See pics of Wiz Khalifa and friends in our slideshow.
Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean feat. Trae Tha Truth & Bun B Reliant Arena July 6, 2011
Wiz Khalifa can smile now.
The Pittsburgh rapper had a minor hit in 2007's "Say Yeah," a breezy dance cut laced all over Dutch trance act Alice DeeJay's "Better Off Alone." That single brought him some attention. After seeing the success of "Say Yeah," Warner Bros. pressured Wiz to make more of the same.
Oh dear. He said "no" and left Warner. When he returned via Atlantic to release this year's Rolling Papers, it was strictly on his own terms.
The same year Wiz made a splash with "Say Yeah," Kanye West signed Big Sean as the first artist on his G.O.O.D. Music roster. Ye fell in love with Sean's style after hearing him freestyle at a Detroit radio show, and though most dismissed him as "Kanye lite," he's edged his way into rap stardom.
Big Sean's "My Last" and Wiz Khalifa's "When I'm Gone" perfectly capture their commonality. Both share a sense of pride in overcoming the odds stacked against them. They seem even keener on the idea of enjoying the result while you can.
Wednesday night, both MCs brought their blissful sound to Houston. The crowd was young, the music remarkably accessible.
Sean played tunes from his new album, Finally Famous, two Jesus pieces dangling from his neck, his pants struggling to hang on to his waist, his prepubescent voice projecting through Reliant Arena. Big Sean's music is about the rush; the rush of celebrity, the rush of electricity, the rush of unbridled joy.
It's also about revealing more details about his sex life than you want to know, with the dick jokes out front. "My Last" enlivened the crowd even without his collaborator Chris Brown. One thing about Sean: he's committed to hand gestures. When he says, "Put her hands down my pants, now she rocking Sean's john," for example, he literally slid his hand down his pants to rock his john.
"Houston, you support your own, right?" the D-town rapper asked before bringing out Kirko Bangz and Bun B to show H-town some love.
