Who owns Rolling Loud? Everything to know about the music festival's origins as artists like A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti grace the stage

Rappers Playboi Carti and A$AP Rocky headlined Rolling Loud Los Angeles, held at Hollywood Park on March 15 and 16. The hip-hop festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, was started in Miami by co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif in February 2015.

The inaugural show started as a one-day, multi-artist festival featuring performances from ScHoolboy Q, A$AP Ferg, and Juicy J. Over the years, Rolling Loud has evolved into a global phenomenon, with editions in New York, Australia, Germany, Portugal, and Canada, as well as annual festivals in Miami, California, and Thailand.

According to Billboard, Zingler and Cherif's entry into hosting came after the two started hosting one-night-only events and small concerts for artists like Rick Ross and Kendrick Lamar in 2010. However, the ending of the multi-city rap festival Roc The Bells in 2013 created a gap in the landscape of hip-hop festivals that Zingler and Cherif aimed to fill.

In a December 2024 interview with Grammy, Zingler and Cherif discussed the motivations behind launching Rolling Loud, with Cherif saying:

"We realized hip-hop has a lot of subgenres. If we could unite all of them on one show, we could do a bigger show than what we've been doing, charge more for a ticket, but also provide people a lot of value. So we found a warehouse in Miami, and the rest was history."

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Rolling Loud 2015 pulled a crowd of 6500 people

Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif, who have been friends since the 4th grade, decided to host the first-ever Rolling Loud concert in Miami in 2015. In a January 2025 article with Billboard Philippines, they explained that they chose their hometown of Miami as the venue for the inaugural festival, noting that it arose from several artists skipping performances in Florida during tours.

“That’s why our festival was created in Miami. A lot of artists, when they tour – granted, it’s become more of a touring market for arenas and stadiums, but when we were growing up and when we were in college, [they] would skip Florida a lot of the time,” Cherif said.

Rolling Loud 2015, headlined by ScHoolboy Q, A$AP Ferg, and Juicy J, attracted a crowd of 6,500, with tickets priced at $50. The inaugural event faced rain, resulting in a four-hour delay.

In the December 2024 interview with Grammy, Zingler also highlighted how he set up the tents and bike racks by himself ahead of the inaugural show—

"I booked companies to drop off bike racks [and tents]. They just dropped them off in the front of the building, and I had to set them up myself... in Wynwood in Miami, with a pistol on me, at 4 in the morning. There's homeless people and crackheads and s**t. It was crazy as f**k, dude."

Despite its challenges, Rolling Loud 2015 was a success. The following year, the duo hosted the event at Mana Wynwood Production Village, featuring Future and Young Thug as the headlining acts. In 2017, Zingler and Cherif launched the festival in California, conducting two shows, one in the Bay Area and another in Southern California.

In 2019, Rolling Loud was announced for the first time in New York and Australia. After the pandemic, the festival expanded into Europe, hosting events in Portugal in 2022 and in Germany and the Netherlands in 2023.

The hip-hop festival also made its debut in Asia, hosting its inaugural festival in Thailand in 2023, featuring Cardi B, Chris Brown, and Travis Scott as the headlining acts. Rolling Loud 2024 featured A$AP Rocky and Lil Wayne as the headliners.

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In other news, A$AP Rocky headlined Rolling Loud Los Angeles on March 15, 2025, making a grand entrance to his set via helicopter. The Harlem rapper performed a mix of unreleased and older songs, including Tailor Swif and Praise the Lord (Da Shine).

Meanwhile, Playboi Carti headlined the festival's second day on March 16, marking his first live performance since his highly-anticipated album, I Am Music, was released on March 14.