Wiz Khalifa and the Taylor Gang were on their best behavior in Winston-Salem. (photo by Ryan Snyder)
Its true what they say about any publicity being good publicity, just ask rapper Wiz Khalifa. After being arrested and charged with felony marijuana possession almost immediately after a sold-out performance at East Carolina University’s Wright Auditorium, ticket sales for the Pittsburgh emcee’s performance in Winston-Salem only two days later suddenly went through the roof, according to promoters. To give some perspective as to how much play it was getting, Khalifa was a trending topic on Twitter the day after spending the night in the Pitt County jail. It’s hard to say how many of the hundreds of people slowly filtering through the doors of the cavernous Education Building were there after hearing of the rapper being hosted by a state correctional facility, but the sporadic chants of “free Wiz” gave some idea.
Aside from his arrest aiding yet another sold-out show, Khalifa awoke the morning following his LJVM show to discover that his single “Black and Yellow” had cracked the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 at #29. While his ode to the Pittsburgh Steelers was a lock to make the set, his aptly titled Waken Baken tour is a launching pad for tracks from his latest mixtape, Kush and Orange Juice. If it weren’t obvious from the absurd amount of weed he was busted with (about $1,000 worth), Khalifa likes to smoke a little herb here and there. His NORML attorney has stated that he thinks he can get Khalifa’s felony reduced on the grounds that the 60 grams he had in his possession at the time is pretty typical of his $10,000-per-month weed hobby, and not indicative of an intent to distribute.
Outside, while Big Krit showed why he might be the next emcee to blow up, the Winston-Salem PD at least made a half-hearted effort to police what they had to know were several laws being broken on Khalifa’s tour bus. One officer was posted about 15 feet away with his olfaction on high alert, but was kindly asked to move away to give the performer his “privacy.” The officer rebutted with the old chestnut, “If no one’s doing anything wrong, what’s wrong with me being here?,” but eventually relented.
He kicked off the set after a lengthy hype-man intro with “BAR (Burn After Rolling),” though not all of his songs were toker’s anthems. Just most of them. It’s not difficult to speculate what “Hello Kitty (F**kin’ On A Pill)” is about, though even here he mentions his other favorite pastime throughout. “Ink My Whole Body” is Wiz’s ode to his love of the parlor needle, and in a catalog full of dryly funny lines, “Body marked up like the walls in the ’80s/ speakers scream loud like a car full of babies” is one the melba-toastiest. Where he goes horribly wrong at times is when he lets guys from his enormous posse the Taylor Gang monopolize the mic while stepping up to show off said ink. It’s annoying at times, but one of them, Will, the token white guy, is a constant source of unintentional comedy.
Listen closely to his words, however, and you’ll hear lots of clever, often quite obscure references. When you smoke as much weed as this guy does, you tend to watch a lot of movies. “The Kid Frankie” is an homage to the criminally-underrated British gangster flick The Business, and though he never directly quoted it, the line “Reppin the gang simply because everything else lame” perfectly paraphrases the main character expositing the movie’s premise. Not at all coincidentally, Khalifa put the song to a beat by ’80s British R&B group Loose Ends, a band that the song’s title character rode around listening to throughout much of the movie.
It’s hard to pinpoint the specific appeal of Khalifa, because he’s not the lyrical technician of someone like Jay Electronica, and his beats aren’t innovative like Black Milk. But there are innumerable facets to his musical persona that are totally engrossing. His lyrics are clever and don’t take themselves seriously in the least, though he still manages to come off provocative and brash. He wears this big, dumb smile on his face at all times while he’s on stage that just seems to infect everyone within sight. Then there’s the dancing, which is part Ed Grimley and part Dukie from “The Wire.” It’s almost impossible to mimic, unless one should possess the same kind of alarmingly gaunt frame as Khalifa. Of course, the tattoos are a big sticking point for many, as is the sense of community he engenders by referring to all of his fans as “Taylors.” Most of all though, it’s just his sheer charisma — you just want to like him because of how he carries himself. He obviously values his fans, at least in his own gregarious way. Before finishing out the set, Wiz imparted a little friendly advice to them.
“One, smoke weed everyday. Two, get home safe, but smoke while you do it, and three, all y’all are the best fans in the world,” the shirtless Khalifa said.
He closed out with “This Plane” to a crowd that was still clearly amped, but also rapidly falling out after a night that many spent prepping for in the parking lot before the show. After a dismal last few years for hip hop, it feels good knowing that the hundreds of ’90s babies in the house will have good hip hop to believe in, even if they can’t hold their own kush and orange juice.
