R&B/Hip-Hop

Doechii transformed the Camp Stage into “the motherf–king swamp,” bellowed her “fairy godmother” DJ Miss Milan, with tree trunks and her native Florida’s foliage dotting the display and grass camouflaging her mic stand. It was the perfect environment to bring to life her critically acclaimed mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal and perform its track like “BOOM BAP,” “BOILED PEANUTS” and “DENIAL IS A RIVER,” with Milan and Doechii acting out the outro’s breathing exercises, their undeniable musical chemistry on full display. The rapidly rising star invited SZA into her orbit to perform the “Persuasive” remix, and the TDE twosome guided the crowd through manifestations like “I’m that b—h,” I’m serving face” and “I love money, and money loves me” toward the end of the song. “I love her so much! Doechii is the future, the present, everything!” SZA screamed before bowing down to the swamp princess and skipping off stage “like a fairy,” Doechii described.

The “I’m makin’ pop and sh–, but I’m still poppin’ sh–” lyric from “PROFIT” reaffirmed her ability to body pop-leaning records like “Persuasive” while still rapping circles around the new girls and even earning praise from Kendrick Lamar. And Milan reminded fans to check the credits, as Doechii the Don, Doechii the dean, Doechii supreme is now a three-time Grammy nominee. And her DJ didn’t skip a beat when she unfastened her red Mary Jane heels so she could painlessly prance around her swamp for the closing track “NISSAN ULTIMA.”

“Kaytranada. Classic. Timeless.” The first three words from “Pressure,” the opening track of the Haitian-Canadian DJ/producer’s third studio album Timeless, set the tone for the biggest dance party of the weekend. First, there’s Kaytranada. He couldn’t resist the groove of his own records, hitting his little two-step from behind the booth and sipping white wine from a glass that, for the majority of his set, stayed perched in an innovative, scene-stealing wine glass stand that was firmly fastened to the table. Second, there were the classics. He mixed in his Grammy-winning hit “10%” and Grammy-nominated “Intimidated” with his fan-favorite remixes of Chance the Rapper‘s “All Night,” Rihanna‘s “Kiss It Better,” and Janet Jackson‘s “If,” the 2012 club rework that started it all for him. And last but not least, there’s Timeless. Kaytra kept the good vibes going by playing “Snap My Finger,” “Dance Dance Dance Dance,” “Lover/Friend,” “Drip Sweat” with his recent tour’s special guest Channel Tres and “Call U Up” with his brother and rapper Lou Phelps.

The Camp Flog Gnaw founder doubled as night one’s headliner and hosted a double celebration: Not only did this weekend mark the 10th anniversary of his festival, but Chromakopia logged a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “Thank all you motherf–kers for supporting me, man, for real. To do that, at my 10th carnival in my f–king city, what’re we talking about?! I don’t even have no heartfelt message. I’m really filled with so much love and joy,” he beamed after running through the first quarter of the project and taking a beat to stroll down memory lane with fan-favorite tracks like “She,” “Boredom,” “WUSYANAME” and more.

And while the diehard fans never stopped rooting for Tyler, he temporarily turned the spotlight away from him and championed the rap girls by twerking with Sexyy Red during “Sticky” (“He was sucking up on my coochie, y’all,” she hollered before leaving the stage) and bowing down to the “motherf–king swamp princess” Doechii after they performed “Balloon” with Daniel Caesar. Read the entire Tyler, the Creator performance recap here.

The sun set shortly before 5 p.m. near the Flog Stage on Sunday night (Nov. 17), outlining the LA skyline and neon-colored rides with a muted orange. But on the opposite side of Dodger Stadium’s parking lot, André 3000 lit up the Gnaw Stage with New Blue Sun, his flute-forward experimental jazz album. He performed with the peace earned from having such a storied career and bucking all expectations of upholding it but still maintaining GOAT status. Three Stacks’ debut solo album, released over three decades after he debuted in OutKast, scored 2025 Grammy nominations for album of the year and best alternative jazz album, while “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time” is up for best instrumental composition. The wind might’ve blown him in a direction that felt foreign to festivalgoers, but André guided them with finesse. He methodically swapped out instruments, from his signature wooden flute to the xylophone, and precisely hit a gong near a perched water glass so the light could refract off of it and create an X-like optical illusion that also radiated shrill vibrations.

After twerking with Tyler to “Sticky,” Sexyy Red took over the Gnaw Stage the following night with a raw and ratchet set of her own — right after André 3000’s serene instrumental medley. Her mic pack bounced at the top of her bedazzled red leggings whenever she shook her ass during “Bow Bow Bow (F My Baby Dad),” and she paused between “Shake Yo Dreads” and “U Kno What To Do (UKWTD)” to put on a bust down watch. “This song got me out the trenches, so help me sing along,” she pleaded before her breakthrough, Tay Keith-produced hit “Pound Town” blared through the speakers, and the thousands who flocked from different corners of Flog Gnaw just to see her didn’t disappoint. In just a couple years, she’s racked up several club anthems-turned-charting hits like “Skee Yee” and “Get It Sexyy.” The 26-year-old rapper didn’t have to rely on her A-list collaborations, but she still made space for them. The music video for Drake‘s “Rich Baby Daddy,” also featuring SZA, where Sexyy rushes to the hospital to give birth to her second child, played behind her while she performed her verse (and sang a little bit of SZA’s), and she didn’t let Drizzy’s absence stop her from doing “U My Everything.” But really, Sexyy is everything.

“Is anyone from LA in this motherf–ker right here?” Mustard asked the audience before proceeding to pop out with an entourage of the city’s hip-hop heavyweights. Tyga was the first familiar face, performing “Rack City” as the stage’s backdrop of downtown’s skyline came alive in the night time. The DJ/producer paid tribute to fallen stars Fatman Scoop and Nipsey Hussle by playing “Be Faithful” and “Perfect Ten,” respectfully. “Make some noise for Nipsey Hussle so he can hear you up there!” he hollered for his friend before playing Drake and The Weeknd‘s “Crew Love” for everyone who came with theirs. As if Kendrick Lamar calling the Toronto rapper a pedophile wasn’t awful enough, Mustard added insult to injury when he yelled “Sike!” while cutting off Drake’s verse and cutting to Future, Metro Boomin and Lamar’s “Like That.” This is, after all, the festival that booed him off stage.

Following a short stint from Shoreline Mafia who performed “Bands,” YG came out for “BPT,” “Who Do You Love,” “Left, Right” and more before Ty Dolla $ign turned up the nostalgia with “Toot It and Boot It” and “Paranoid.” “I really want to do something for the other side of Compton,” said Mustard, as he, YG and Ty Dolla $ign welcomed Roddy Ricch to perform his Hot 100 No. 1 “The Box,” “High Fashion” and “Ballin’” from the DJ booth with them against a very meta backdrop of Dodger Stadium. Mustard also transported fans to Randy’s Donuts, the Santa Monica Pier and other LA staple locations before drifting to Detroit with Big Sean, who appeared for “Big Bank” with YG and “I Don’t F–k With You,” and returning to the West Coast with the big screen illustrating the Hollywood Sign spelling out Mustard’s name while the surrounding hills were engulfed in flames, a precursor to the blazing finale. Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis’ hushed dialogue from the 1999 psychological thriller The Sixth Sense hissed through the speakers before the infamous “I see dead people” line launched Mustard straight into his and Lamar’s six-time Grammy-nominated anthem “Not Like Us,” unfortunately without Dot. But the boogeyman’s presence still felt palpable as the Camp Stage projected a mural of him, Mustard, Hussle, Kobe Bryant and other hometown heroes who, whether they were still with us or not, made Mustard and so many other local attendees proud to be from here.

While the wait for Playboi Carti‘s highly anticipated album I Am Music grows longer and longer, the wait for his return to Camp Flog Gnaw was finally over. The festival headliner mainstay transferred the downhill ramp set design from his ComplexCon performance in Las Vegas the night before to the Camp Stage, where an electric guitarist and Opium affiliate Mitch Modes amped up the King Vamp. Carti’s pixelated guttural screams pierced his cult fanbase’s ears while he ran through “H00DBYAIR,” “2024,” “KETAMINE,” “BACKR00MS” and “EVILJ0RDAN,” all of which he’s exclusively dropped on his YouTube account or his @opium_00pium Instagram page. The only conventional hits he performed were “Type Shit” and “EARFQUAKE,” the latter of which felt like a missed opportunity to bring out the festival’s founder who flew solo on the record the night before. But Carti capped the night (and Camp Flog Gnaw) with another superstar collaborator, as The Weeknd came out to perform “Timeless” for the first time in the US, following the song’s live debut during The Weeknd’s show in São Paulo, Brazil in September.