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Wiz Khalifa: Rap’s Romantic

That Wiz Khalifa had one of the biggest rap singles of 2011 with a song called “Roll Up”, which was one of the cutest love rap songs instead of an ode to weed reads like a parody rap headline. Produced by Stargate, those quality Swedes who produced Wiz Khalifa’s biggest hit “Black and Yellow” & Rihanna’s great “Only Girl (In the World)”, might account for the fact that the song and its sun-soaked music video would haven’t sounded out of place on the Disney channel, which instead of being a reason for derision by rappers and rap fans alike, it should have received more praise for being one of the best and bravest rap singles of the year. 

Last year, there had to be some irony lost on people who dismissed Wiz Khalifa major label debut, Rolling Papers, declaring he sold out instead of sticking with the type of music he had been previously making (I had my problems with the album, but looking back I protested too much against it). Wiz Khalifa for the last few years has primarily only made love songs exclusively about girls and weed; this could be a description for plenty of lesser and better rappers that working exclusively in this lane. But reducing the number of ideas he could be working with eliminated conflict the primary motivation force for so many rappers (and for that matter most artists) is lost on Wiz. Pain and the struggles of life are topics that do not enter the music of Wiz, because why would he want to worry about such bummer things when he has pounds of weed to keep him giddy.

I am sure Wiz Khalifa’s life entails more than smoking weed and having sex, but whenever he mentions girls in his songs all they ever want to do is smoke weed and have sex with him. The opening song, “Memorized”, from his 2010 breakthrough mixtape Kush and Orange Juiceduring the chorus goes “These bitches stay memorized, as they recognize I keep it so G.” I am sure this could be describing some girls, but these “bitches” sound an awful like Wiz, as they want to admire his taste and lifestyle, which is essentially the only thing he is selling as a rapper. But, the choice of the word “bitch” seems strange for a dude, who is not describing people he dislikes or hates, because they are essentially him. 

An influence of Snoop Dogg, Max B, or just youth probably accounts for the constant references of women as bitches, but it is more annoying than most cases to hear from Wiz Khalifa, who makes some of the poppiest radio friendly rap music right now. On “Racks (Remix)” he even says to look at this socks, the gold streak across his hair, and even raps “naps on naps on naps”. When he says “probably some girls that want to fuck a young nigga”, it doesn’t remove the Nickelodeon quality of saying to stare at the gold streak in his black hair. He is bragging that he is doing something different (and easily mocked for it at that), and proud of enough of it to call it out in this song, which is different than the usually rap put downs—which Khalifa himself does engage in. But, it is pretty easy to relate to a guy who brags about the number of naps he takes than the number of girls he is having sex with then ducking out afterwards. 

Most rappers use their pain and struggle through their life to motivate their music, whether if it the usual hood-to-mansion story or even Childish Gambino talking about racial stereotyping affecting his life, but Wiz Khalifa doesn’t really operate in this tradition. There is no pain, strife, or conflict in his music, which makes it far more interesting than an average weed rapper should be. But, this kind of makes sense for this Rap Romantic, who has no need for the street conflict that most rappers never leave and while some might rush to mock Wiz for being “soft” or “weak”, the truth is that adding a pistol and group of a couple dozen hanger-ons doesn’t improve a rapper’s music and it certainly wouldn’t help Wiz Khalifa, who enjoys flying planes and drawing his name in the sand with his favorite girl. 

Top 50 Songs of 2011

1. DJ Khaled (feat. Drake, Rick Ross, & Lil Wayne) – “I’m On One”: I have done a 180 on this song since I first heard it. Drake’s chorus began ringing too true and one day I looked at myself and formed some meaning behind Drake’s “with my skin tanned and my hair long”. Looking back on the year, whether on my best days or worst mornings this song would always find its way into my ears.

2. Waka Flocka Flame (feat. Gucci Mane, Wooh Da Kid, YG Hootie, Ice Burgandy, Slim Dunkin, Lil Capp, & Frenchie) – “2 Deep”: “The smell of blow on my motherfucking clothes nigga”, “Put your lips on the curb, make you bite the street”, “Came to the club on that bullshit”, “The choppa hanging on my shoulder looks like a violin”, “Knock you out, swear you had Ciara’s feet dancing on you”, “I push the line, I think I’m Suga in ‘95”, and one last line “They gone find him in a lake, while them boys fishing”.

