Wiz Khalifa brought his third annual Under the Influence of Music tour back to Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre on July 29. He was accompanied by some of hip-hops biggest names including Ty Dolla Sign, Iamsu!, DJ Drama, Rich Homie Quan And Jeezy. The best way to describe the show would be to compare it to a wild house party that you most definitely wanted to be invited to.
Security to enter the venue was tight. Perhaps they expected the young crowd was under the influence of more than just music, a few kids falling over and getting kicked out before the show had even started proved that point. The crowd was mostly young people and a majority of them were wearing converse Chuck Taylors, emulating the night’s star performer.
DJ Drama, famous for his mixtape series “Gangsta Grillz” never let the party atmosphere die. Between sets while the stage was being setup he spun mixes featuring the biggest bangers in hip-hop today. Drama also passed a blunt to the crowd, and whenever he needed an easy way to get a huge ovation, he played a Drake track and the Toronto audience went wild. Perhaps a little foreshadowing?
Singer/Rapper Ty Dolla $ign, most recent signee to Khalifa’s Taylor Gang Records, started out the night with a strong set that consisted mainly of tracks from his new EP Beach House such as “Familiar”, “Or Nah” and “Paranoid”.
For someone who has never released an album, Ty connected with the still-arriving crowd utilizing the entire stage, moving from side to side and even hopping on a speaker at one point. In a surprise closing of his set, he picked up the guitar and played a few riffs.
During the tour Iamsu! has been performing with fellow HBK Gang member Sage the Gemini, who was unfortunately denied admittance in to Canada and left Su to perform solo. Su was not slowed down by Sage’s absence as he hit the stage with a crazy amount of energy. Opening with his featured verses from the popular “Beat the p*ssy UP” and “ Tryna Function” Su got the crowd turned up before moving in to some of his own material such as “I love my Squad” “Hipster Girls” and “100 Grand”.
Su’s set concluded with a shout out to his partner Sage, dropping his smash single “Gas Pedal”. The audience roared with approval while dancing in the aisles.
Atlanta rapper Rich Homie Quan took the stage. After a brief intro Quan jumped right into his biggest hit “Type of Way” and received a great ovation. Unfortunately many audience members weren’t as interested in Quan’s lesser-known work like “I know” and “Get TF out my face” once they had already experienced “Type of Way”.
Giant block letters spelling “J-E-E-Z-Y” were revealed and the crowd showed respect with a thunderous ovation . DJ Drama introduced the veteran trap-rapper as Jeezy burst onto the stage dressed in black shoes, black socks, black shorts, black shirt and a black blue jays cap. Jeezy’s presence commands respect as soon as he steps on the stage.
Jeezy’s classics like his opener “Put On” were given a completely new and fresh sound because of the full live band accompanying him on stage. The band added an extra layer of sound that even day-one Jeezy fans had not heard before.
One of the shows highlights was when Jeezy instructed everyone to take their lighters out and hold them up while he performed 2005’s “Soul Survivor”. Jeezy dropped knowledge on the young crowd, telling them “if your dreams don’t scare you, you’re not dreaming big enough” before closing out his set with the club banger “R.I.P.”
The crowd grew restless for Wiz and began a full on sing-a-long when DJ Drama played Lil’ Wayne and Drake’s “The motto” . When it was announced that Wiz would be taking the stage in 5 minutes the anticipation was thicker then the cloud of smoke that had formed above the crowd.
Wiz Khalifa took to the stage around 10 and the noise in the arena was deafening. Wiz launched into his set with his smash single “Work Hard Play Hard” before slowing things down with the smooth “Roll up”. Looking to appeal to hardcore hip-hop heads Khalifa told the crowd that “to be a legend you have to drop classics” before the beat to “Mezmorized” dropped. The throwback tune, from 2011’s Kush and Orange Juice, was pure classic Khalifa. These three songs had a little something for everybody, and from that point on Khalifa owned the crowd.
Khalifa was rejoined onstage by Iamsu! for a high energy performance of “’Bout me” and an amazing rendition of “Taylor Gang” with his band during which Wiz flailed around the stage like he was Jello Biafra in the mid 80’s.
Next were songs from his new mixtape 28 Grams “James Bong” “Foreign” and “Like Jimmy”. These newer songs went over with the audience like they were long time fan favourites. It could be because Wiz has a stage presence that makes everything he does exciting to his young fans. Simply taking a pull from a joint, saying his albums release date, or pulling up his shirt to expose his tattooed body could send the crowd in to a frenzy.
When performing arguably his most popular song “Black and Yellow” Wiz moved around the stage with an infectious energy that spread all the way back to the lawn seats. The song ended with so much appropriately coloured black and yellow confetti being shot into crowd it looked like a Pittsburgh Steeler’s Super Bowl parade.
Wiz’s house party style tour took a very exciting turn when he invited a special guest to perform on stage. Toronto’s own Drake appeared to a hometown applause that was literally deafening. Drizzy performed “Trophies” and “Started from the Bottom” while the crowd sang along with every single word. As great as Khalifa’s performance was it was obvious that the city belonged to Drake. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the night.
Khalifa kept the show moving strongly however, returning with a soulful performance of “Young, Wild and Free” that had the entire audience singing along to the chorus. At one point Wiz left the main stage and appeared on a small platform that was amongst the fans in lawn seats.
The finale came when performing the lead single from his new album Blacc Hollywood “We Dem Boyz” the entire audience sang along as a shirtless Khalifa now drenched in sweat left everything on the stage. He sang, he screamed, he smoked. He could do no wrong in front of the Toronto crowd who were granted requests for an encore of “Medicated”.
As fans left the building one thing was for certain, all those who attended were definitely under the influence of music, and they weren’t coming down any time soon.
ALL PHOTOS BY DALE BENVENUTO for AESTHETIC MAGAZINE
Words by Me
CRAZYUNCLEGINO 