Playboi Carti brought his “Antagonist” tour to Little Caesars Arena on Halloween night. Detroit was the 15th scheduled stop for the 28-city tour. The Atlanta-born emcee is no stranger to Detroit as he recently opened up for the Weeknd’s “After Hours till Dawn Tour” this past May at Ford Field.
The night started promptly at 7 p.m. as his Opium labelmate Apollo Red kicked things off with a 20-minute set followed by Homixide Gang, Destroy Lonely, and Ken Carson. All four sets were energetic and they immediately induced a mosh pit on LCA’s main floor. Playboi Carti took the stage at 9:50 p.m. rapping “Pop Out,” the opening track from his third studio album, Music which was released on March 14.
Playboi Carti has embraced a darker level of visual aesthetics lately. He’s known for always wearing black, donning a white a mask or face paint. This night was no different and the fact that it was Halloween punctuated such. Many fans wore all black outfits, white face paint, and even Halloween costumes.
Carti’s stage was two stories high and he was constantly surrounded with a crew of hype men who also had on white masks. There were two pickup trucks on each end of the floor used as props. The stage lighting was never directed on him (leaving him in the shadows) and the multiple fog machines kept him hidden throughout the entire performance. Although this was the intended effect, it didn’t make for the best viewing experience.
Carti, a former Soundcloud rapper whose music is full of minimalistic rhyme schemes, is more about generating an addictive vibe rather than being a rapper’s rapper. He has an abstract ad lib style and utilizes spacy beats. He’s built up a cult following over the years and his studio albums Die Lit and Whole Lotta Red have been certified gold, and his 2017 self-titled mixtape went certified platinum.
The night was loud and intense as Carti performed for 90 minutes with no breaks. In fact the night felt like one big musical montage with each song seamlessly transitioning into another song and Carti just kept going, going, and going.
He only broke up the flow of the night once, and that was to bring out Detroiter 42 Dugg who performed “We Paid.” He also brought out his fellow Atlanta native Lil Baby who performed a song as well.
Outside of screaming “What up Doe” at the beginning of his set Carti didn’t provide much small talk. To the crowd’s delight he went through nearly two dozen songs in total for almost two hours. He performed most of his Music albums including songs like “Crank,” “Cocaine Nose,” and “Charge Dem Hoes a Fee.” He also performed others that included “Fein,” “Timeless,” and closed the night out by walking around LCA performing “24 Songs.”