Tyler’s Camp Flog Gnaw Year 10 Intersects w/ Chromakopia Number 1

A long hike up the hills of Elysian Park is a small price to pay for the view from the top. Three massive stages situated in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium and boasting a wildly impressive hip-hop centric lineup, Camp Flog Gnaw celebrated its 10 year anniversary this past weekend and sold out well in advance, and the lineup wasn’t even announced until a month before the festival.

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From legendary acts to tributes, DJ sets and soulful serenades, Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival is a uniquely curated exhibition of mainstream and underground artists, youth culture and untethered creative expression. The fan engagement and level of commitment to the art is evident in the way the incoming fans have chosen to dress. It’s early November and we’re up on a hilltop so everyone is a bit bundled up knowing that once the sun goes down it’ll be about as cold as Los Angeles is willing to tolerate. Workwear, faux fur and puffer jackets are out which would make a New Yorker giggle to see how dramatic we are about the shift into cooler weather. Among the masses it’s fairly common to spot assorted variations of Tyler drag – the Igor blonde bowl cut wig was a favorite and early in the day a loose one could be seen flying into the crowd from the spinning tilt-a-whirl carnival ride.

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We camped out & waited at the main stage for Doechii at my request. In fact, I was the obnoxious one anxiously texting my festival companions to hurry up so I wouldn’t miss her. For being a late-stage millennial, I am chronically online and admittedly a big Tik Tok enthusiast which is the main reason I’d be so insistent that Doechii was going to be a major inspirational takeaway for the weekend. I knew she wouldn’t disappoint and I got EXACTLY what I needed.

“Flog Gnaw, they said they want me to RAP!” Doechii screams as she takes the stage just a little after 3PM on Saturday. Supported by DJ Miss Milan, the FairyVibeMother, both clad in head-to-toe Miu Miu & throwing ass as the sun set behind the LA Skyline. The stage behind her is set to look like marshland in keeping with her Swamp Queen branding as she hails from Florida originally, made evident in her track names off the latest album. Boiled Peanuts, Catfish & Bullfrog – if you know, you know. We truly love a self-aware bad girl and that’s precisely what Doechii is serving. She doesn’t have to work half as hard as she’s working to convince us that she’s as real as it gets when it comes to rappers in general, the whole ‘female rapper’ trope need not apply.

Despite owing a decent percentage of her success to her popularity on Tik Tok, Doechii is here to do business for her damn self. Tik Tok is just a catalyst for a very public rise to success, starting out posting her music to SoundCloud as a high school student in 2016. It’s clear from the size of the crowd she garnered even with an earlier set time that she’s not an up-and-coming artist but she’s already arrived. The livestream & Youtube comments will have you thinking the audience was asleep but it’s a case of everyone being absolutely FLOORED, too stunned to speak and not wanting to miss a minute.

I’d hate to be the dude who did Doechii “dirtier than laundry”, referenced on the track Denial Is A River. “Put a finger down if you ever been in love. Now put a finger down if you dated a guy and he cheated on you and he ended up being DL and then he broke inside of your house and he crashed everything and now you’re talking about it in public in front of thousands of people – just me?” It’s that relatability and animated storytelling with an upbeat delivery that makes Doechii so intoxicating onstage. Her subject matter is diverse – covering everything from infidelity to the struggle of being a woman in hip hop and being disrespected by everyone from your hometown to record label executives yet somehow coming out on top of the world with four grammy nominations and crowds of people screaming the lyrics to an album less than three months old. Notably, she is the first female artist of the 2020’s nominated for the Best Rap Album category – win or lose, that is a HUGE DEAL and extremely well-deserved.

As a special treat, SZA joined Doechii onstage to perform their 2022 song Persuasive together to a swelling fanfare for the duration of the number. Doechii’s sharp delivery in stark contrast with the buttery smoothness of SZA’s vocals creates a state of suspended animation that kept the gathered fans swimming in the warm golden light of the last of the day’s sunshine. She’s doing tireless work up there – throwing ass and delivering some of the hardest bars available among the whole Flog Gnaw lineup. Just as I was wondering how she was serving so hard in her red stiletto maryjanes, the Fairy Vibe Mother rushed to her rescue to get her into her stocking feet without missing a beat.