3. Rustie – “Ultra Thizz”: Listening to the song at high volumes is best decision you could make with your life. No question. The best decision you could make.

4. Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”: A pure pop rap love song, whose music video is pinker than a Target on Valentine’s Day. Yet, more than a half a year since it arrived on pop radio it still puts a stupid grin on my face just before I go to rap the entire song.

5. Travis Porter – “Bring It Back”: Even if you wanted to get off the dance floor, once this song comes on the only option is to keep on going for another 3 minutes and a half minutes.

6. Clams Casino – “Motivation”: (Insert whatever amazing magical adjective you would use to describe music here, because honestly my mind is still blown away each time I here this).

7. Chris Brown (feat. Busta Rhymes & Lil Wayne) – “Look At Me Now”: This is Chris Brown’s song, but the only two people really matter here: Lil Wayne and Diplo. Hopefully, this song becomes a creative inspiration for young producers, so rap radio doesn’t have to suffer from another year of “B.M.F.” clones; if you’ve written off Lil Wayne this verse here has more energy than a mix of Ciroc and Sprite or any song he has recorded in the last few years.

8. Jeremih (feat. 50 Cent) – “Down on Me”: 50 Cent displays a control over Drumma Boy’s beat that makes me wish he was the main artist of this song, and while Jeremih’s vocals are probably the reason for the song reaching the Billboard Top 5. The real star of the song is Drumma Boy, who is as underrated a rap producer can be and yet still able to produce genuine pop hits.

9. Ke$ha – “Blow”: There are three simple reasons why Ke$ha’s club specific Dr. Luke songs is better than everyone else’s party obsessed Dr. Luke produced work. Auto-tune, unicorns, and attitude. I’d also wager it has more to do with the auto-tune and attitude, but having unicorns certainly don’t hurt.

10. Grimes – “Vanessa”: (Music Nerd Moment #1) I have no idea what to say about this song, except that it sounds pretty and I am pretty sure Grimes is my favorite person making music right now.  

11. Mindless Behavior (feat. Diggy Simmons) – “Mrs. Right”: In a rap context, this would be a fully formed Young L beat would sound like. In a pop context, this should be Missy Elliot’s next single. In an electronic music context, this would have been remixed by Kyle Hall and given credit for throwing back to the 80s with a modern twist. But, nope. This is a really strange R&B track sung and rapped by some teens, so of course no one besides pre-teens cares about it.

12. Mr. Collipark (feat. Ying Yang Twins & DJ Kool)– “Let the Beat Hit”: This song begins with blaring whistle then proceeds to throw obnoxious synths, DJ Kool, the Ying Yang Twins, horns, and something that sounds like an old Detroit Techno record all on the same track. Only a few people were probably involved in the production of this song, but it sounds like at least a 100 were needed to finally realize the song.

13. Swindle (feat. Roses Gabor) – “Spend is Dough”: This song isn’t on Youtube. So, look it up on Spotify or iTunes or just take my word that it is the best song radio hit that never touched American airways, even though you could have heard it on the UK’s Rinse.FM.

14. Miguel – “Sure Thing”: Chopped and Screwed vocals paired with sweet verses by Miguel, yeah there is no way I’d change the radio dial if this song came on.

15. Cobra Starship (feat. Sabi) – “You Make Me Feel…”: This song performs a little trick that it seems recently a lot of pop music has forgotten. Emotion. Without Sabi the song would pretty limb, but she adds intensity and drive that the song needed to be memorable at all.

16. YC (feat. Future) – “Racks”: Have you done the “Racks” dance? If not, watch the video. Do the dance. Then appreciate America nearly getting this song into the Top 40 (it sadly peaked at no. 42).

17. Drake – “Look What You’ve Done”: Number of times played: 25. “And I leave out and you call me, you tell me you are sorry/ You say you sorry, and I love you, and your hearts hurts, mine does too”. Number of times stopped, so I don’t breakdown in tears: 3. 

18. Jay-Z & Kanye West – “Niggas in Paris”: What do you listen to: bored with homework, just returning home from brunch, or are you getting ready for a night out? For one friend it is just one song: “Niggas in Paris”. The number of plays could get excessive, but he pointed out the amount of joy that Jay-Z and Kanye must get to play this song so many times night after night made even the most random midday play of the song a cause of celebration, as it really does get the people going.  

