Eight hours before his headlining set at Day 2 of Rolling Loud Miami 2018 even began, Travis Scott took to Twitter to demand that the crowd “come ready to rage,” prematurely rejecting anyone who had plans to be a “bystander.” Also promising a new stage set, La Flame kicked off his performance, debuting two towering, glowing cubes that bobbed up and down alongside him, his DJ suspended high above him and following his every directive.
Trav showed love to his collaborations, delivering his verses on 2 Chainz’s “4 AM” and Trippie Redd’s “Dark Knight Dummo,” pausing in between only to challenge the crowd to create the most perfect moshpit: “We did not come here to watch a concert, baby. I came here to see the motherfuckin’ blood. Wider. Wider. Wider. If you scared, the back is way back there.”
“Butterfly Effect,” the lead single from the upcoming and long-promised Astroworld followed, as did a nod to Kid Cudi with a performance of their Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight cut “Through the Late Night.” He called for two hands to the sky and led a countdown to introduce “Upper Echelon,” punctuated by bursts of flames, smoke, and pyrotechnics.
Though SZA and Miguel didn’t show face, La Flame gave them a shoutout via his bars on “Love Galore” and “Sky Walker,” respectively. He briefly mocked the “falling out” fans who couldn’t hang—”You can’t survive? Get ’em out of here”—but encouraged those who could relate to his next song, with a surprise guest in tow, to let their “pride” and “anger” go. The aptly-titled “Go,” from his joint project Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, followed—as did Quavo.
As one of the first times the duo took the stage together to perform their collaborative effort, they didn’t skimp, delivering the title track, “Dubai Shit,” and “Motorcycle Patches,” all before a stagecrasher managed to barge through security. Calling the kid’s bluff though, Travis force-fed him the mic to finish the lyrics, and then ordered bodyguards to back up, photographers to put their cameras down, and the lights to be turned on, all as a command for the nameless kid to crowdsurf: “Y’all gon’ help a real rager make it to other side.”
“Watch,” the opening notes of “Pick up the Phone,” and “Antidote” marked the beginning of the end. And then, again, a promise: “Astroworld coming sooner than my motherfuckin’ dick can get hard.”
One shout-out to his daughter Stormi later, Scott shut Day 2 down with “Goosebumps,” both real and lyrical.