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Earlier this year, YG Marley became the sixth Marley family member to hit the Hot 100 when his breakthrough hit, “Praise Jah In the Moonlight,” reached No. 34. Now that Buju Banton and Vybz Kartel are back outside with us, both reggae and dancehall could be in for seismic shifts in the next few months and years — the kinds of shift the genre struggled to come by for most of the past decade.

With a set that upheld the integrity and legacy of traditional reggae while highlighting his idiosyncrasies and the cross-generational appeal of his family, YG Marley held it down for the West Indies at Rolling Loud Miami. Not only did he treat the crowd to his own records, but he also brought out his mom — Ms. Lauryn Hill — for a cameo that included renditions of Fugees classics such as “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Though the festival’s primary demographic seemed worlds away from “Killing Me Softly,” a cover as enrapturing and as timeless as this one always finds a way around.

While YG repped reggae, award-winning “Talibans” singer Byron Messia did the same for dancehall, an awesome moment for both Miami’s Caribbean immigrant community and the future of Rolling Loud as it brings more genres and styles under its banner.

Sexyy Red has continued racking up hits this year — and three of those songs earned some of the most fervent crowd reactions of the weekend. “Get It Sexyy” sparked a cacophony of handclaps that could rival an earthquake, while her verse on GloRilla‘s “Whatchu Know Bout Me” activated Dirty South energy throughout the packed crowd. But it was her somewhat surprise rendition of Tyler, the Creator’s “Sticky” (No. 10) — which became Sexyy’s first Hot 100 top 10 hit earlier this year — that truly delighted her fans. There was a lovely moment of pause that the crowd took to process what song was being played, and once it clicked, they rapped along to every last word of her verse. The only time the audience got even louder was when Sexyy brought out Orlando native Hotboii to perform on “Don’t Need Time.”

Featuring a notable shift away from the Trump-nodding imagery of some of her past performances as well as markedly improved staging, sequencing and pacing, Sexyy Red’s set was the work of an artist who’s truly applying the lesson they’ve learned from past performances to future ones.

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” may be the track that tied the all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 (19) and launched his career to stratospheric heights, but Shaboozey has a very important chapter in his career that precedes that song.

In 2022, Shaboozey released his second studio album, Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die, which housed notable songs like “Tall Boy,” “Beverly Hills” and the Garzon-assisted “Why Can’t Love Be the Reason.” For his Rolling Loud Miami debut, Shaboozey treated the predominantly hip-hop crowd to a special set of his songs from his markedly more hip-hop-inflected sophomore LP. “Performing a really rare set of songs from my last album at [Rolling Loud] tomorrow for probably the first and last time ever,” he wrote on X on Dec. 14.

Musically, it was a smart choice to do a special set for Rolling Loud, but watching Shaboozey win a crowd before touching his biggest hit was a stunning reminder that he truly works magic on stage. From rapping “Sticks and Stones” with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in hand to serenading the crowd with “All Men Die,” the Virginia native expertly threaded together the story of his catalog. In addition to Cowboys Live Forever, Shaboozey also performed “Drink Don’t Need No Mix” (with BigXthaPlug) and “Last of My Kind” (with Paul Cauthen) from this year’s Grammy-nominated, Billboard chart-topping Where I’ve Been Isn’t Where I’m Going LP.

Part of the reason JT landed at No. 8 on Billboard’s Year-End staff ranking of 2024’s Hottest Female Rappers was because of the strong commercial performance of her debut mixtape, City Cinderella. Serving as her verst first post-City Girls solo full-length project, City Cinderella peaked higher on the Billboard 200 (No. 27) than every single one of the albums JT made as part of her former duo. City Girls’ impact on the Miami hip-hop scene and the eyeballs it brought the city after their breakout is a major part of their lore, so it was particularly moving to see the Rolling Loud Miami crowd embrace JT as a solo star in the hometown.

In between executing slick choreography to “Uncle Al,” rapping every word of “No Bars” with the utmost conviction, and taking a well-deserved victory lap to the soundtrack of “Okay,” JT had a few moments where she dropped the sheen of her stage persona to take in the thousands of adoring fan screaming for her and her solo music. She’s been on tour for the majority of the year, and the improvement in her overall stage presence — let alone the composition of her sets — is incredibly promising for what 2025 will bring her way.

Talking about a new Playboi Carti album often feels like trying to verify the existence of a mythical creature. But for a few moments during his headlining set at Rolling Loud Miami 2024, I Am Music felt more tangible than ever before.