19. Lil Wayne & Kreayshawn – “Gucci Gucci (Mash-Up)”: Over the summer, rap stations I listened to could not stop playing “Gucci Gucci” and tracks from Sorry 4 the Wait, so why not combine the two. The final result, Kreayshawn’s questionable brand putdown verses pair with some good old Lil Wayne nonsense on top of dubstep! In shorter terms: awesomeness.

20. Juicy J – “A Zip and a Double Cup”: Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. Just in case you didn’t know Juicy J like telling you that he does drugs, and I enjoy listening.

21. Rich Boy – “All I Know”: “All I Know” or “All I Need” is a cop-out name for an introspective rap song, because forces the song to be an all or nothing me against the world declaration. Which, is exactly what the paranoia filled “All I Know” is, but with Supa Villain’s chilled keyboard work and synths it is hard to not want to give a pass to Rich Boy for indulging in the cliché.

22. Drumma Boy (feat. 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane, & Young Buck) – “I’m On Worldstar”: Drumma Boy is a great producer and an average rapper. This song is a great example of this fact, and while all of the verse sans Gucci’s are pretty lacking, I could and have listened to this song on a near hour long loop, because of the beat.

23. EMA – “Anteroom”: This isn’t the most intense minute of music this year, as that goes to EMA’s “Coda”, but some simple guitars and a lot less noise it is an effective 3 minutes from an album that emotionally never lets up.

24. Washed Out – “Soft”: If there was a single word to describe Washed Out music, “soft” wouldn’t be a bad one. That isn’t to mean that it is weightless or unimportant, but when Green’s voice and synths blanket your ears “soft” isn’t a bad word to run to and use.

25. Cities Aviv (feat. Fille Catatonique)– “Black Box”: Pleasant relaxed production. Appropriately introspective lyrics. And has a good live show. Someone get this guy a record deal ASAP.

26. Royal T- “Orangeade”: 2011 was a great year for the grime record label Butterz, but every time I listen to this Red Bull, orange soda and vodka mix of a song. I cannot help but hope more people in the United States start paying attention to these guys, because imagine any rapper over this song. Just imagine!

27. T.I. (feat. Big K.R.I.T.) – “I’m Flexin”: Simply put. This is the type of comeback single rappers should seek out it sounds fresh on the radio and displays an energy and hunger announcing the return of a rapping force.

28. Wiz Khalifa – “Roll Up”: Who is the softest rapper in the game? The fuck if I care. Even as a joke, reading and hearing about the softness of rappers makes my skin crawl, because a song like this is better than 99% of what was on the radio, streets, or internet this year. It might be a bit overly cute, but that is something I don’t mind saying regarding to a rap song.

29. Rittz (feat. Yelawolf & Big K.R.I.T.) – “Fulla Shit”: A lot of rap songs by their inherent nature are kind of assholish—I mean do I really want to hear a song about a rapper having sex with someone’s girlfriend, one would expect me to answer “no”, but my iPod clearly says differently. So, here three excellent rapper fess up to being jerks and explain in great detail how and why they do it.

30. Waka Flocka Flame/Travis Porter – “Clap” & “Clap (Remix)”: First, the production by DJ Speedy is the type of weird woozy track that used to be the exclusive soundtrack of Bricksquad before a young kid named Lex Luger came along. And while, I love Waka’s comparison of jewelry to a variety of drugs, it is Travis Porter’s stripe club focus remix that is the definite version of the song.

31. Mouse on tha Track & Killa Kyleon – “I Got Tha Power”: This is not too far from Mouse’s previous hits of “Zoom”, “Wipe Me Down”, “I.N.D.E.P.E.N.D.E.N.T.”, but five years later radio stations are less receptive to this sound, and instead Mouse is just performing in clubs, releasing mixtapes, and letting what should be at least a regional hit song languish on Youtube.

32. Danny Brown – “Lie4”: “What the fuck I got to lie for?” and “I got that income tax swag” are not phrases I would expect from a rap song. Then again, Danny Brown is nothing if not always subverting your expectations and he does it so effortless on with Skywlkr’s five styles in one beat (again, this is a very very twisted Travis Porter song with less singing).

33. Katy B – “Movement”: While, none of Katy B’s singles mattered in the United States pop landscape, this sadly was her only single to not even chart in the UK. The track is some breezy fun that is hard to find fault with unless a nice evening out to the club with your friends is what your nightmares are made out of.

34. Foxx – “Gold Mouth Dawg”: Loud energetic synths and a heavy southern drawl. I would say more, but this song is called “Gold Mouth Dawg”, I think you already know if you like this song.

