Vlone, Slatt, and the Punk Rock Aesthetic of Playboi Carti

“Slatt! Slatt! Slatt!” Playboi Carti screams this at the top of his lungs as kids of all races open up the mosh pit. A circle forms and just as everyone is ready, the heavy, distorted 808s of “wokeuplikethis*” fills the speakers of The Roseland Theater. Everyone goes crazy as Playboi Carti screams the lyrics in 30 second increments, taking breaks to prevent an asthma attack.

Inside the pit, kids are covered in sweat, pulling each other’s clothing and throwing elbows. There’s a punk rock aesthetic to his shows that presents itself in the crowd and the overall intensity of the show. The cover for his most recent project, “Die Lit” is a picture of Carti doing a front flip into a crowd of people in leather jackets, and mohawks. Even Playboi Carti is aware of the punk rock style his music and shows have and puts it on full display. In the music video for his song “R.I.P.”, a song that’s driving sound is a distorted bass line that muttles the other instruments in the song and even Carti’s own voice, features a crowd similar to the one on the cover of his album. The video is in black and white and features him in the middle of a crowd shoving, punching, and elbowing each other covered in sweat and blood. While I thought maybe this was just the image Playboi Carti had decided to showcase his aesthetic and not carry on to a real world setting, that was not the case.

Buried deep in the crowd at the concert I was surrounded by people aggressively dancing, elbows out, reciting all the words to his songs while trying to make skin to skin contact with anyone within a one foot distance of themselves. When songs like “Flatbed Freestyle” and “Shoota” came on me and one of my friends that attended the concert would grab onto each other and push each other away as hard as we could. At one point when Playboi Carti was up on the balcony section of the venue, someone threw a shoe and it proceeded to bounce off someone's head and the heel hit me directly in the eye. One of my friends that attended the concert got elbowed in the mouth and continued to dance as blood filled inside his mouth and drip down his shirt. Within the first minute of Carti being on stage, I watched the crowd part as a kid about my age was helped out of the pit, limping on one leg, while his face was ghostly white. I got the sense from this concert that injuries were not only expected at his concerts, but even in some ways welcomed.

While this extreme intensity took place in the crowd, Playboi Carti watched from the stage, and when he was not screaming the words to his songs, he was smiling, looking, watching the bodily destruction of some couple hundred kids as they suffered dehydration and a bevy of several different injuries.

After the concert I was interested to know how other people felt about the concert so I interviewed a couple people. I interviewed my friend Maria Castro-Mendoza about the concert, asking her a couple questions:

In terms of intensity and atmosphere, how did this concert compare to other concerts you have been to?

Way more high intensity, most concerts aren’t like that. By the time you get there, everything is really loud, and dark, and it was full of people. The energy is really high. It’s a consistent energy, other concerts a certain song will play and the energy will be like that, but this concert, it was like that the whole time.

What was the crowd like to you? Did you feel like it was unsafe?

Physically it was not safe, because of the moshing, but that is expected. But, it was a sausage fest and people took advantage of being so close to people. But, I mean people expected to leave with injuries so I didn’t feel unsafe.

I also interviewed my friend Oliver Merten, I asked him a couple questions:

You’ve been to an Xxxtentacion and Ski Mask concert, they also have a punk rock aesthetic to their concerts, how did the energy compare to this concert?

The aesthetic of the Playboi Carti concert was less violent, and that was very evident in the mosh pit, people were less focused on inflicting pain onto others and focused on having a good time and dancing. The energy was a lot more positive. I felt a lot safer at the Playboi Carti concert than I did at the Xxx (tentacion) concert.

Playboi Carti’s music and atmosphere carries a certain intensity to it, that I personally had not seen in person before, but watching old videos of punk bands like Minor Threat, and Black Flag I saw a very similar crowd. With his music, there is a return to minimalism, repetitive, catchy lyrics over seemingly simple beats that chug through and make you want to just go crazy. Playboi Carti concerts are about being yourself and having fun while he screams the lyrics at you on stage. He wants you to live your life having fun, he wants you to “Die Lit.” Playboi Carti strives to keep the idea, and atmosphere of punk rock shows, and culture alive and so long as he keeps touring he will do just that.