Rolling Loud recently released the lineup for their 2026 Orlando festival, happening this May. Fans of the rap festival are upset by the lack of veteran performers, such as Lil Uzi Vert. Instead, they are giving this year’s focus to emerging underground artists. Fans are also confused by the departure from Rolling Loud’s Miami location, moving to Orlando for the first time in their ten-year history. This has sparked backlash, as many artists featured on the lineup are not known to the mainstream.
Lineup and Location
The lineup was announced this January, featuring Don Toliver, Playboi Carti, and NBA Youngboy as headliners. Carti has previously performed at Rolling Loud five times, making him a recurring name. The artists featured also include emerging underground British rappers such as EsDeeKid and fakemink. This year, the festival will be held in Orlando at the Camping World Stadium from May 8 to 10.
Rolling Loud History
Co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif founded Rolling Loud in 2015 after hosting after-party shows. The Florida natives worked their way up from throwing house parties to hosting one of the largest hip-hop festivals in the world, according to Complex. The festival quickly became a staple in the rap world, with attendance in 2025 reaching up to 70,000 people and 2026 expected to exceed this.
Rolling loud was first held in Miami and primarily held shows there. However, since 2019, Rolling Loud has hosted festivals in multiple US locations as well as worldwide. As Rolling Loud has expanded internationally, they have scaled back US shows, such as the prominent dates in New York and California. This year is the first time Rolling Loud will be held in Orlando, and according to the founders, future locations are not set in stone.
Location Change
This move from Miami to Orlando came as a surprise, fans spoke out about the change of location and venue. As Rolling Loud draws in large crowds from all over the country, fans are concerned that the new venue will not be large enough to hold the capacity expected. Issues regarding concert capacity and safety have been growing over the past few years since the events of Travis Scott’s Astroworld incident, making this a large point of concern for this year’s event.
Lineup Controversy
In addition to a change of location, this year also features a change in lineup. Instead of featuring past artists, a new generation of artists who have not yet broken through the mainstream are included. Artists featured range from bigger names in the underground, like Nettspend and Destroy Lonely (who is signed to Carti’s opium label), to British underground rapper Feng. Feng recently signed to Capitol Records, causing controversy with his former manager. The lineup also features Chicago native Adamn Killa, who has recently gained traction online for his dances on TikTok. Despite touring with longtime friend Chance the Rapper, many on TikTok are not even aware that Adamn Killa makes music.
This year’s roster has caused discourse on the quality and caliber of artists featured. Many are upset by a lack of names familiar to the festival, noting the absence of artists like A$AP Rocky and Future. This has caused a divide in the rap community, with fans of the underground claiming that rap is an incredibly diverse genre and they need to diversify what they listen to.
yo i’m crying 😭😭😭😭😭 rolling loud with a generational fumble pic.twitter.com/kLrR7enowg
— shotta (@ShottaSV) January 14, 2026
Rolling Loud and Uzi
One of the notable artists absent this year is Uzi, who many fans speculated would make an appearance. Fans were led to believe that Uzi would perform after Rolling Loud replied to a post on X showing an old Instagram story of Uzi’s. The post explained why they would not be at Rolling Loud. Rolling Loud responded by saying they made up with Uzi shortly before the lineup was announced. After fans reacted to the lineup, they felt that this was a tease to generate hype.
General admission passes for all three days of Rolling Loud 2026 have already sold out. This shows that despite the controversy, the festival will arrive in Orlando in force. While many may not be aware of certain artists featured, it is likely that they will break into the mainstream. This echoes the Freshman classes of 2016 and 2017, who have dominated the rap game.
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