Allegations of violence surrounding high-profile artists — a 2022 domestic-abuse charge levied against Lil Uzi Vert met with a plea of no contest, and a 2023 felony aggravated assault charge against Carti was later reported as dismissed — imply that abrasive views on these records come from somewhere real and worrying.

Twenty minutes later, the show was back on, with the Weeknd crooning “Rather Lie” and “Timeless” surrounded by Carti’s Opium crew while pyro and chugging guitars flared around them. Carti fans come for the chaos — is the rest of the music industry ready for him on the A-list?

Playboi Carti came to play with his new album Music. On Friday, the same day the rapper dropped his long-awaited third studio album, he also broke a Spotify record. The audio streaming giant shared on Saturday that Music became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2025 so far.