A few hours before Vince Staples took the stage at the Matthew Knight Arena, 13th Avenue on the University of Oregon campus was surged with the cavalcade of students chanting “Black lives matter!” in the #MillionStudentMarch occurring at several universities across the country.

Staples provided a set with a comparable emotional magnitude, during which he declared, “I feel like Martin Luther King.” His time on stage was a remarkable showcase; the 22-year-old played several brilliant tracks off his visceral break-out album from earlier this year, Summertime ‘08.

Then the Odd Future alumnus went on his own tear against the police, shouting “F— the police” along with the police’s sister, mother, dog, fish, fishbowl, and “the toilet bowl they gonna flush the fish in” and the police’s grandma “who probably owned slaves” and if the police officer’s black, then f— his grandma who “probably was a slave.”

Tyler, The Creator plays his sit song “Yonkers”. A$AP Rocky Performs Live at Matthew Knight Arena (Kyle Sandler/Emerald)

Tyler, The Creator retrofitted the MKA stage with gigantic toy blocks, a toy chest with large stuffed animals hanging out of it, and a monolithic action figure box that read Cherry Bomb, the title of his 2015 LP.

In his shorts, short-sleeve shirt, and green cap, the 6’2” Tyler hobbled and pogoed around stage during “DEATHCAMP” and “IFHY.” He commented on the predominantly white crowd. “This is f—ing scary,” he said, before counting the whites: “2, 3, 4, 5, 6, probably two million up there,” he pointed at the venue’s rafters.

Tyler maintained an ultra-vulgar, ultra-alienating rapport with the audience, all too perfect, what one would want from a Tyler show. “It’s your birthday?” he said to one person in the crowd, clustered together in the front. “I don’t f—– care!” Following this, the entire audience, led by Tyler and Jasper Dolphin, “Happy birthday, f— you! Happy birthday, f— you!” as Patty and Mildred Hill rolled in their graves.

He closed with splendid “Tamale” off 2013’s Wolf, which was an absolute inferno of a performance, before he walked off stage and made one closing remark: “F— Donald Trump!”

A$AP Rocky performs his hit song “Excuse Me”. A$AP Rocky Performs Live at Matthew Knight Arena (Kyle Sandler/Emerald)

A$AP Rocky, ironically, took his sweet time getting to stage after this, which made several in the audience dubious of his namesake. When he appeared, a tall black curtain dropped and revealed a three-story structure built behind it. Rocky climbed a ladder to the second floor and said, with a deep rasp in his timbre, that today is special. It’s A$AP Yams’ birthday on Saturday; he would have turned 27 this weekend. The A$AP Mob founder, and producer on Rocky’s two albums Long.Live.A$AP and this year’s At.Long.Last.A$AP, passed away in January.

Rocky’s set was the most heavily produced of the night, as expected. The visuals to “L$D” were gorgeously trippy and all too real. Even the audience on either side of the stage looked distorted, as if we were all wearing red-and-blue 3D glasses. An arena-wide blackout, soundtracked to ballroom swing music, preceded the stage being redecorated as a neon diner and he played “Jukebox Joints.”

A$AP Rocky put on quite a show for the sold out crowd. A$AP Rocky Performs Live at Matthew Knight Arena (Kyle Sandler/Emerald)

“Shabbos” was followed by “Goldie” and “Canal St.,” sequentially, was an emotional gut-punch. Rocky sat down and reflected on how the Rocky and Tyler tour is all about “imagination and creativity” and how he feeds off the energy supplied from the shows’ audiences. Looking out among the crowd, he said, “I see white people, blacks, asians, and all that other s—.” He was touched that Australians, Caribbeans, Indians, and those of other ethnic backgrounds are always coming to his shows. In brief, Rocky was chuffed about tonight’s turnout.

Then, humbly, Rocky broke into “Electric Body,” and shouted, “Shake that ass girl, make that coochie wet.” And then everyone stepped out into the cold rain, and everyone got their own kind of wet.

Listen to “L$D (LOVE x $EX x DREAMS) by A$AP Rocky and “IFHY” by Tyler, The Creator below.