On a windy afternoon in Inglewood, thousands dressed in a mixture of gothic and athletic streetwear lined up outside the gates of SoFi Stadium. Hi-hats and 808s echoed across the parking lot grounds as roughly 70,000 fans gathered to attendance for the annual Rolling Loud California on March 15 and 16.

The headliners consisted of ASAP Rocky, Playboi Carti and the festival’s first non-hip hop artist, Peso Pluma. Peso Pluma and Rocky both shared performances on Friday, while Carti had the Saturday headliner title entirely to himself.

This year’s Rolling Loud was split between two days, a notable change from last year’s 4-day festival. The festival was also a chance for fans to witness the first live performance of Billboard’s R&B Hip-Hop Power Players 2024 Artist of the Year, Playboi Carti and his most recent album “MUSIC.” The album charted at No. 1 on Billboard during the first week of its release, setting new career highs for the 29-year-old Atlanta rapper.

Both the fans and Carti’s dedication to each other was impressive to watch. Fans crawled over each other to reach the front while Carti repeatedly shouted, “F*** THE BUDGET,” as city officials and organizers attempted to cut his set short after going over the festival’s curfew.

Between sets, The Daily Sundial caught up with Tariq Cherif, CEO and co-founder of Rolling Loud, who gave advice for student entrepreneurs.

“Don’t pontificate forever and sit and not take action. Take the first step. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. You gotta get started somewhere,” Cherif said.

Another personal highlight of the weekend was running into London’s own Jersey club artist, Skaiwater backstage at the press lounge. Skaiwater rose quickly among the ranks of the underground scene, offering an emo jersey rage genre of rap to a more expressive audience. Skai rocked a black Nike tech fleece with a shredded skirt onstage and ended by crowd-surfing among his fans.

Clothing brand owner Desto Dubb also shared advice from his experience running his brand “That’s A Awful Lot of Cough Syrup” based in LA. His advice for students uncertain of what they want to do in their career was to “Narrow it down to two, roll a dice, pick one and try it out. If you like it, keep going; if not, try something else. Life is a game of experimentation and learning.”

Meanwhile, at the smaller stages, newer upcoming artists from the hip-hop underground scene took the spotlight, paving a new way for the genre itself. Artists from the likes of Che, Molly Santana, OsamaSon, Skaiwater and the it-boy of the underground, Nettspend, lit up the Dupre Stage located in the southwest corner of the festival.

The best moment was the late-night Nettspend show that closed out the stage before Carti.

Rolling Loud succeeded once again in bringing the culture of LA together for a weekend.