Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Music
Music

Wiz Khalifa Leaves Jail And Gets Internet Buzzing With New Mixtape

Posted byBy Leo | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

wiz-khalifa

After winding up in an El Paso, Texas, jail Sunday morning, Wiz Khalifa made the best of the situation. In a matter of hours, he turned the incident into a fan frenzy, promising to take “complete control over the Internet” on Twitter and dropping his hyped mixtape “28 Grams.”

Khalifa made solid work of the attention blitz that followed news of his lockup, tweeting and taking selfies while behind bars conjuring #FreeTrapWiz hashtags all over Twitter in support. And after several hours he was released from jail, tweeting a photo of himself getting on a plane with the caption, “Yall freed me.”

The Philadelphia rapper kept running with the attention throughout the day by actively Tweeting and teasing his new mixtape, “28 Grams,” which he said would drop that night. But his impromptu promotional campaign was not without error.

Pushing the #28grams hashtag and dropping bits such as the digital mixtape’s back cover art with the track listing and a photo of himself in the studio, he promised its release at 8 p.m. But then it was pushed back to 9 p.m., and finally was released at nearly midnight.

Despite disgruntling some fans with the added wait, over this time Twitter turned into a virtual line outside a record store with fans waiting for the time to pass tweeting back and forth in anticipation.

The online jeers turned to praise once the mixtape did finally drop. Khalifa’s “28 Grams” is 28 tracks (an hour and a half) putting his skills on fine display dipping through weed references, heavy hitters and love songs. Features include Khalifa’s Taylor Gang brethren Chevy Woods, Ty$ and Berner with production from the likes of Sonny Digital, Metro Boomin, 808 Mafia, Sledgren and others.

Khalifa originally announced the “28 Grams” mixtape last weekend, saying it would come out before his upcoming “Blacc Hollywood” LP. Speaking on the red carpet at last Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards, Khalifa said that proper studio album will be released sometime around August after his upcoming North American tour with Tyga, Ty Dolla $ign, Mack Wilds, Rich Homie Quan and DJ Drama.

source: billboard.com

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top