Flog Gnaw is for the kids & one of the few all-ages multi-day festivals that L.A. offers but it caters to an extensive demographic, melding new talent with classic hip hop acts like Action Bronson playing alongside a live jazz ensemble. I have to hand it to Tyler for choosing to surround himself and the Camp Flog Gnaw brand with artists who are so multidimensional and have feet in the door of so many different ventures. I truly almost forgot that Action Bronson was first and foremost a rapper, having focused a lot of attention on his VICELAND projects like Fuck That’s Delicious and Traveling The Stars–I can’t be the only one–Still, he packed the side stage for an intimate downtempo backlit with the last few rays of the setting sun and into the cool darkness of the evening.

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Each individual aspect of his performance when standing alone would seem a little silly – like how do dolphin sounds, hazy animated horse visuals and rapping about pornstar Teanna Trump sucking multiple cocks mesh with the smoothest jazz accompaniment you’ve ever heard? I wouldn’t know how to start to explain something like that to an objective third party but I saw it working successfully with my own eyes. Action Bronson is so effortlessly cool – it isn’t even remotely surprising that people will legitimately watch him watch TV as a form of entertainment. We owe everything to that broken leg he suffered back in 2011 prompting him to focus on rapping instead of his chef career. I am pleased to announce that he’s entirely unburdened by the injury as demonstrated by his ability to touch his toes onstage while performing the track Latin Grammys.

A hypnotic black and white spiral signaled Vince Staple’s entrance to the carnival. A Compton native and long-time Odd Future collaborator, his performance was a highly anticipated aspect of the Saturday night festival lineup. In his signature fashion, he took the stage in an unassuming all black outfit – a hoodie and a baseball cap. The visuals rotated from the hypnosis into a vintage style racially charged caricature cartoon face, self-identified as Kogang with whom Staples feigned a bit of back-and-forth dialogue. The monochromatic and minimalistic visuals are a stark reminder that Vince is here to do one thing – deliver a prominently unsanctioned eulogy, rife with bold lyricism and valuable insight. No distractions, Vince wanted us to just listen and learn. With a little hint of humor, he asked the crowd “Do y’all like really fuck with that real n*gga shit?” followed up with “lotta white people here said they like “real n*gga shit”. He’s not wrong, so much of his body of work centers around racial tension and inequality in a lyrically assertive manner. A little jest at the expense of his fans is warranted if not expected, as that’s Vince’s brand – truth thinly veiled by a bit of teasing… Or is is teasing with a slight glimmer of truth? Who is to say except Vince himself and a true magician never reveals his tricks.

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Perhaps his most easily recognized song, Norf Norf, brought the audience to life, everyone chanting “I ain’t never run from nothing but the police”. The song is a tribute to part of his upbringing in the neighborhoods of Long Beach, CA, where he’s been vocal about his involvement with gang activity in his formative years. More recently, he’s lent his platform to and provided funding for The Youth Institute that teaches graphic design, filmmaking and other technical ventures to young people in the area. Another dramatically multifaceted artist, undeniable talent with a poignant message who hasn’t strayed from a true sense of humility and grounding. As he rapped in the song, Big Fish–“Shoulda been dead broke, shoulda been chalked out // But that didn’t happen now it’s time to get it crackin’”–which can be interpreted as a signal that his work is far from peaking and far from over.

A stark contrast to Vince Staples’ consistent poetic flow style, Denzel Curry absolutely stormed the stage to a crowdswell of movement and fanfare. Those who had put their jackets on or their hoods up were stripping down again after the opening number, some seemingly hadn’t been brought to their feet all night until Curry demanded they do so. His style closely mirrors the dynamics of rap metal – abrasive and highly effectual, it’s impossible to deny the adrenaline rush that his music merits. Once Curry launched into Black Flag Freestyle, there was a tangible surging crowd push towards the stage as more people packed into the back. His throwback 2019 track Ricky had everyone singing along to the loop “My daddy said “Trust no man but your brothers and never leave your day one’s in the gutter” – one of his earliest successful and easily recognizable releases to date alongside Ultimate, which is considered his “breakout hit” that peaked at 38 on the Billboard hiphop charts in 2015.

