When Anthony pulled up to the apartment the night before our flight to California, it had only been a few months since we’d last seen each other. We had gone to the Isaiah Rashad concert since it was in Texas, but that’s not a story worth elaborating on much. One of the most memorable parts of this entire trip happened just a few days before we even left. We were sitting out in the patio catching up on how life had been for us, while also containing our excitement for the weekend we were about to have. I remember telling him “Remember me telling you this, in two days, we’ll be walking through the turnstiles entering Rolling Loud,” as a way of seeing how quickly time can past between now and then.
For us, we always had great timing together, especially when it came to getting things done. Back in June, when it was his birthday. I know I'm not the only person who's ran into the issue of not having the gift you wanted to give your best friend to them on their birthday. So, I was at his birthday party having a great time, feeling a bit down that I was showing him a picture of his gift instead. I tried for months to figure out why it wouldn’t be sent on time, alongside my hoodie I ordered after the concert I went to. However, timing works in the craziest of ways, because just a day before he came by, my hoodie and his t-shirt were sent to the right address this time. When he walked through the door, I tossed him his late birthday gift. Just like that, we both had exactly what we wanted to wear for the second night. Everything was working out perfectly.
Next thing I knew, I shut my eyes, went to sleep, and woke up ready to go to the airport. Landing in LAX was its own adventure, having to lug around our heavy duffle bags from the airport to the nearest Starbucks wasn’t as bad of a walk as I imagined it to be. We randomly started rapping our favorite tracks and by the time we got to the Starbucks to sit down, I called our Airbnb as it was already prepared for us, earlier than expected actually. The first Lyft ride we took to the Airbnb felt like the beginning of a film.
The glamorous scenery of California that’s always depicted on television wasn’t what I first saw when gazing through the window. There was quite a bit of trash lying around everywhere and the sky wasn’t as bright and sunny. It was raining that day of all days.
It said 429 Unit A. South Louise Avenue. We punched in the gate code and rushed our way inside to see our new home for the weekend. Two spacious bedrooms rooms, separate bathrooms, an open living room space connected to the kitchen with a nice porch set up with chairs and all. Of course, we already knew what it would look like months in advance but seeing that it was as advertised was refreshing. Dropping our bags to the ground, hooking up his speaker as we’d jump and scream our lungs out how “WE’VE MADE IT HOLY F…!” Is a moment I couldn’t forget. It was happening. We were here, landed and were just being accustomed to life in California. The rain settled in a bit as we’d set up Disney plus to the tv in the living room and look up food places nearby. When we left for McDonalds and took our disposable cameras with us, we had time to capture moments and take in just how far we’d come to be just a day away from the festival. The walk wasn’t that long, the quiet and nice urban neighborhood of Azusa reminded me of music videos from the mid 2000’s of hip hop, or even something out of Next Friday the movie. Coincidently enough, we were close to the city of Rancho Cucamonga where the movie was set in.
When we arrived at McDonalds, I personally felt that were hungry enough to eat everything on the menu. After we were done devouring our food, Anthony said one of his many iconic lines of the weekend, “Why this shit tastes like gourmet,” I laughed and had to mark it in my phone as a quote from him. Indeed, that’s what it tasted like. When you haven’t eaten for as long as we went, eating something familiar tastes unbelievable. We spent the rest of the day planning everything we’d need to get, so we went grocery shopping. We decided on Target, to try and find Anthony a fanny pack to wear. When we were dropped off at this Target though, another iconic line from Anthony emerged.
As we made our way to the front entrance, we saw escalator carts right next to the steps to the second floor. It was two stories and as we backed up to take a bigger look at it, he dubbed it a Mecca Target for the scale of it and by how holy the symbol looked on the front. I had never seen a Target that big before. We only perused one story of the Target; we couldn’t find the fanny pack we were looking for while in there. It wasn’t a waste of time though; we got our other groceries and made our way back to the crib.
That night we knew that Drake and Kanye West were going to be in Los Angeles for their Free Larry Hoover concert. Anthony and I both speculated on what that could mean, considering they were such big artists and how easy it would be for either one of them to pop up at the festival, we sat on the couch watching their performance while staying curiously optimistic. Since Future was the final day, both of us gravitated more towards Drake showing up for fun considering all the songs the two of them had done already.
Falling asleep that first night was honestly quite difficult, as tired as I was, it felt like Christmas Eve and the night before my birthday all wrapped in one. I was excited, nervous, and skeptical of what would happen the next few days.
Rolling Loud Day 1
Introduction to a new world.
