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Music Review: @WizKhalifa – 28 Grams

Mark Harris
Feature, Music, Studio Xclusive, The Studio

wiz-28grams

 

 

 

“For all those that don’t know what 28 Grams is, that is an ounce of weed” – Wiz Khalifa, at the end of “Aw Shit”.

 

Wiz Khalifa has come a long way since becoming popular from Kush & Orange Juice. Some people see it as a good thing. We all know he has more money, notoriety, popularity, and even Amber Rose. But, with all that he gained, there is plenty that he lost. His music has lost a lot of its zeal because he went away from the sound he originally started with. Also, whatever sound he “evolved” to, did not readily match up to what he did prior.

 

Now, we have the courtesy of listening to “Trap Wiz”. This new persona helped bring in the DJ Drama hosted 28 Grams. The only problem is that the albums’ 28 tracks (a gram = a track) would equal to about an ounce of Huffy weed.

 

And by Huffy weed, I mean your lower rung, mediocre smoke that would be regulated for teenagers to be impressed by.

 

At nice of an idea as the track list is (in number), that same number helps lead the mixtape into the realm of unevenness. Listening to “The Rain” (Missy Elliot beat) and “Mann” (Schoolboy Q’s Man of the Year track), Wiz has a tendency to add nothing remarkable to already obvious instrumentals. Then, you have Wiz being out-rhymed by some of his guest stars (see Curtis Williams on “How To Be Real” and Pimp C on “Word On The Town”). And then there is the overuse of auto-tune that tends to become as tired as the idea of there ever being a “Trap Wiz” to begin with (see “Incense”, which would have been wonderful as a Future song).  With such a hodge-podge of styles and influences not meshing, the mixtape becomes rather long.

 

That is not to say that the mixtape does not have its tracks that are worth listening to. “Something Special” is a welcome departure from the approach of the rest of the mixtape with its smooth groove, heavy synths, and Thundercat feature. The song “Samo” allows listeners to hear Wiz Khalifa rap about that “high life” that we all know he is his best at. “Pure”, which has Wiz doing his “crooning thing” on the chorus, is actually a lot easier on the ears than the majority of this mixtape. So, there are some select tracks worth bumping.

 

Still, those tracks are few and far between.

 

With 28 Grams, “Trap Wiz” finds himself trapped within the trappings of his trap persona. It is good for Wiz to “try something different”. However, when an artist tries something different, there has to be something that separates/surpasses him/her from the rest of the pack. This is where the mixtape fails. In short, 28 Grams is a mixtape of Wiz Khalifa making a lot of songs that could have been done by other artists.

 

 

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