Rolling Loud Miami lived up to the hype brewing from the moment they first announced that they had a “huge special surprise guest” for fans this weekend. Pretty much everyone chalked it up to being Meek Mill who had just recently had his travel restrictions lifted after being released from prison following a highly-publicized fight to have his lengthy sentence overturned.
Initially, fans were greeted with a set from DJ Khaled who breezed through cuts before bringing out his own special guest Puff Daddy. It may have initially disappointed a few fans waiting on Meek’s appearance, but before vacating the stage Khaled provided a bit of foreshadowing, telling the crowd that what’s about to happen will be “historic.”
Soon after a period of silence, Philly’s native son finally appeared on stage.
“It feels good to be back and free in front of the mother-cking people,” Meek declared. “I want to say thank you to everybody that support Meek Milly. They tried to take my freedom. They tried to crush my dreams, but now we in Miami gloin’ the f-ck up.”
Midway through, he definitely settled back into the performance mentality cutting a track short to call out the sound engineers. “I need some sound. Whatever y’all do soundman, get that shit right. We can’t f-ck up tonight.”
He went on to lead the crowd through tracks like “I’m A Boss” and “FU (F-ck You)” before shouting out the members of the new school, saluting all new and upcoming rappers before inviting Gunna and Lil Baby onstage for a rendition of the former’s “Oh Okay.” He’d soon ask that the crowd to pull out their cellphone lights for a tribute to the late Lil Snupe with Meek’s “We Ball.” He’d perform his “1942 Flows” then invite Tory Lanez onstage for a performance of the duo’s “Litty” before allowing Lanez to go solo on his “Shooters.”
Naturally, we know what came next, before taking a breather by letting the crowd rock out to Tee Grizzley’s “First Day Out,” Meek appropriately led the tens of thousand of fans into the streets’ favorite anthem when he launched into his “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro).”
“That’s my time,” he declared before delivering on a final thank you to the crowd.
Tonight, Travis Scott headlines the second day of Rolling Loud before fans return for a Day 3 that will feature names like Future, Post Malone, 21 Savage, and Lil Wayne to close out the festival on Sunday. Catch all the action by way of the livestream.