Wiz Blows Smoke at the Bowl

I officially had my first “Looks like I really am getting old” private conversation with myself. It happened Sunday night, in the after glow of Fiesta. I was at the Wiz Khalifa show at the Bowl, the place close to full with cannabis-inclined older teens and twentysomethings. Loud, redundant, energized beats filled the air, the bass visibly pulsating through a cartoonishly thick haze of marijuana smoke. Young Wiz was close to having his shirt completely off, peacocking his way across the stage with aggressive purpose, tattoos glistening with sweat, microphone in hand. Half speaking, half singing, “Party all day! Party all night!”

On my feet and moving slowly to the music, I couldn’t argue with his message but I also couldn’t stand it. The watered-down, intellectually devoid, clearly market-driven version of bubblegum pop hip-hop Wiz and company were selling was just too much for me to stomach. “This is awful,” I thought to myself in a queer sort of disbelief just before the aforementioned realization, “Shit, that’s what old people sound like. Am I old?!?!”

To be certain, Wiz Khalifa is a thing. He has a handful of Grammy nominations to his name, multiple number 1 hits on the Billboard charts, mixed tapes that people lust after, and a crazy amount of street cred with folks who fancy smoking, toking, and vaporizing the Devil’s Lettuce on a daily basis. Khalifa even has a strain of marijuana named after him, the Khalifa Kush, and a chart-topping song “KK” about smoking it. In fact, most of his songs — chart topping or otherwise — sing the praise of pot at some point. My medical marijuana dispensary even let me know Wiz was in town this week with an email the morning of the show offering discounts if you used the “Khalifa” promo code. Like I said, he is a thing.