It’s been four years since Wiz Khalifa’s last solo album, Rolling Papers 2. True to form, he’s stayed busy with collaborative projects, putting out two (Stoner’s Night with Juicy J and Full Court Press with Girl Talk, Big K.R.I.T., and Smoke DZA) in 2022 alone. Now, the Pittsburgh rapper is back with a new album, Multiverse, that features a world of his own creation.
“I zoned out and did the whole thing pretty much by myself.” Wiz tells Consequence about the album (out Friday, July 29th), which he says is about “taking myself on a journey that I’m comfortable letting everyone else experience with me.”
Multiverse focuses on a message of love, whether it’s for yourself or those around you, which Wiz lays out with a sonic vision heavily steeped in R&B and funk. With multi-layered production courtesy of his touring band and close collaborators like Hitmaka and Girl Talk, the album features a richer, fuller sound than what’s common in many rap projects released today.
“I feel like nowadays music is kind of put into a box and I wanted to break out of that box and have a real musical experience and diversify how people hear music these days,” Wiz explains. “Through technology and just the way music is really quick, people are throwing it all together and you really don’t get to experience the bits and pieces that make it what it is. So this kind of breaks it backs down and highlights different sides of musical inspiration.”
And while singles like “Iced Out Necklace” find Wiz in celebratory mode, the bulk of the album features more singing than we’ve heard from him before. On “Candlelight Girl” in particular, he shows off unexpected vocal chops reminiscent of when Childish Gambino dropped “Redbone.”
“That was just one of those nights where I got together with the guys and we wanted to come up with something that felt familiar but was all original,” Wiz remembers about recording the track. “It didn’t take long for me to explain the groove that I wanted to be in and we just wrapped everything around that. The words and concepts and everything were literally a constant flow from the start of the song to the end.”
Though songs like “Bad Ass Bitches” will satisfy longtime fans and others like “Memory Lane” and “We’re Not Even” straddle the line, Wiz will be taking this same approach to future projects. “I don’t see myself doing this one and then being like, ‘Alright, now I’m about to make a fucking trap album, just fucking fuck the clubs up,'” he says. “No, I’m going to be permanently making productions like this, that’s the goal. So anything that you hear is going to be built up and is going to be sounding and feeling really similar to what’s going on right now.”
In the below one-on-one interview, read more about what went into making Multiverse, Wiz Khalifa’s upcoming co-headlining tour with Logic, and his mushroom wellness brand, Mistercap Magic Truffles.
