Tariq and Matt
Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif are Rolling Loud. I love these guys. It’s the best American dream story ever. Two guys who love music start promoting small shows in Miami, and not that long after own the Hip-Hop space with massive festivals across North America and into Europe, plus a run of arena and club shows which started this summer. Whenever I talk to them I’m impressed with just how well they understand the only two variables which determine their destiny: how well do they treat the fans and how much love do they show the performers. Their motto for performers is “we’re going to pay you well and we’re going to take care of you when you pull up.” For the performers it’s Hip-Hop Disneyland which is one reason why the acts keep coming back. Matt and Tariq understand theirs is, at its core, a hospitality business in which both the performers and those who come to see them are expecting to be received graciously and made to feel welcome. They are still young enough to remember that they “came out of the mud” just like acts on the bill and the fans buying tickets.
Although there will be three north American festivals this year, each will have its own feel, because the events are in some ways built to let the local culture shine. This allows for fans who attend multiple festivals to experience a different experience each time.
If you can listen to your heart, and ignore your accountant, then the decisions you’ll make will assure a long and prosperous future. There’s a reason the hot dogs at Costco are still $1.50 and the rotisserie chickens remain $4.99. Those little concessions are what bring me and everyone else into the store. The money is made when the cart gets filled with what you notice while walking through the store toward those chickens. For me, that $4.99 chicken often winds up accompanied by a $99 bottle of wine or chased with a really special whisky.
Meanwhile, the tours which Tariq and Matt are promoting have Trippie Redd, Lil Baby, Rod Wave and others heading out on the road. These guys are smart. They started promoting shows in Florida and worked it up to more than 125 dates per year before they pivoted to festivals. This year they recognized arenas were empty and the bigger promoters couldn’t get their acts out this summer. So, exercising their old muscles and before the deluge, the Rolling Loud team took those open dates and filled them with their acts. Tickets are selling. Fans are back in seats and the party is rolling on.
2020 was set to be the 6th year of the Rolling Loud festivals, and expected to break all their prior performance records. However, the Covid-19 surprise flipped the script. These guys managed through the pause and used the time wisely. They built up their in-house media team which plays right to ways in which video drives connectivity. Now, for shows they put out on the road, there are crews to film it all and help build whatever aesthetic they’re trying to create. It’s all for the fans and yet another way in which the ties are strengthened between brand, artist and fan.
The core team at Rolling Loud is seventeen people but festival operations mushroom that number during run up to and during an event. Out on the road Rolling Loud needs a tour manager, a production manager and a few other contracted positions. It sounds easy to mount a tour: hire a road crew, book some dates and watch the money roll in. Reality is not quite so simple, the execution is hard and lessons are painful. The guys know the learning curve can hurt because anyone who came up as they did made every mistake, often more than once. That’s how you build proficiency. And, unlike the old days where all you need was sound, a microphone and a D.J., some of these new tours are going full production with lots of trucks and effects.
I spoke with Matt and Tariq for the True AF podcast. There is so much to like about them, it shines through the discussion. Links are below to watch or listen to the conversation in audio or video podcast format:
Rolling Loud is a lifestyle brand. They are more than just the shows. They have built a community with their consumers and are building new channels to maintain continuity. Just coming out of testing are cloud kitchens with multiple brands for home food delivery. These brands will deliver fried dough balls of different types, wings, hibachi and other concepts still under development. Food from your phone correlates perfectly to the Rolling Loud demographic. And, as the ways in which Rolling Loud strengthens the frequency of its interaction with those consumers increase, the easier it will be to incentivize them to buy more tickets, more merchandise and other add-ons which are not as yet announced.
Tariq and Matt are at an interesting point in their lives, they are big players in Hip-Hop production, and branching from that core success in multiple directions. They are the rare team who recognizes each-other’s strengths and contributions. There is something big waiting just ahead for them. The interesting question is just what that will turn out to be. Stay tuned.
