Rolling Loud welcomed a changing of the hip-hop guard at their latest edition in Orlando, Florida last weekend (May 8 to 10). While the festival was headlined by trap and rage legends Don Toliver, Ken Carson and Playboi Carti across its three-day celebrations, it was the underground scene that truly won big last weekend, with bookings running the full gamut of both US (Bleeeod, Xaviersobased, Nettspend, Che, Osamason) and UK (EsDeeKid, fakemink, Feng, Nemzzz, Fimiguerrero, YT) Ug sonics.

This changing of the guard was taken particularly seriously by EsDeeKid, who recreated a whole medieval castle for his performance on the opening day. Fakemink’s performance, meanwhile, went viral for different reasons when fans criticised his lack of breath control during the set, leading to him posting a series of essays on X in the days following. (For what it’s worth, we think he shouldn’t be so hard on himself – mink’s already a great rapper-producer, and all artists’ talents lie in different places). 

Controversy aside, however, the festival marked a moment of arrival for a new generation of rappers – a generation in which distortion, genre fluidity and, judging by these poses, masked faces reign supreme. 

See all the portraits in the gallery above.