35. Hercules and Love Affair – “My House”: I am not sure whether people still like or don’t like Hercules and Love Affair anymore, and while this is a House song called “My House” it is still leagues ahead of other revivalists acts and even original house songs I come across in seeking out the original work that inspired songs like this one.

36. Lupe Fiasco (feat. Trey Songz) – “Out of My Head”: Lupe Fiasco released the perfect rap summer single. Which I, and I bet Lupe and his record label, didn’t see this one coming when the year started even with a great Trey Songz’ hook.

37. Oneohtrix Point Never – “Replica”: Daniel Lopatin, you made a really good song. I wish I could say more, but I just cannot right now.

38. Araabmuzik – “Streetz Tonight”: (Music Nerd Piece #2) A cheesy trance song remixed to MPC hell and sound like what I always wanted to soundtrack my 2 am drives home. Music dreams do come true.

39. Ace Hood (feat. Rick Ross & Lil Wayne) – “Hustle Hard (Remix)”: One of the few rap songs on the radio that acknowledge recent economic struggles. But, that doesn’t matter on the remix because it is all about Lil Wayne’s verse (“Swagger just dumb, call it Kelly Bundy”) and Lex Luger’s rising synths and dour keys.

40. Dev – “In the Dark”: I’ve enjoyed this song since the first time I heard it listening to a Los Angeles rap station online in February. The song took a while to catch on nationwide, but it finally did which means that lovely sax riff did not get restricted to just car radios cruising around L.A

41. Lil Wayne (feat. Cory Gunz) – “6 Foot 7 Foot”: For a brief second Lil Wayne sticks his tongue out during the music video, and this ridiculous song is nothing if not just Lil Wayne sticking his tongue out at the rap world by more-or-less remaking “A Milli” and just throwing out whatever metaphor he can think of and hoping it works. At least for me it worked even better than the original.

42. Big K.R.I.T. – “Dreamin’”: Even if Big K.R.I.T. wasn’t a more than an average rapper the instrumental of this track could do more than carry the emotional weight of the song, but Big K.R.I.T. is a becoming a great rapper and this shows that growth.

43. Trouble – “Bussin’”: Just listening to the audio of this song looses a lot of the menace of when you watch the music video, and you see Trouble surrounded by his partners toting a ridiculous number of guns. Then again, the metallic beat with its gun loading sound paired with Trouble’s unflinching eyes is probably enough to put fear in most people.

44. 50 Cent – “Happy New Year”: The new 50 Cent is not quite the 50 Cent of a decade ago, but he is still one of the rap world’s biggest asshole villains. A role he embraces here by laughing at himself and his ridiculous life, which dims the jerkish quality that has always been a part of 50 Cent’s music.

45. Stuey Rock (feat. Future) – “Shinin”: I called this shit “auto-hop” earlier this year, and you know what for my first attempt at a genre name, I don’t think it is too bad. Also, it is a pretty accurate description of this pure sugar sweet hook filled song that happens to have a little bit of rap thrown in.

46. Teeth – “Frequencies”: It’s bleak. It’s scary. It sounds like the opening credits for a horror movie based in the woods, so if you preferred your club music to be as dark as the club you are in listen.

47. Pains of Being Pure At Heart – “Belong”: One day I am going to go back to listening to the Smashing Pumpkins and maybe the second time around they will click for me, but until then I am happy enough listening to those influenced by the Pumpkins and get lost in these larger than life guitar sounds.

48. J-Green – “Weed, Pills & Promethazine”: I don’t think there is one part of this song that is not stolen from an old Three 6 Mafia song, which normally would be cause for damning a song. But, J-Green figured out a way to connect about two decades worth of Memphis rap in one giant mash-uped song, and song title references 3 different drugs, so you know somewhere Juicy J is smiling listening to this.

49. Meek Mill (feat. Young Chris) – “House Party”: Meek Mill is pretty great at being Meek Mill. So, as long has he keeps doing party tracks that begin with him fucking a chick with the water running while the girl’s friend is asking to go the bathroom, he will always have a fan in me. Well actually he doesn’t need to do that, but it is a memorable way to start a song.

50. New Boyz (The Cataracs & Dev) – “Backseat”: There are two good things about this song: the Cataracs production and Dev’s emotionless chorus. So, that leaves a lot of the rest of the song to filled with subpar rapping and singing on the part of the New Boyz and Cataracs, but you know some songs only needs a good hook and beat. 

chaseaftersomething asked: who are your favorite music journalists/bloggers ?

