AGS Inside: Wiz Khalifa X Big Sean Rolling Papers Tour (SHOW REVIEW)

July 13, 2011

Within the past year or so, Mr. Wiz Khalifa has taken the game by storm. Emerging as one of the leaders of this next generation of urban artists, Wiz Khalifa, like the general public tends to think about “new artists”, is not an overnight success. Wiz Khalifa has been grinding strong for a longtime for such a young man. Personally, I’ve knew of him since 2007, which obviously means he’s been grinding longer than that. Anyhow, within this span, I’ve had the chance of seeing him perform 3 times, although I think he may have performed in Atlanta at least 5 or more times. My 3rd time was his recent stop in Atlanta on his Rolling Papers Tour.

The show was held at famous The Masquerade show venue. Contrary to his last Masquerade performance, Wiz performed in the larger part of venue, which is in the outside area on the outside stage. I attended Day 2 (7/13/2011) of the Atlanta leg of the tour (they actually had to add a 2nd show to meet the high demand). The tour brought a pretty vast and fairly diverse crowd age-wise, style-wise, and race-wise. The weather was nice, although it was almost close to 90 degrees.

Taylor gang member, Chevy Woods (formerly known as Kev Da Hustla), was the opening act. I, however, arrived post his performance and thus did not get a chance to catch it. Word is that his set was pretty energetic and pretty good overall as he performed records from his Red Cup Music project (Download HERE).

I arrived in time to see the next act in Big Sean (“Boi!”). This was actually my second time seeing the D-Town Westisder live. On this particular night, Sean performed in a pair of Vans. On the prior night, Sean chose to wear Grape V’s. Now for the actual performance. When you listen to Big Sean’s music, you are aware of the fact that likes to have fun and his show mimics that. Sean seems to enjoy himself on stage and has fun while he is up there. He performed several of his mixtape tracks, including “Supa Dupa Lemonade” & “Hometown”, as well as his “All Of The Light (Remix)” verse. I like how Sean sets up the next song in his set with these brief statements or these sort of short stories. Sean also performed tracks from his recent release, Finally Famous: The Album (Read my review HERE). These tracks included: “Memories Pt. II”, “My Last” (minus Chris Breezy), and “Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay”, for which he brought out ATLien Roscoe Dash. Aside from Roscoe, Big Sean brought out another ATLien in labelmate Cyhi The Prynce to perform his “So Appalled” verse. Also, I think Sean may have brought out Travis Porter on the prior day’s show. Big Sean performed about a 45 minute set and his portion of the show was pretty enjoyable overall.

The next and final act on the concert was the headliner Wiz Khalifa. The Taylors were amped as hell to see Wiz perform. When “When I’m Gone” began to play, they starting going crazy and once Wiz and Chevy Woods actually hit the stage, they erupted. Wiz, who had on black chucks, of course, came on with great energy that would continue throughout the duration of his show. With the exception of “Ink My Whole Body” (off Star Power), Wiz did not perform anything pre-How Fly (i.e. Flight School, Prince Of the City, Show & Prove, etc.). But he did do music from:

-Burn After Rolling (“Burn After Rolling”, “The Thrill”)

-Kush & Orange Juice (“Mezmorized”, “In The Cut”, “Never Been”)

-Cabin Fever (“Gang Bang”, “Taylor Gang”)

-Rollin Papers (“When I’m Gone”, “On My Level”, “Black & Yellow”, “Roll Up”, “Wake Up”, “Star of The Show”, “The Race”, “Fly Solo”)

I do think (and wished) he should have done “Say Yeah” and “This Plane”, just because they were pretty big records, but it is the ROLLING PAPERS tour, therefore it makes sense to showcase that particular project. Plus, in my experience of attending different shows, I’ve noticed that many concert attendees are recent fans, so they might not care to hear those records anyhow. With that said, Wiz Khalifa has a live live show. He has exceptional stage presence; it seems that he feels free and just lets loose while he’s up there, although many may deem him “crazy”. Wiz also has great and infectious energy as well as superb crowd interaction that should be applauded. He even had his people throw out bottles of water on this sweltering day in the A. Another thing that he did was cleverly play a set of songs containing the word “roll” (i.e. Big Tymers “Get Your Roll On”, 69 Boyz “Tootsie Roll”, etc.) to set-up “Roll Up”. Wiz had his fair share of guest appearances on his set as well, including Big Sean (to perform “Gang Bang”), DJ Drama, Drumma Boy & Roscoe Dash (to perform the “Oh My” joint ), and Wale (to perform “No Hands” with Roscoe). But the highlight of my night was when he brought his wifey, Amber Rose, on stage, and proceeded to lick her from toe to head. I noticed her standing off to side earlier during the show, but I was just glad he brought her on stage into the stage lights! Please forgive me for my covetousness! Anyway, Wiz closed the show out with “Black & Yellow”, accompanied by a black and yellow championship-like confetti show, and then put the exclamation point on an hour-plus set with the finale of “Ink My Whole Body”.

Honestly, this was a great experience overall and money well spent. Aside from the sweltering heat of HOTlanta and the usual overpriced concessions of an event of such, the vibe was pretty chill. It was also kinda cool that they permitted the smoking of the cannabis at a Wiz Khalifa show. I also saw several individuals equipped with some nice footwear, including someone in the Year of The Rabbits, another in the Yeezys, Pill in the USA Air Jordan 5′s, Wale in the White/Red/Black Air Jordan II’s, and our very own, Mr. Atlanta Got Sole, Sean Luc in the Stealth Air Jordan III’s. Bottom line is: Yes, I WOULD PAY TO SEE BOTH BIG SEAN AND WIZ KHALIFA PERFORM AGAIN. Very, very good show. Check out the picture recap below courtesy of the homie Patrick Fagan. “Taylor Gang or Die!” “Boi!”

-So Left Field

Check out this backstage interview courtesy of AllHipHop: