Finsbury Park, London saw the return of the UK’s biggest rap festival on Friday 7th July and I was luckily enough to experience Day 1 & 2 firsthand. So without further a do, let’s break down some of the festival’s coolest moments.
Yeat’s debut performance
The most obvious highlight for most UK trap fans would be Yeat’s debut performance in the UK. Originally blowing up off his debut studio album “Up 2 Me” back in 2021, Yeat has spent the last two years rapidly growing his fan base into an international cult following and its safe to assume that his performance definitely earned him a few thousand more supporters.
The moment that really popped off from his set was his performance of Flawless, a fan favourite from the Lyfe EP released back in 2022. Yeat took off his Margiela jacket and ran down the main aisle of the stage as the crowd went ballistic.
Metro brings out Future
We all hoped, dreamed and prayed it would happen, and it did. As if Metro’s set wasn’t already good enough, playing bangers from his new album HEROES & VILLAINS and classics like Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1, he stirs things up by bringing out the one and only Future Hendrix.
Emerging from the smoke emitted by the fog machines, Pluto casually strolled on stage whilst Thought It Was A Drought had the crowd in the palm of it’s hand. Quite easily one of the festival’s best moments ever.
Lil Yachty performs “Take A Step Back”
In honour of the late rapper XXXTentacion, who was killed during a robbery in 2018, Yachty performed X and Ski Mask The Slump God’s Soundcloud classic “Take A Step Back”, a menacing bass heavy banger that opened up mosh pits far and wide.
After setting off the chaos he had created, Yachty dropped the mic and walked off stage nonchalantly (he was probably smiling from ear to ear as soon as he got backstage).
“The Opium Twins” get the ball rolling
Wireless dubbed the first day of the festival as “Opium Friday” and rightly so, with Carti headlining, the day felt like it belonged to them and that was solidified with the stellar performances of Ken Carson and Destroy Lonely.
Lone was the first artist performance of the day after Kenny Allstar and he got the crowd primed and ready for what the rest of the day was going to be like. Mosh pits, dark trap and rage.
Straight after Lone, was Ken Carson, who helped to stoke the fire that his labelmate started. Songs like “Freestyle 2” , “Yale” and “Go” where fantastic live, and for a man known for few words, Ken sure knew how to get the crowd’s attention and keep them engaged.
He also performed the unreleased song “Kel-Tec (Paranoid)” with Destroy Lonely, which went down as a treat to his fans whom are looking forward to his upcoming project “A Great Chaos”.
Travis Scott sets off fireworks
As the main headliner for the festival it was only right that LaFlame would live up to his nickname. Fireworks blazed through the air as 100,000 people crooned “Antidote” and “BUTTERFLY EFFECT” in a performance that can’t really be put into words (I hate to be that guy, but you just had to be there).
Playboi Carti performs an unreleased song
To everyone’s surprise, rapper turned international rockstar Playboi Carti, previewed a new song called “Pop Out” from his upcoming fourth studio album “Music” and it went off. The instrumental sounded like a more refined and rock-inspired version of “Whole Lotta Red’s” and it was really exciting to see live, especially with a live guitarist.
How long we’ll have to wait for the album though, who knows?
Written by Jake Campbell
