Tonight, er...last night, Young Wiz Khalifa sold out Royal Music Theatre on 4th St. TWICE. The crowd was the opposite of diverse, filled with nothing but non-shaving Taylor-Gang foot soldiers, who carried their freshly-grown weed-smoking habits on their tight, $30-dollar-T's like a shiny, little badge. Then there was us, the relatively old guys blowing loud on the balcony, casually gazing in awe at the Pittsburgh MC's sea of magnetized fans. The show had the residual energy from the Steelers victory and was well worth the ticket, but truthfully...I was more 'mesmerized' by the fact this inked-up young'n can sell out the one venue I aspire to rock - TWICE in one night - like it ain't no thang.
It was little over a year ago, I had pulled over temporarily from my measly outside sales job into a barren parking lot in Ecorse, to
interview this would-be XXL-Freshman-turned-Top-40-sensation over the phone for
TSS. Then only 21-years-old, this rising star was laid back like a Craftmatic bed and cooler than a cucumber, even despite the fact he was on set with private jets shooting the video for his outer space farewell, "This Plane." Then a few months later, after catching a candid performance of him and Spitta rocking a low key spot in Austin during SXSW, I even had the chance to personally give Wiz a disc of my first batch of beats I deemed 'worthy.' A shot in the dark I knew, but it was a once-in-lifetime opportunity there for the taking, so - with
LC's help - I took it. Now, almost a year later, I still haven't heard back about my beats and he's rocking TWO packed houses a few blocks away from where I grew up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hatin' on the young man gettin' money, but it's just humbling. Especially, when I can still walk to the venue from my house.
Either way, I was inspired, to say the least.
Since we got stuck with tickets to the 6pm show (yeah, WTF is that!?), I had time to come back to the studio and crank out a certified banger. It's definitely the best beat I've made all year and might actually warrant a call back, if I ever get a chance to catch that Plane again.
