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Lil Uzi Vert is a rockstar. They'll tell you that on multiple songs, but on Saturday night, they lived it on stage as the headliner of a stacked hip hop bill to close out Summerfest 2024. While the night also featured big names in support from Lil Yachty, J.I.D. and Rico Nasty, Uzi didn’t have to do much to show you why their name was biggest on the marquee, as well as why he’s a festival favorite.
One of the challenges of booking hip hop at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater for Summerfest as of late has been the fact that more artists are willing to travel solo from festival to festival, and summer touring packages aren’t as commonplace within that realm. That usually ends up with hip hop shows at the Amp booked like pickup basketball games; a hodgepodge of names that in theory work together, but all bring something different to the table. On Saturday, all four of the main acts (as well as Milwaukee’s own 414BigFrank and J.P. who opened) brought something unique to the biggest stage at the festival, and they all complemented one another from a style perspective.
Rico Nasty opened the main portion of the night up, with a vicious set that both understood her role on the bill as well as won over some new fans. With a grimy flow and a delivery that bordered on screaming at the crowd, she was determined to get the crowd to pay attention to her, and was very successful in doing so. Pacing back and forth without addressing the crowd very much, she focused on ripping through material as fast as she could to maximize her time on stage. It was a smart approach, considering the Amphitheater was beginning to fill in, and even though she’s a veteran at this point, she knew that she could benefit from every new set of ears that walked into the seating bowl.
Dreamville artist J.I.D. followed, and much like the night’s headliner, proved his worth as a festival staple. While the crowd was still waking up it seemed, the Atlanta rapper got people to their feet by the end of his set, rapping with precision and poise on tracks like opener “Never” and “Surround Sound,” at times assisted by his lyrics rapid-firing on the LED screen behind him to break down his lyricism in real-time. Before his time was up, fans in the pit up front were moshing along, with an inescapable energy coming from the stage.
The biggest surprise of the night, however, may have been an on-point performance from a matured version of Lil Yachty. Far from the bombastic, red-haired Soundcloud phenom of his earlier days, he ran through tracks from his brand new album “Bad Cameo,” while focusing on much of 2023’s “Let’s Start Here” as well. The biggest pops, though, came when he unleashed verses from a string of features, including the DRAM cut “Broccoli,” followed immediately by Kyle’s “iSpy,” both tracks being the biggest of their respective careers thus far. As soon as one beat ended, the next dropped, and Lil Boat kept it going for much of his duration on stage without pause.
The night began to turn, however, following that string of notable Yachty features. While it could have been that he played his hand too early, or simply that fans were trying to get a jump on bathroom and bar lines before the headliner, there was a noticeable flow out of the mostly-full Amphitheater after “Broccoli.” Some fans took seats, but the majority of the lower bowls were still on their feet, bouncing along to whatever Lil Yachty had to offer them. It could have, also, just been a matter of fatigue for fans that were in for a barrage of hip hop for nearly four hours at that point.
At the top of it all, though, was Lil Uzi Vert, who had the Amphitheater crowd in the palm of his hand from the moment the house lights went down. They could simply do no wrong for the majority of the Amphitheater crowd, with a sea of phones recording and Snapchatting every move. The opening montage of tracks would include fireworks, flamethrowers, and steam cannons, and Uzi would run to the wings of the Amphitheater barricade to get up close and personal with a legion of adoring fans. While backing tracks rang out, Uzi would scream along as encouragement to get the crowd going even harder, playing the role of his own hype person.
That, however, would be the plan for the majority of the night. When you have the better part of 20,000 fans to sing every one of your words back at the stage, you don’t have to do much work. Frankly, Lil Uzi Vert didn’t on Saturday, opting to keep the mic to the side for roughly half of their verses, and playing the role of head curator of vibes instead of trying to out-rap the rest of the bill. At one point, they rolled the microphone to the side, for production to replace it with a new one, but that didn't seem to really be the issue. What they lacked in vocal performance, they made up for in energy, by running from side to side on stage for the better part of 45 minutes, stoking the fire of a crowd that didn’t need much coaxing.
“I’m a weird dude, and I’m gonna continue to be weird” Uzi told the Amphitheater crowd, to a roar. The set was certainly unorthodox, with only projections of stars on the main screens to the side of the stage, and none of the Amphitheater’s main screens showing Uzi to the upper levels of the venue. Whether the goal was trying to create a more intimate atmosphere, or simply trying to hide in plain sight, it didn’t seem to affect much of the crowd, who were just happy to be in the presence of the self-proclaimed rock star. Much of the party was soundtracked by songs from 2023’s “Pink Tape,” though older material garnered the loudest responses from the crowd.
While from a performance standpoint, Lil Uzi Vert may have been flat, the crowd was anything but, and that’s all that you can ask for from a contemporary hip hop show at the festival level. The night closed on “XO Tour Llif3,” arguably Uzi's biggest hit, before “Pink Tape” track “Just Wanna Rock.” Uzi explained that he was going to continue to rap how they wanted, dress how they wanted, and act how they wanted, and there was nothing that was going to change that. It felt like a rallying call for the crowd, just before things wrapped up for the night. There was no testing the loyalty of the fans on Saturday night, and if that was ever in question, all you had to do was listen to the thousands of voices carrying lead vocal duty for the duration of Lil Uzi Vert’s set on Saturday.
