Other than Sparky Banks and Dope Couture he’s the only unknown to me across these seventeen tracks, and yet with only two beats he’s able to completely jack the spotlight.
Stealing this tape are the producers and chief among them is Dumont. It’s no Cabin Fever trainwreck of a phenomenon, that’s for sure.
A variety of issues halt this tape short of that being the case, but I suppose one does have to tip a hat to Khalifa for trying. This mixtape arrives on the heels of that, complete with Khalifa’s apology for it’s radio-bending nature as well as a promise Taylor Allderdice would be what fans of Kush & Orange Juice had hoped Rolling Papers would be. It was an album that’s quickly become much easier to look back on and think… “Yeah, I suppose that was all right” rather than actually listen to. Taylor Allderdice was announced as a sort of mea culpa to the more hardcore fans for his major label debut, Rolling Papers, an album which contained enough of Wiz’s more popular mixtape traits - smooth flow, dope beats, annoyingly engaging hooks - to keep lightweights coming back yet felt decidedly light on content as a whole. Granted that was a collaboration with Snoop Dogg, but even more enthusiastic fans of Snoop’s more recent work (such as myself) would have been surprised that project came out as anything other than a slobbered-over mess.
WIZ KHALIFA TAYLOR ALLDERDICE 2 MAC
I was (and am) also a huge fan of the most recent Wiz Khalifa project, Mac & Devin Go to High School. Atmosphere-wise it’s a perfect blend of Curren$y’s latest endeavors and a more, shall I say, dusty jazz template that speaks to me quite openly. It’s the sort of mixtape I should totally be predisposed to demanding yet I’m decidedly not. Then Wiz starts rapping again.Taylor Allderdice is so weird to me. It is legitimately as good as anything Air France ever did. After a verse from Wiz, the song slips into beachside ambience, ice-rattle drums, and plaintive pianos. It sounds pointless except that the interlude is easily the most enjoyable moment of the record. Maybe the album's most indicative track is "No Limit", which is nearly nine and a half minutes long thanks to a three-minute instrumental interlude. The album's acronym stands for "Only Nigga in First Class" and sports a dour looking photo of Khalifa on the cover, but it's difficult to find any significance in either- he hints at fatigue, but doesn't illuminate the flipside of stardom in any way. suggests ignorance regarding his own distance instead of a conscious desire to roll with the vibes. Wiz has never exactly spit quotable 16s but his rapping on O.N.I.F.C. He could- and just may- pump music out for the indefinite future that coasts on sound design and little else. He is there because he has to be, not because he should be.Įverything from there on is just an unending succession of diminishing returns that questions the relevancy of Khalifa's artistic existence. Khalifa doesn't say anything of note- "riding in my ride" is crushingly emblematic - and doesn't sound particular good from a technical standpoint. The problem, though, is that both songs would work best as zone-out instrumentals. The album kicks off with a suite of tracks that are meant to wash over you, and they are undoubtedly effective- "Paperbond" is steeped in the comforting draft of chillwave while "Bluffin'", produced by Drumma Boy no less, borders on balearic. which tosses a Blanco produced single to the dogs but then retracts further into his vaporized aesthetic. Khalifa has already more or less disowned his debut, telling his fans that "creatively wasn't my best work." That regret is evident on O.N.I.F.C. Both mixtapes were right in his lane, and they predicted the direction Khalifa would take with the album proper. Cabin Fever 2, from October, saw Khalifa dipping into L.A.'s ratchet scene to show just how much artists like Iamsu! owe to his own mix of nonsense rapping and soft, blissed-out singing. His Taylor Allderdicemixtape from March was a nice stopgap release, steeped in the same foggy, washed out beats that helped elevate him to fame. will quickly be swept under the rug by anyone but his true diehards, yet Khalifa still had a successful year by displaying his malleability. Or maybe he couldn't bring himself to care about the fragile nature of crossover success any longer.