In regards to the original question, I am not going to list my favorite music writers or journalists, because let us be honest clearly the blogs I read before I started writing here were Cocaine Blunts, So Many Shrimp, and No Trivia, so honestly I do not really feel like going through just listing those guys in some stupid list alongside some New York Times and New Yorker writers. Instead, I am going to post some articles that are the backbone of how I think about rap music (and most other music for that matter) or at least I feel influenced how I write about music.

So here we go:

David Drake The 30 Best Gucci Mane Track of 2008 Intro: In Ben Westhoff’s book Dirty South towards the end he talks about Gucci Mane and the high amount of respect he got from certain rap blogs; he points out that some of the hype and praise Gucci Mane might have gotten a bit out of control, which even with a dozen Gucci Mane mixtapes on my iPod I understand. But getting back to the piece by David Drake, it is one part calling out the music community for overlooking Gucci Mane and another part explaining why you should care about some heavy accented trap rapper from Atlanta. A lot has been written about Gucci Mane in the last few years, but this piece captured what was so exciting about his peak 2008 run: an audible love of rapping, a pop sense most musicians could only dream of, and releasing all this music without caving into major label or internet blog pressures, which is something he hasn’t really come close to matching in the following years.

Sean Fennessey (Pitchfork) Hell Hath No Fury Review: In ninth grade, everyone in my school had laptops, so this was when I came across a site called Wikipedia.  So, I spent my computer science class looking up different rappers and bands eventually coming across a site called Pitchfork. So, on the recommendation of this review I ended up getting Hell Hath No Fury, and listening to it on a cold February night lying on the floor hearing the falsetto sung “nightmares” as I was staring up at the ceiling. In the next few years, I would see people complain about Pitchfork’s rap coverage, but I never understood why as the first album I bought on their recommendation remains one of my favorites.

Andrew Noz The Good Die Mostly Over Bullshit Post-Rap Side Projects: 100% correct. Noz mentions that he cringes at the tone of the article; I can understand why as it is pretty angry considering it’s talking about a Gnarls Barkley record, but the main point of the article is undeniable. Noz comes back to this idea in a lot of his writing, as it is a firm foundation that looks for innovations and uniqueness in all of the different forms of rap music and is not willing to be stuck in what “real” hip-hop sounds like.

Brandon Soderberg No Trivia’s Song-by-Song Breakdown of 808s and Heartbreak : 11^th grade was a mild year for me of too much school work, constantly visiting colleges, and actually having friends. So, 808s and Heartbreak never really emotionally hit me, but I still fucking loved the album and cemented Kanye West as one of my favorite rappers—even though he never rapped on the album. So, when I came across notrivia.com and came across Brandon’s breakdown of the album; I instantly favorited his website. Originally reading reviews of 808s and Heartbreak, I thought the album was getting dismissed as a superstar going crazy, and releasing an album that no really wanted; Brandon actual wrestled with the issues of the album, and considering the way that rap has gone the last few years this one-off album was clearly pretty important.

Kelefa Sanneh (The New Yorker) The Eminem Show Review: I’ve quoted this review before, and honestly the more I think about this review of the more it rings true for me. Not all music needs to be able to be able to bang out of a booming car system, but if I don’t want to turn a song up to 11 then part of me wonders why listen to it. In rap music, if you turn it up loud of enough you can feel the bass of a Waka Flocka Flame song but at any volume I will feel moved listening to Outkast’s “Spottieottiedopaliscious”. This review explains why I do not connect with Tyler the Creator’s Goblin or seek out the rap that inspired it, because I don’t want feel it in my chest and I don’t feel anything I want to feel, when listening to it at a reasonable volume.

Sasha-Fierce Jones (The New Yorker) Wrapping Up: Hey, did rap music stop being relevant in 2009? Well, not really but Sasha-Fierce Jones was very much on to something to start setting the grave marker for big time rap stars and the system that propped them up. I really enjoyed his original piece, but it was the discussion and other articles that it sparked that I probably enjoyed more. As different rap writers stepped up explaining why rap was where it was, and taking the extra effort to find music worth praising instead of dismissing it.

That was fun. I already quote pieces I enjoy, so anyone can go through the achieves to find other pieces I find worth reading, but I like explaining why I like and respect certain works—also I did not include any books—so I will definitely do this again.