Playboi Carti Had Mosh Pits Going All Night at Sold-Out Fort Worth Show

Playboi Carti’s Antagonist Tour stopped in Fort Worth on Friday (Nov. 21), and Dickies Arena was shaken to its core with the intensity from every performer’s set. The pit was flooded with fans donning all black and foaming at the mouth, all ready to rage.

Carti’s Opium collective and its affiliates (Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Homixide Gang, and Apollo Red) have steadily cemented themselves as the future of trap music and one of the most influential groups for today’s youth. The fanbase is one of the few that can legitimately be called cult-like, with some of the most dedicated and diehard fans in hip-hop. Ironically, their behavior online closely mimics the parasocial obsession that Taylor Swift fans are known for, although their vamp aesthetic couldn’t be more different.

The sold-out show was something of a social event for concertgoers. Groups of friends could be seen at every corner snapping a photo for Instagram or circling in the pit to hype each other up as they moshed to the music.

The drive to Fort Worth from Big D was well over an hour with traffic, but it might be the closest concert Dallas fans get for a while. Aside from his spot on The Weeknd’s After Hours Till Dawn Tour in Arlington back in August, Friday’s show was his first North Texas headlining concert since 2018, when he hit South Side Ballroom.

Apollo Red, the newest artist signed to Carti’s Young Vamp Life (YVL) label, which differs from the main label, Opium, and Homixide Gang, opened the show with quick and energetic sets. Then, “LOCK IN” started, and Destroy Lonely ran out to an onslaught of applause.

Lonely floated around the dark stage like a silhouette through pink smoke while he performed “screwed up.” The rapper was bursting with energy and didn’t hold back.

“How you feel, Dallas?” he asked before dropping into “how you feel.” The audience chanted along word for word as he ran sporadically across the stage.

The same treatment was given to just about every song in Lonely’s set and those that followed. As soon as an instrumental started, fans jumped right in bar for bar and the pit went crazy.

Lonely undoubtedly gave the most energetic performance of the night. He seemed to run out of breath and almost lost his voice hyping up the crowd, screaming “Dallas!” over and over to increasingly loud cheers.

“There’s a lot of beautiful people out here, it’s a great night,” he said to the crowd. “If you woke up no stylist, say ‘Hell yeah.'”

The whole arena shook as he started into “no stylist,” his most popular song to date. The Atlanta-born rapper then left the stage, and there was a brief pause before the next act came out.

Two long columns of fire arose behind Ken Carson as he walked out to “Lord of Chaos.” The pit reacted accordingly and soon became a whirlpool of human bodies.

Except for the lights at the top in front of the stage, the arena was mainly lit by the light from everyone’s phones. It genuinely seemed like everyone was recording the entire show, and the room would get noticeably darker as people in the pit put their phones down to mosh.

Huge pillars of smoke and fire shot out with every beat drop, explosively lighting up the dark room while Carson calmly strutted the stage. He commanded the room with ease, inciting the arena into a frenzy with a shrill “What the fuck?!”

Everything from the floor to the nosebleeds quaked when he played “Lose It,” “ss” and ”i need u.” The crowd was a sea of various black fabrics, flailing arms and iPhones, but moved surprisingly in sync. For some songs, they jumped in place or ran in small circles, but for tracks like “Me N My Kup” and “Rock N Roll,” it was pure Armageddon, and everyone seemed to be on the same page about it.

Carson played a near non-stop set, then swiftly exited the stage to uproar.

After a relatively short wait, the lights went out, and Carti took to the stage in full vampire attire, sporting a white button-up shirt and a black jacket over black leather pants. The music had seemed to get louder as the night progressed, and by the time Carti came out, it was deafening, but those in attendance couldn’t have cared less. People without earplugs surely went home with lasting damage to their hearing, but the show was damn near worth the tinnitus.

Carti’s posse danced and swung around lights on top of two semi-trucks protruding from the stage as he performed “FREE THROW.” One guy hopped on a smoking pickup truck in the pit and danced as the crowd surrounded him, shaking the vehicle back and forth.

Strobe lights flashed violently as Carti performed “K POP.” The arena could feel the heat from the flames shooting out behind him as he rapped “EVIL JORDAN.”

Some earlier acts ad-libbed through a good portion of their songs, but as far as we could tell, Carti seemed to rap almost every track word for word. Maybe he took it to heart when The Weeknd called him out during their tour for not singing his verses on stage.

He played through most of I AM MUSIC as well as some of his older songs and tracks he’s featured on, like Future’s “Type Shit” and Travis Scott’s “FEIN,” which sent everyone into a frenzy.

The place exploded when he played “Stop Breathing” and “Rockstar Made,” two classics off of 2020’s WLR, an album fans thought would never be released. Carti ended the night with a stream of throwbacks, including “Sky,” “Shoota” and “Location.”

Looking back at Carti’s self-titled album, it is clear that he has undergone numerous musical and stylistic phases; however, despite these changes, his success and influence remain undeniable. The unreleased track, rumored to be titled “Made It This Far,” served as a fitting exit anthem as he walked out through the pit in between droves of screaming fans. We don’t know when we’ll see Playboi Carti next, but if the show is anything like on Friday, we’ll drive as long as it takes to be there.