“I remember when Instagram meant a sack of bud in an instant.” — Now a social media outlook for anyone to display what they’re into or up to. For @MisterCap, a proper slew of papers, Converse high-tops, and snapbacks would now be laid out for any fan to double tap and support the Taylor Gang Or Die movement set out of Pittsburgh. His first days where he took over the underground with clear diction and a chill, attractive persona were his snapback days. From first mixtapes to 2006’s Show and Prove to what most would call his best work (it hurts to say) to date – Kush and OJ, it was obvious that Wiz Khalifa offered promising talent with clear and polished diction, a city to rep well, and plenty of style and quality beats to back both.
Khalifa even handled the rise to fame well at first. Out of his studio came plenty of collaborations with Curren$y and Mac Miller, more papers, more caps, and was one of the first to make mixtapes just as important for an MC as an EP or LP. True to his roots and vices, his lyrical themes have always been centered around the green goddess herself and how administered/ often remedied, and his second and third favorite colors to mark his love for his home – the infamous black and yellow P for Pittsburg. Go back and watch the video for Cabin Fever’s “Taylor Gang”. We get an electric, black and white portrayal of a day in the life of a Taylor, hold your fingers up already. Wiz was on top, offering relentlessness to his very craft. TGOD ruled the underground rap scene, led by Khalifa, “a young nigga who handle his”. But every hero’s rise reaches its peak eventually.
It wasn’t until Khalifa started trying on new hats that his peak seemed to be reached, and at an almost screeching halt. Some would say it was his mainstream breakthrough that followed the excellent Cabin Fever tape with Rolling Papers. It was his first project to offer Wiz’s newest cap – his take on pop. “Roll Up” may have been catchy as hell, but to go from the shady, sedated Cabin Fever to this label-lead, bloated outcome of an album didn’t fly with his set-in-sand following. Instead, the old following was traded for a new one filled with plenty of middle schoolers who have never chiefed, and vodka crazed high school girls who would go to blast “No Sleep” on the way to the goddamn mall.
What came to follow was this new Wiz who wasn’t after TGOD so much anymore, but after the subtle and catchy hook and learning how to sing. His many ventures from this point would have him dating the one and only Amber Rose, part two projects, and trading in the snap for more of a fedora type. They say you can’t teach a dog new tricks, but they neglected to mention the fact that dogs teaching themselves new tricks proves even more difficult. One old trick Wiz won’t quit is the promotional mixtape he’ll release before his next album. In this case, we had the wretched, intolerable single “We Dem Boyz” back in February to promote Blacc Hollywood, Khalifa’s next LP. But the setbacks on its release, apparently, are due to the now called “Trap Wiz” being thrown in the overnight tank, in which he posted (from jail) “#FreeTrapWiz,” further promoting what was released as soon as he was, 28 Grams.
The freshest mixtape from Khalifa sits at 28 tracks; an enduring project to say the least, even for a free download off datpiff. After just track one “Aw shit”, where he reminds his listener that 28 grams is an ounce, we wonder if he either has forgotten who sits in his audience, or knows them entirely and thus knows they need reminding of what would have been easy knowledge for anyone downloading Kush and OJ a few years ago.
An artist who becomes comfortable with his or her fame and status is an artist who will prove to show minimal growth as they continue to create. Other than the pleasant EP collaboration last year with Curren$y, Live in Concert, Wiz hasn’t had much happening until now. We’ve been presented another seeming advancement in his craft while keeping up with modern trends – trap. Filled with lazy auto-tuned hooks that drag on, simple trap claps and plenty of “producer intros”, 28 Grams seems to be just another project where Wiz can talk about how he only smokes papers for yet another time. He has pushed his fans out of their comfort zones, as he steps out of his and into his take at what TGOD music can be now.
“How To Be Real” represents pretty firmly where Wiz, excuse me, Trap Wiz, now stands with his own music. Not only one of the worst hooks you’ll hear all year, next to “We Dem Boyz,” but “If I didn’t have a deal/ I’d still have a meal/my niggas thuggin out in public/ fuck it/ I guess no one showed you how to be real” isn’t even as bad as how he portrays it. We can’t help but wonder if Wiz even cares if his followers even take pleasure in his music now, since he knows either way it’s going to be listened to by somebody – hence the metric system reminder right off the bat.
The meat of the mixtape is unsharpened and unpolished, Wiz just trapping and trolling along about the same old thing, in a new way that does not work for him. The other portion of the tape features the Wiz that we all know and love – but perhaps T-Pain should be called in to engineer the new auto-tune Wiz attempts throughout the project, because shit’s not working out. “On a Plane” features an absolutely delightful vocal sample, and could easily be a Rolling Papers b-side. “Something Special” show-and-tells a jazzy atmosphere with a Thundercat feature. But from start to finish, these breaks, one could call them, are simply a relief from the washed up majority of the tape, where Wiz persistently insists to make his new tricks work.
Surely it’s all in good fun though, as Mac Miller’s newest work Faces bumps at 24 tracks, and wasn’t necessarily intended to be listened to all in one sitting. The same could be said for 28 Grams, as we pick and choose the ones we vibe to, tolerate, or can’t stand – it’s all relative. Take the oversized project as you will. Perhaps Wiz should have picked up a complete idiot’s guide to Trap Music on the way to the slammer, I’m sure the cops wouldn’t have minded much since they already allowed him to tweet from his jail cell. Once in the cut, now in the trap, I can guarantee this won’t be the newest cap that Wiz Khalifa tries on. We’ve all been hat shopping, and you know as well as I do that nobody really looks good in a fedora. But whether he can rock his next hat or not, it’s been made clear now that Khalifa is still going to wear it.
5.4
– Zilla
