http://blog.trace212.com/archives/699
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  Welcome To Pistolvania    03.18.2008  

If you’ve been hitting the mp3 blogs or clubbing at least semi-regularly as of late, you’ve no doubt caught wind of a trend in hip-hop that is progressing with varying degrees of success. Rappers and their producers are doing a bit of paradigm shifting for once, laying vocals over, of all things, electronic tracks (think techno, trance and dnb in particular).

If you want to be technical about it, the game’s been keen on thugstep, “trance-hop” (the term coined by XXL), etc. for a little over a year now. Usually featuring jacked-up BPMs, the songs are more ‘95 Love Parade than 125th and Lenox.

Possibly the best out of the bunch is Pittsburgh-MC-on-the-come-up Wiz Khalifa’s “Say Yeah”, which samples Alice DeeJay’s 1999 trance smash “Better Off Alone”. More than club-ready, the track is versatile and polished enough to make you forget how corny the source material is/was (respect to producer Johnny Juliano for keeping it in the fairway). The video is kind of cute, too.

As far as his other tracks, Wiz has more in common with his Southern counterparts than his European ones, yet when he professes to being consumed with the typical rap obsessions (cars, keeping the rep up, women and the paper chase), it doesn’t come off as puerile materialism or mere womanizing, but rather the admissions of a driven artist looking to be rewarded for his hard work and talent.

A self-professed “youngin’ on his grind”, Khalifa, 19, seems mature beyond his years (and his finger-snap, bubblegum rap peers) and admits to loving what he does and taking pride in his work. Having been constantly on the move as a child, he says that it was his father who broadened his musical horizons and gave him the foundation and confidence to begin writing songs at a young age. If the young rapper is on his grind half as seriously as he claims to be, the kid may be one of Pittsburgh’s best hopes for getting out of the Illadelph hip-hop scene’s shadow.

The MySpace Jump-Off