Dispatches from ComplexCon, Las Vegas' hip-hop and fashion extravaganza 

Wed, Oct 29, 2025 (12:05 p.m.)

The Convention Floor 

Full disclosure: I initially signed up to cover this year’s ComplexCon October 25-26 because I saw Young Thug listed as a headliner. Of course, I knew going in that the two-day affair at the Las Vegas Convention Center would encompass much more than just hip-hop. And while I’m admittedly not much of an authority on fashion and influencers, I was determined to get the full experience. 

So, I walked. A lot. There’s a good chance I saw every single booth, which included more than 300 participating streetwear brands, independent artists and designers, plus a handful of specialty vendors like a barber. They peddled everything from sleek, upscale name brands, to vintage throwback jackets, avant-garde garments and plenty of anime and comic book accessories. MTV’s Jackass had a booth. So did SpongeBob. And Air Jordan brought in a semi-truck for one of the convention’s many high-profile sneaker releases. Dozens of vendors like New Era and Ecko Unltd. offered limited-edition merch and giveaways. 

This vast array of retail offerings was broken up by some viral-ready art installations, interactive exhibits and relatively frequent celebrity sightings. I caught crowds flocking around Waka Flocka and Ty Dolla Sign. I saw at least two half-court basketball hoops, the Batmobile, a life-sized Lego racecar, a statue of Blue-Eyes White Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh, several instances of in-use stripper poles and even a clear “bubble” enclosure where marathon streamer Plaqueboymax spent 24 consecutive hours petting his cat, recording new music and probably asking chat if he was cooked. 

The Lineup 

Added to the roster only a week before, Malice and Pusha-T of the legendary rap duo Clipse delivered a densely crafted hourlong set on Saturday laced with enough intensity and surgical bars to fully back Pusha’s assertion that their critically acclaimed 2025 reunion album, Let God Sort ’Em Out, is the “album of the motherf**king year.”  

From there, Mexican superstar and frequent Las Vegas performer Peso Pluma brought in a full band to dish out favorites like “Supreme,” “Lady Gaga” and “Gervonta” across a strong set that showcased his keen ability to blend genres and cultures with his own subversive social commentaries and star power. Along the way, he also got some assists from fellow Mexican artists like Netón Vega and Alemán.  

Surprise guests were central for Saturday’s headliner, Yeat, who had recently introduced his own custom Nike shoe, the Goadome Twizz. Over the course of 30 songs, the California-bred, balaclava-clad SoundCloud rapper successfully went the distance alongside a star-studded cast that included Quavo, Lil Yachty, Sexyy Red, Sheck Wes, Don Toliver and more.   

Sunday’s performances continued with Chicago’s flamboyant and experimental electro rapper 2hollis, who ignited a young crowd in a shorter outing that apparently called for three separate performances of his 2023 hit, "Jeans." U.K. trailblazer Central Cee came out swinging next, issuing renditions of trademark cuts like “Doja,” plus “GBP” and other selections from his most recent project, Can't Rush Greatness. 

For many, the highlight of the weekend came when Atlanta rage-trapper Ken Carson drew a huge crowd that moshed harder than any other. Carson played just 17 songs in about 45 minutes, but he delivered each with a riotous bravado that had fans stomping and swaying over sticky crushed bottles, fake promotional $100 bills and free-sample Shaq-brand gummy wrappers. One fan even briefly rushed the stage before security put him back from whence he came. 

The Headliner 

As I mentioned earlier, I was mostly here to see Young Thug. His performance was one of just a handful following his release from an Atlanta prison about one year ago, and I was eager to see how he’d respond to having all eyes back on him at such a high-profile event. Arriving fashionably late, the unfiltered trap innovator strolled out to the first two tracks of his September release, UY Scuti, before emboldening the crowd with the booming hook of “Out West.”  

King Slime’s hefty 26-song set featured longtime collaborators Quavo and Ty Dolla Sign and a handful of career-spanning hits like “Check,” “Digits,” “Hot” and “Pick Up the Phone.” However, between those highlights, many fans agreed that his mix was too reliant on entries from his latest release—11 in total—while omitting clear mixtape-era bangers like “Lifestyle,” “With That,” “Wyclef Jean” and “Halftime.” 

Though Young Thug's discography is massive, he may have benefited from playing more of the genre-shifting beats off earlier projects like 2015’s Barter 6 and Slime Season 2 and 2016’s Jeffery. At any rate, whether it was because of his song selection, the lingering weight of his legal ordeals, or the fact that people had already been at it for 48 hours, the crowd was far too tame for his liking.  

He urged them to “open it up” and even led a “F**k VIP” chant when he caught that section slacking. He also stopped the show for several minutes on at least two occasions to mingle with fans or ask them to put their phones away and “rage.”  

Some of his old swagger came out on all four of the tracks he played from 2019’s So Much Fun, plus standalone entries like “Family Don’t Matter,” and some of the newer stuff in which he’s obviously channeling very real emotional turmoil, like “Catch Me I’m Falling” and “Sad Spider.” 

However, when he tried to close the show by taking a selfie with the crowd, Thug noticed many were already filing out.  

“Y’all leaving? ComplexCon, thank y’all, I love y’all so much,” he said, shuffling offstage. 

I'm not sure if that qualifies as ending things on high note, but I personally had very few regrets about how my first ComplexCon played out. The best part of all? I didn’t buy a single thing. Talk about a rush.