Ken Carson Launches The Xperiment Rollout With Rolling Loud Orlando Set Featuring Playboi Carti, Young Thug and Destroy Lonely

Ken Carson stepped into Rolling Loud Orlando as Sunday night’s headliner after NBA YoungBoy pulled out of the slot on Thursday, May 7. The replacement was announced quickly enough to keep the weekend moving, and Carson used it to introduce the start of The Xperiment era.

The decision fit the lineup already on site. Fellow Opium figures Destroy Lonely and Playboi Carti had performed Saturday, May 9, meaning much of that audience was already in place when Carson took the stage around 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 10.

Carson opened with an unreleased track expected to land on his upcoming LP, then kept moving through the first stretch of his set with songs from his catalog and the anticipated snippet “Grow Apart.” More Chaos, his Billboard 200 No. 1 album from last year, had already pushed his profile forward, and this set gave him another chance to work at a larger scale.

He also brought out a run of guests. Lil Tecca joined first for “Tic Tac Toe” and “500lbs.” Destroy Lonely followed for “The Acronym” and “Singapore,” the latter performed without Playboi Carti onstage. From backstage, Carti responded, “That’s my song, too,” in a quipped from backstage moment that underscored how tightly the Opium orbit stayed connected across the weekend.

Young Thug also surfaced during the set. Billboard spotted him eating Popeyes near the festival earlier in the weekend, and he reappeared for Carson’s performance of UY SCUTI cut “Yuck” before taking the mic for “Digits.”

Carti closed out the guest list in the final stretch. He swapped the YSL suit he had worn for a 2Pac T-shirt, leather pants and white Air Force Ones. The pair debuted two collaborations, including “ARP,” which uses Carti’s deep voice flow, and “Cover My Ears,” which leans into the distorted, Whole Lotta Red-style production that has become a marker for both artists.

Carson also teased short snippets of “Boil” and “Stars” before ending with another unreleased track, one shaped by 2hollis’ “Girl.” In one line, he pushed back on the way listeners keep filing him under a single lane: “No matter what I make, they gon’ call it rage,” he raps.

As the set ended and the weekend wound down, one fan summed it up plainly after coming out of the moshpit: “That was the greatest set of my life,” he told a friend. Carson’s recent tour stops have already looked chaotic in the best sense, and after scoring his first No. 1 album last year, he now has a rollout built around momentum rather than patience.