Camp Flog Gnaw 2024: The Best Things We Saw

There’s something heartening about seeing a veteran performer in their element. Few have as innate a knack for storytelling and charisma as the inimitable Action Bronson, whose set Saturday afternoon served as a reminder of just how influential the chef-turned-rap auteur is among the current generation. For a number of songs, Bronson was backed by a live jazz band, infusing his sound with an irresistibly vintage New York sensibility. During “No Hit Record,” when Bronson raps that he had no hit records on his demo, you could feel a sense of something like millennial pride. It’s been more than a decade since the current vanguard of rap superstars got their start, and seeing Action Bronson’s cross-generational appeal was a testament to the thoughtful level of curation at Camp Flog Gnaw.

Saturday night’s headliner was Tyler, the Creator, who, in his festival’s ten years of existence, has managed to mostly avoid the spotlight at the event itself. Now, with a new, chart-topping record, a headlining set was inevitable. Luckily, the timing couldn’t have been better. At this moment in Tyler’s career, he’s making his most fully realized music yet, and his set on Saturday proved it. After running through a handful of popular songs from his new album, Tyler took fans down memory lane, playing hits like “She,” “Yonkers,” and “Earfquake,” before launching back into Chromakopia, bringing out special guest Sexxy Red for their song “Sticky.” While it’s clear that Tyler is no longer the young kid who rapped about being depressed on “Yonkers,” you can feel the continuity in his creative vision as he runs through more than a decade’s worth of music. Seeing the crowd of teenagers and aging millennials alike who grew up on Tyler’s music felt like witnessing a truly generational talent.

The legendary hip-hop producer Alchemist, responsible for Kendrick Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams” beat, delivered a set that doubled as a history lesson, charting through the hip-hop classics he helped architect, all while bringing the next generation of rap greats on stage — Earl Sweatshirt, Mike, and Navy Blue made appearances, along with Larry June and Action Bronson. Like the MF Doom tribute on Sunday, the Alchemist’s set served as a reminder of Flog Gnaw’s roots as a festival celebrating hip-hop, and this year felt like a seamless integration of that originating ethos.

This being the 10th anniversary of Flog Gnaw makes nostalgia about the early days of Odd Future hard to ignore. On-site at the festival this year was a photo exhibit from Brick Stowell, who captured the crew of teenage iconoclasts in the beginning. In those days, Tyler and Earl were something like two sides of the same outlandishly creative coin, and during his set on Sunday, Earl’s trajectory to becoming basically what Tyler is to the mainstream for underground rap felt like a full-circle moment. Like Tyler, Earl seems to be making his most fully realized music to date, flowing effortlessly between styles and cadences. At one point, he brought out the rising Virginia-area rapper El Cousteau to perform their collaboration “Words2LiveBy,” featuring a verse from Earl that set the internet ablaze last month.

Leave it to Kaytranada to get people moving. This year’s Camp Flog Gnaw took place on an unseasonably cold weekend, forcing the massive crowd in attendance to huddle together for warmth. Luckily, the Grammy-winning dancefloor maestro delivered a heart-rate pumping set capable of turning up the heat a few degrees. Even if you ventured away from the Camp stage for a bit during his set, the set had an almost magnetic pull as necks craned in the direction of the music and festival attendees said things like “Damn, he’s goin’ crazy over there,” while waiting in line for funnel cakes.

I did not expect seeing Ma$e perform Bad Boy-era hits (with no Diddy) to be one of my concert highlights of 2024, but here we are. His set at Camp Flog Gnaw on Saturday, in many ways, fit the classic mold of previous years’ events, as Tyler tends to book a few legacy acts to round out the bill primarily made up of newer stars. Early on in Ma$e’s set — which came right before Tyler’s headlining set across the festival grounds, but still managed to draw a sizable crowd — he expressed his happiness with the crowd. “Where do they make people like you?” he asked in a moment that felt genuinely wholesome. There was a contagious sense of joy during the entire performance, as Ma$e appeared to be having a blast getting to perform some of his biggest hits.

Doechii is having quite the year, with her critically acclaimed mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal being nominated for Best Rap Album at the Grammys and her collaboration with Tyler, the Creator on “Balloon” being a high note on one of the best albums of the year. Her set at Flog Gnaw felt more like Doechii revving up her engines than a victory lap. After performing a run of tracks from her excellent mixtape, she brought out special guest SZA to perform their collaboration “Persuasive.” Doechii would hop on stage with Tyler later on that night to play “Balloon” during his headlining set, too. That kind of cross-stage collaboration was a theme at this year’s Flog Gnaw, as all of the performers seemed like genuine friends, giving fans the kind of intimate experience other festivals merely advertise.

During Faye Webster‘s set, someone in the crowd compared the Atlanta-born indie singer to the enigmatic rocker Mk.Gee, whose live show is quietly becoming a global sensation. The comparison is apt, as both artists can channel their raw musical talent into an emotional frequency that captivates you almost viscerally. Even at a festival mainly focused on hip-hop, Webster’s set was a clear fan favorite, which is more impressive when you consider that a major chunk of the crowd at her set was also at the festival to see Carti. Webster’s appeal across genre (and gender) lines is a testament to her music’s emotional depth. She was able to captivate the crowd, who spent the majority of their time at the festival bopping and moshing around, rendering them almost silent in focus.

By now, it’s almost a music festival cliché to see massive crowds for Sexxy Red. The St. Louis rapper has an irresistible charm that translates effortlessly to festival stages. The huge scale of her Flog Gnaw set shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise either, since during Tyler’s set the night before, she hopped on stage to perform “Sticky,” garnering a reaction from the crowd that made the ground shake. While on paper, Sexxy and Tyler seem like unlikely compadres, they’re both cut from the same cloth, with a similarly eclectic energy when it comes to performance. During her set at Flog Gnaw, her music’s appeal was crystal clear. Sexxy Red makes music to have fun with, and in her presence, it’s hard not to oblige.

While Playboi Carti’s long-awaited new album does not seem to be any closer to materializing, he has spent this year far more visible in public than in the past. Just this past weekend, the elusive rapper performed at two back-to-back festivals. On Saturday, Carti performed in Las Vegas for ComplexCon (he probably would have joined Tyler on stage for “Earfquake” that night otherwise), and on Sunday, he closed out Camp Flog Gnaw with a set that, for Carti fans, was everything they could have hoped for. In typical Carti fashion, the performance was relatively short, but he brought out the Weeknd to close the night with their smash hit “Timeless.” The experience of a Carti set is more like a soundbath than a typical concert, and his closing performance at Flog Gnaw enveloped the massive festival grounds in an undeniable aura that felt like witnessing a cult leader lead their flock. All the while, Tyler the Creator stood right in front of the stage, vibing along to the music.