists in modern times have been doing the same thing, and we did the same thing with our shows and later the festival.” Hip-hop’s influence on Shaboozey and YG Marley’s music is pretty evident. Never mind that Marley’s mother, Lauryn Hill, is one of hip-hop’s most iconic figures. Cherif ▼ Music Tariq Cherif is gearing up for Rolling Loud’s tenth anniversary, with the festival returning to Hard Rock Stadium December 13-15. Photo by Daniela Alaviie / @a.l.v.media XXXTentacion Photo by Sergio Montoya >> p16