Building on the trend of elaborate stage shows sparked by Future and Travis on the festival’s two preceding nights, Carti rocked the Amazon Music stage with a setlist that mixed sneaky teases with his biggest hits. After kicking things off with a pair of unreleased tracks expected to appear on his Whole Lotta Red follow-up in some capacity, Carti tore through some of his most recent drops such as “H00DBYAIR” and “Ketamine” as well as chart-topping collaborations including his turns on Future & Metro Boomin’s “Type Shit,” Travis Scott’s “FE!N” and ¥$’s Rich the Kid-assisted “Carnival.” “This my song,” he proclaimed before jumping into “Carnival.” “Every song I’m on is my song.”

In terms of his stage show, Carti proved himself an incredibly physical performer who used every part of his body — from hanging himself upside down in true vamp fashion to letting out guttural growls and shrieks into the microphone in place of ad-libs. He was surrounded by a somewhat unsettling crew of bald dancers whose bare heads helped spread light across the obsidian stage. Controlled chaos and darkness were the governing energies of Carti’s set, and that’s exactly what his dedicated moshers embodied in the crowd. While Carti’s set was visually arresting and aesthetically addictive, the tiring teases, lack of concrete news regarding the new album, and absence of guest appearance (save streamer Young Dabo) created a level of hype that was simply insurmountable. At least the new Weeknd collab he teased at the end of his set sounds like a worthy follow-up to “Timeless.”

Whether you’re measuring Future’s year by his three Billboard 200 No. 1 albums, his rap battle-sparking and now two-time Grammy-nominated “Like That,” or his arena-packing We Trust You Tour — 2024 was one of the best of the rap icon’s career.

To commemorate his banner year, Pluto tore through some of his biggest hits — including 2012’s “Same Damn Time,” 2014’s “F–k Up Some Commas” and 2022’s “Wait For U” — while ceding most of his set to this year’s Mixtape Pluto. As its title suggests, Future’s latest project thrives in the cavalier grittiness of his mixtape mode; fans reacted particularly strongly to his renditions of “Lil Demon,” “Told My,” and “Plutoski,” whose wordless utterances reverberated across Hard Rock Stadium.

Before he even began his set, a decoy Future walked across the stage while engulfed flames before the actual rapper came out of a recreation of the Dungeon Family house to an introduction calling him “the biggest rapper in the world, Mixtape Pluto.” And that is what he undoubtedly was for the duration of his set. Although he did perform some of his biggest collaborations, Future rarely played anything other than his own verses or hooks from those songs — a not-so-subtle reminder that your favorite song is probably your favorite song because of something he did on the track. With impressive stamina that helped him cover over a decade’s worth of music, Future’s 2024 Rolling Loud Miami set helped set the tone for the innovations in set design and the evolution of rap stardom that would be on display throughout the weekend.

Travis Scott’s 2024 Rolling Loud Miami headlining set belongs in the pantheon of all-time great festival performances. Yes, it was really that impressive.

Before a single note left his mouth and reached his microphone, Travis played an introductory video interlude that found him landing a helicopter on the roof of Hard Rock Stadium and riding in a SWAT tank to the main stage. What was remarkable was that the video seemed to be streaming in real-time, which is perhaps best illustrated by the crowd’s heads collectively ping-ponging between the visible helicopter atop the stadium’s roof and the cinematic visuals on the stage’s screens.

The grandiose opening expertly prepared the crowd for both Travis’ elaborate set (complete with grass, makeshift mountains, multicolored lasers, and pyro that seemingly shot out of the crowd and toward the stage) and a cameo from none other than Oscar-nominated actor and screenwriter Owen Wilson. “I’m feigning for more,” he screamed to kick off the “FE!N” section of Travis’s set, which found the rapper playing his Carti-assisted Hot 100 top 10 hit (No. 5) over five times in a row. Owen’s surprise appearance came as he was filming scenes for his upcoming R-rated comedy film, Rolling Loud, at the festival earlier in the day. Written and directed by Jeremy Garelick, the film is expected to star Wilson, Scott and comedian Matt Rife.

One of the most successful and acclaimed live performers in hip-hop history, Scott has a level of lore, allure, expectation and wonder attached to his shows that most artist spend their entire careers trying to achieve. For Travis, the beauty of his stage show is in the amount of attention he pays to every last detail — from each blade of grass to the audio levels of his walk-off song to the angles the drones capture for the big screens. The greatest festival sets test the boundaries and expectations of what can be done at a festival, and that’s exactly what Travis’ did from a production, logistics, and stage design perspective.