It started off simple, just like the first day of school, my outfit was laid out on the bed like that meme on Twitter we’ve all seen. Getting my daily mediation and normal stretches done was vital. For those silent and solitary ten minutes, I simply didn’t think of anything. I had no idea what I was in for, but I enjoyed the peace I’d have at least knowing when I’d enter the festival, it would be nothing but music and personalities throughout. I had watched some preparation videos and knew that eating well beforehand was the most important thing. Drinking water during the performances was key too. As we sat at the table, I think it’s best to establish that of course it was a Rolling Loud festival, so cannabis was a part of the experience. My view of Marijuana shifted drastically from high school to college. I had never even drunk alcohol or smoked anything until college began. It wasn’t until my sophomore year after I was done with athletics, that I even experimented with it. I made sure the first time I ever did try it, was by someone I trusted of course.
As Anthony and I’s relationship grew, it was heightened because of the nights where we’d just smoke and watch marvel shows or play videos games or talk about anything we’d want to. The times at his apartment were truly timeless. While him and I were rolling joints and getting blunts prepared, we’d go outside to pass a joint around looking at the beautiful California sun. It was only rainy for the day before, but the rest of that time, the sunny side of the west coast came through.
It was just a year prior that I was alone in my apartment with just my bong, a pipe, and my negative thoughts. For the first time, I knew it was a crutch to bury thoughts away. There was work I needed to do mentally at the time, and I wasn’t addressing them. But that was December of 2020, now it was December of 2021, and the personal journey I had gone through made me stronger, and more appreciative of so many things, and most importantly, it gave me a different insight on how I relaxed my thoughts and took time to myself. Now, as I smiled and was handed a joint, I was happy about where I was mentally and laughed a bit.
Before I had even stepped foot at the festival, I was the happiest I had been all year, taking time to reflect on the positive, and not feeling bad about anything like I used to. Everything was prepared, and when the Lyft arrived outside our place, I knew we were entering into a new world. The long walk from where we were dropped off, to the venue itself was tiring for a moment. The mass of people around us as we got closer, the music bumping in the distance over the tall building which blocked our sight from seeing the stages made us more eager. As we walked, Anthony told me to download the Huji app on my phone to take pictures that gave an extra flare to the lens and provide brighter colors, along with a more classic film camera esthetic. It's come in handy ever since downloading it.
After we stopped to pick up a clear bag for him to put his belongings into, we finally made it to the front gate. As we walked towards the entrance, my smile couldn’t help but grow larger with joy. I felt like a toddler being brought into my favorite toy store. Our wristbands (which were not coming off unless we cut them with scissors), were scanned and we made our way through the COVID protocol checks. The moment will stick with me forever, watching him pass through the vaccination check and seeing him push through the turnstile. I looked right at him and said, “Remember what I told you on the patio a few days ago,” he shook his head in disbelief, taking us right back to that moment. Here we were, finally at the festival.
To this day, I replay those first few steps I took into the festival just for fun. It was magnificent to finally see it. I told myself in my mind “you’re living in the present, not the past, not the future, just right here and right now.” From that point on, it was hard to even think, instead I allowed myself to be emersed in it all. The giant Rolling Loud signs and props to take pictures at were our first things to do. I loved taking pictures, but always felt a bit awkward doing so for some reason. Believe it or not, I always feel awkward posing and trying to get the best shot.
However, I didn’t care about any of that this time. I was so enthralled with everything around me, that I kept reminding myself that this could be a once in a lifetime thing. I wanted us to conquer the whole weekend, and this was only day one. The ground went from concrete to turf as we got closer to the food vendors and merch line. Seeing just one of the three stages in the far distance made the scale of the whole event seem even larger than I could’ve imagined. As we stood in line for merch, we met and chatted with people who had traveled from even father than we did. One guy even came all by himself, which made me laugh because that was a tip a lot of youtubers said not to do. However, he was having a great time all by himself thus far.
In the line though, we saw someone fall over drunk for a moment, realizing it wasn’t even seven at night, that was a wakeup call for just how crazy things could get around here. He was stumbling drunk high-fiving others, yelling about how much he loved being here and wondering how he got there in the first place as his friends helped him out of the line. We ended up missing Earthgangs’ performance because of how long the merch line took. We decided to eat afterwards. The food was good as we sat by a less crowded area from the stages. We knew that we had to see Sheck Wes Live. Ever since it was released in 2018, “Mo Bamba” was a song that I always saw got the crowd going nuts. It was probably my first song I saw people mosh-pitting too on YouTube. I remembered seeing Sheck going wild as the crowd would toss drinks and clothes in the air as the beat dropped. I knew we had to be a part of that tonight.