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As another deeply multifaceted Denzel Curry has collaborated in the past with a number of notable artists from various genres like bass music producer Ekali, who produced the song Babylon, and a feature on Glass Animals’ song Tokyo Drifting. He’s even given a highly favored Tiny Desk Concert performance, just pure energy and flawless execution every damn time. He’s still young and as I watched him leave absolutely everything on the floor (as he has been known to do every single time), Denzel Curry is just getting started but has already branded himself as a rap powerhouse and captivating performer.

First honorable mention goes to Daniel Caesar, a blessing from heaven that we could only dream of deserving. It was the kind of set where the crowd is so quiet you can hear a pin drop in sheer reverence and sentimentality. It’s the deliciously satisfying neo soul sound that gives his art such a staple in rotation for a cross genre audience.

Second honorary nod to the eternally GOATed Kaytranada. If it’s a dance party you want, a dance party you shall have with his eclectic blend of R&B, pop and hip hop – an entirely unique take on house music. He’s ridden this train onto some of the biggest stages in the world, coasting on every melody with an effortless cool factor.
People were not moving to his set but he seemed entirely unbothered – he plays for himself, plays what he wants to hear – we’re all just lucky to be there and should act accordingly.
At one point, he even STOPPED HIS SET to call for a medic before dropping the beat in one of his most recognizable bops, Just Wanna Be Your Girl.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about Tyler, The Creator that hasn’t already been said or isn’t just accepted as public knowledge. It has become apparent in the past decade that he has cemented his position as one of the most pervasively influential multimedia creatives of our generation. With unmatched humor, impeccable sense of style and ever-expanding musical catalog he’s graduated from cult classic to mainstream innovator and earned the respect of even his toughest critics. The release of Chromakopia comes at a point in his career where he stands in a league of his own, no other hip hop artist has taken risks or given as much of themselves as a part of their art in quite the same way as Tyler and though Chromakopia could be considered his Magnum Opus to date, that very well may change as he is far from finished when it comes to showing the world what he can do. His willingness to fight his demons to the death and offer all of us front row seats is what makes him absolutely untouchable while retaining a relatable quality that those of us who have followed his career from its inception value deeply. This latest album has illustrated how he has replaced vengeance with vulnerability, hostility with humility and contention with connection – with himself, his audience and his artistry.

The performance itself was awe-inspiring despite the simplicity of the concept. Tyler arose from the emerald green smoke donning the mask and green suit from the album concept art. The set list included almost the entirety of the new album tracks and a number of popular throwbacks. He was joined onstage by a number of contributors to the new album – notably Doechii and SexyyRed. Tyler LOVES his girls which drives the point home that he has grown not only as an artist but as a human being. His formative years were marred in controversy over misogynistic and homophobic lyrics which speaks more to an internal identity struggle than it does any practical application of anything he was saying as it was clearly never intended to be taken literally. While keeping his sexuality ambiguous, he has taken on a much more mature tone and strayed away from slurs and abrasive lyricism in his more recent work.

Starting as far back as his Flower Boy, Tyler has incorporated more female talent and channeled a softer energy in tracks like See You Again featuring Kali Uchis, a crowd-pleaser that he ended his Camp Flog Gnaw set with. The obvious juxtaposition between some numbers from years prior in contrast to this new album give supporting evidence to Tyler’s growth. He performed the song, She, off his second studio album, Goblin, where he talks about stalking the object of his affection, the desire to drag her ‘lifeless body to the forest’. Inversely, the third number on the Camp Flog Gnaw setlist was Noid from the newest album in which Tyler himself expresses feelings of being stalked and the fear of being followed.

The topics breached on the Chromakopia album speak a message of self-actualization predicating a sentiment of hope and acceptance that we have seen gently formulating as Tyler’s career has flourished. He’s come a long way from the loud gangly skater boy that we fell in love with during the Tumblr era and presumptively most fans would speak to this growth with a sense of pride and admiration as we have grown with him and experienced each new era in real time. While Tyler was nearly brought to tears onstage addressing the audience and thanking them for the ten year successful run of the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, it was hard not to cry along with him. His immeasurable talent and graciousness is so raw and so tangible, how could we not?

Words: Aria Silva- Espinosa