The Thrill

THE THRILL, WIZ KHALIFA

(December 2009)

First Christmas back in the States since London: Daniel had gone to a Wiz Khalifa concert a few weeks prior at school in Penn State. He was really excited about it, but old man that I am, I was all, "Who's Wiz What's his Face?" My brother, obviously annoyed at my lack of knowledge of the underground rap scene, was like, "Uhh... only the best rapper to come out of Pittsburgh, duh." Well. I filed this information under the "Stuff That I'll Never Think About Again" folder in my brain. Daniel loved the concert and was raving about it and told me that I should download some of his stuff because I would love it.

Now, here's my thing on rap. I love it, but being the old man and future guy with kids who hates what his kids listen to and only listens to the "oldies" station on the radio (which will, undoubtedly, be full of '90s tunes), I only like older rap. Like, '80's and '90's stuff mostly - Ice Cube, 2Pac, some Biggie, etc. - and why? Because the music in the background is good - either a good sample or a great original synth riff. None of this stupid and, frankly, boring Little Wayne generic beats shit. So, mostly, I tend to turn away from any contemporary rap simply because a) it's completely boring to listen to, and b) they don't talk about anything other than "getting money" or "bling" or whatever it is that these kids value nowadays. So, a new underground rapper? I was not interested in listening, especially after having given local rap group Tha Crew a listen (I ironically love their song "Jello," but emphasis on the word "ironically"), but my brother insisted that I would like him.

Christmas was my first time back in the States after being in London for school, and there were a lot of things that I had to do, and one of them was to download "The Thrill." I decided to give in. Daniel brought his friend Ja'Mere with him, and with Daniel trying to be a good host and show him around, but since I have a license, I was the chauffeur. Which was fine. I loved driving around with my brother, remembering what the city I was born in looked like at night in December. But, this meant something else: mix-CDs, the new millennium version of the mix-tape. However, I couldn't just put stuff that I liked because Daniel would not have that, so I decided to include "The Thrill" as the opening track. And, boy, was it worth it.

I totally dug the song. It had a great sample, as so many great rap songs do (it was a difficult sample to place, but after much research (read: typing it in on Google), I found that it was an Empire of the Sun sample), a good, relaxed beat, and the lyrics, while nothing political or socially conscious, were still about partying and having fun without being obnoxious and totally superficial. Daniel was impressed that I had listened to one of his recommendations.

When I got back to London, I suddenly heard "The Thrill" everywhere. And not the original Empire of the Sun song. I heard it twice when I was working at the Canal Cafe Theatre, in the pub area. I heard someone playing it at the locker room at Primark. I heard it at a house party. It was crazy that this song which was underground American rap would get so much play in the United Kingdom.