We made our way to the Power 106 stage. We were warmed up from a solid Blxst performance and knew that things would only intensify. It was a bit colder throughout the night as we walked there. As we got closer to the front of the stage and more huddled in with other people, our bodies drastically shifted from cold shivers to beats of sweat. As Sheck came out, the aurora of the whole stage changed. He had a mask on and brought out his classic hits. I was sipping too fast on my water pack during Blxst’s show, and my first mistake of the evening was made. I put the nozzle away and prepared myself for a lot of jumping and sweating. I was wiping heaves of sweat from my forehead right up until “No Bystanders” began playing. Just a month previous was the Astroworld festival in Houston. To hear any Travis Scott music, let alone this early in the first big music festival since then was a bit surprising. Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant and overwhelming surprise. By the time either of us had realized it was No Bystanders playing, the ground was shaking, and we were elevated in the air time and time again trying to keep up with everyone else’s energy.
This was it, we were in it, just like the pits and craziness I saw on YouTube videos and streams of concerts. Now we were living it. Everyone was screaming “F-the club up!” I glanced over at Anthony almost falling back a bit and caught him. I could tell this was a lot right now as we both experienced what we would later call ‘diet passing-out,’ where you feel like you’re just floating aimlessly with everyone else. We jumped, shook our heads, and ramped up our energy to stay in the moment.
Then, a brilliant transition into Mo Bamba occurred. The experience we wanted; we were having. A great introduction to the weekend. Water bottles tossed in the air, and pits of people would lightly shove and jump around together. We moved up closer without much effort, and by the time Sheck was done performing, and giving us advice on how we can chase our dreams, we knew this was the best way to prepare ourselves for the craziness this weekend was having in store.
We walked back from the stage to gather ourselves properly, another quote from Anthony came out. “That shit was like a black history moment,” I chuckled and agreed with him in regards from the transition from No Bystanders to Mo Bamba. It was cool to hear a Travis Scott song and go crazy for a moment. It’s hard to describe a moment like that, you really are in the present trying to make it through the song, while at the same time giving all your energy to each beat drop you hear and step you take to match the energy of those around you.
By the time we made it from the Power 106 stage, back to the main walkway where the food and bathrooms were, Kid Cudi was next as the closer. The walk from one stage to the next felt long in the beginning, however, taking videos of our reactions, hyping one another up for the next performance made it feel much shorter. It was an adrenaline boost and a high you can’t get from any strain. It was a natural rush of dopamine to keep going and experiencing more.
The Cîroc Stage was the biggest, and where all the main closing acts would be. It was massive, with a curved archway that we only saw from afar in the daytime on the walk up to the festival. Now at night, it was even more glorious. Truth be told, I had a small selection of Kid Cudi music I knew off the bat. Besides “Day n Night” and a few songs here and there off his newer album Man on the Moon 3 (which I primarily listened to at my job back in Oklahoma), I didn’t pay much attention to his sound. However, I knew since he was headlining, he would bring a lot of energy.
A speculation from Anthony and I was maybe he would bring out Kanye. After all, they did make an entire album together in Kids See Ghosts, so it wasn’t out the realm of possibility.
Just a few songs in though, he stopped, and spoke to us, saying how grateful he was to be performing for the first time in a while. He also said he had a few surprises for us. The crowd started to “ooo, and ahhh” with excitement. Cudi quickly shut down rumors of bringing anyone else out,. Instead, he told us he was working on another album and was going to perform new pieces from that for us tonight. It felt like such a treat to be there and being the first major crowd to hear what he'd been working on.
I took time in this moment to look behind me and see a sea of people. With Sheck Wes, I would see an opening behind me, because it wasn’t as crowded. This was much different though. It made sense that most people would be here. We couldn’t move much closer front, but we also couldn’t just sprint our way through the mass of people behind us. The sea of individuals in front of us was massive, but not enough to block our view from taking pictures and recording videos of the performance.
To end off his set, I felt like an idiot for not remembering what one of Cudi’s most famous songs, “Pursuit of Happiness”. A song that was most made famous by the film Project X in my opinion. It was such a dopamine high hitting song, mixed with pyrotechnics and thousands of people screaming and having the time of their lives, and felt like the end of a movie for us.
If that was the case, then this was going to be the best trilogy ever. As the beat swelled, more hands were thrown in the air, the intensity of the environment was rising as Cudi was leaving the stage telling us to get back safely. It was indescribable how it felt. My life often feels like a film, with a camera right next to me, at some points begging me to look to the imaginary audience and say things such as “This is awesome!” or “Can you believe that?” In this moment though, it didn’t feel like that, like I was being watched or observed. Maybe that’s the feeling I was missing, feeling like it was my world to really make the most of.
We walked over countless empty water packs, destroyed shoes that had no matching set and endless amounts of joint paper, blunts and lighters. We were able to make our way to our Lyft. Getting picked up in the middle of traffic was a bit chaotic but added to the excitement of the first night. My legs were tired, and I coulnd't get Sheck Wes' set out of my head. I kept replaying the mayhem we went through. Ant and I returned to our rooms, and as I got a good look at myself in the mirror, after that first day, I just smiled and told myself “You’re actually doing exactly what you said out to do, crazy.”
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