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“Wahid’s unique reference points and experiences provide nuance and taste that sets him apart from either end of the spectrum.” — Pigeons & Planes
Orlando-based rapper Wahid releases his new EP, THEY ALL GO MAD!. Reflecting an ongoing quest to find peace and stability in a world riven with malice and flux, THEY ALL GO MAD! is thematically a partial extension from Wahid’s last release, feast, by ravens. Over eight tracks he presents windows-down anthems reverberating with atomic energy and pulverizing drums, dazzling aerial cadences and subtle moral clarity.
After the breakup of his vaunted nine-person collective, seeyousoon, Wahid found personal catharsis in creation. If feast was slightly experimental in its lyrical and production choices, THEY ALL GO MAD! revels in its confrontational sensibility. The first words on “GENESIS!,” the EP’s lead single, are “watch your step, kid.” A sly allusion to the opening salvo on Wu-Tang’s first hit, “Protect Ya Neck.” The intention is clear. No quarter will be offered. Wahid aims for the jugular, but he’s still got jokes. The beat from his long-time collaborator, Vitamn (who produced seven of the eight tracks) sounds somewhere between a celestial coronation and a lost outtake from Illadelph Halflife.
As a simple declaration of lust, “ILLUMINATED!” is effortlessly seductive. But on a purely musical level, Wahid nimbly levitates between dancehall toasts and red clay melodies rooted in sweat and soul. “MAD” finds Wahid at his most meditative, confessing to his own hurt and shame. With lurid evocative language, he ruminates on racial inequities, the South’s blood and soil legacy, and the betrayals in his own life. But from this “catacomb wasteland,” we hear the inextinguishable desire for redemption, and the possibility of transcendence – lord willing.
On the finale “GOOD GAME,” Wahid spits with his own neck-snapping new rap language. A psychedelic bricolage painted with meticulous precision. He conjures a landscape of stick ups and set affiliations. He’s chased by hellhound determination of Lucifer and buoyed by the spirit of ‘Pac. It’s the sound of a ticking time bomb, bristling with anger and astonishingly under control. A performance that leaves Wahid in the conversation of the best of this new generation of rising stars. This is what it sounds like when you’re ready to blow up.
Raised in Central Florida, Wahid was steeped in rocksteady, dancehall and reggae dubplates by his father, a Jamaican-born DJ. As a teenager, Wahid’s older brother exposed him to the classics of hip-hop’s second Golden Age. As he describes it: “Nas made me want to rap, listening to the GZA’s Liquid Swords made me good at it, and Black Thought helped me refine my skills.”
In another life, Wahid could’ve been the fifth member of TDE’s Black Hippy: a Swiss army knife capable of merging classic MC traditions with forward-thinking flows and melodies. With his double-time acrobatic patterns, he’s distinctly post-Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne – blessed with a novelist’s eye for minor detail and a virtuoso’s gift for ransacking hidden pockets of a beat. He can turn a warped post-Dilla instrumental to ashes with 16 bars and croon a plaintive falsetto wail on the hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jeremih album. These vaunted gifts make THEY ALL GO MAD! the rare modern record that rewards careful listening.
Wahid shares “HEAT PRESS!” (Feat. Kim), following up the EP’s lead single “GENESIS!,” which he performed for On The Radar (up above). At the center of THEY ALL GO MAD! is the paradox that life is an act of faith, and true wisdom can be found by gambling on love or a creative pursuit. In eight tracks, Wahid presents windows-down anthems reverberating with atomic energy and pulverizing drums, dazzling aerial cadences and subtle moral clarity. Bangers, but suffused with a sense of a higher purpose. Anger deployed to righteous ends.
THEY ALL GO MAD! reflects an ongoing quest to find peace and stability in a world riven with malice and flux. It’s the partial extension of themes from his last release, feast, by ravens. In the fallout of the breakup of his vaunted nine-person collective, seeyousoon, creation led to personal catharsis. If feast was slightly experimental in its lyrical and production choices, THEY ALL GO MAD! revels in its confrontational sensibility. The first words on “Genesis” are “watch your step, kid.” A sly allusion to the opening salvo on Wu-Tang’s first hit, “Protect Ya Neck.” The intention is clear. No quarter will be offered. Wahid aims for the jugular, but he’s still got jokes. The beat from his long-time collaborator, Vitamn (who produced seven of the eight tracks) sounds somewhere between a celestial coronation and a lost outtake from Illadelph Halflife.
Raised in Central Florida, Wahid was steeped in rocksteady, dancehall and reggae dubplates by his father, a Jamaican-born DJ. As a teenager, Wahid’s older brother exposed him to the classics of hip-hop’s second Golden Age. As he describes it: “Nas made me want to rap, listening to the GZA’s Liquid Swords made me good at it, and Black Thought helped me refine my skills.”
Consider the Orlando rapper a radical traditionalist. In another life, he could’ve been the fifth member of TDE’s Black Hippy: a Swiss army knife capable of merging classic MC traditions with forward-thinking flows and melodies. With his double-time acrobatic patterns, he’s distinctly post-Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne – blessed with a novelist’s eye for minor detail and a virtuoso’s gift for ransacking hidden pockets of a beat. He can turn a warped post-Dilla instrumental to ashes with 16 bars and croon a plaintive falsetto wail on the hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jeremih album. These vaunted gifts make THEY ALL GO MAD! the rare modern record that rewards careful listening.
For more information, check out VENTS Magazine.
Rising Florida rapper Wahid shares his new single “ILLUMINATED”, taken from his upcoming EP THEY ALL GO MAD!. Following his recent EP feast, by ravens, THEY ALL GO MAD! continues with Wahid’s gift in merging classic MC traditions with forward-thinking cadences and melodies. In his double-time acrobatic flows, he’s distinctly post-Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Wayne – blessed with a novelist’s eye for minor detail and a virtuoso’s gift for ransacking hidden pockets of a beat. He can turn a warped post-Dilla instrumental to ashes with 16 bars and croon a plaintive falsetto wail on the hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jeremih album.
Speaking on his new single "ILLUMINATED!," Wahid shares, "This song probably has my favorite hook on the entire project. I loved how my producer Vitamn approached/wrote it. This song is just fun to me. It’s also piercing, lyrically. The verse I wrote on this was the first ‘I’m about to prove a point’ moment for this project. And that point is… no one can really f**k with me.”
Earlier this year saw the release of his EP, feast, by ravens, which saw him garner praise from Dazed’s Only Tracks You Need To Hear, COLORSxSTUDIOS, CLASH Magazine’s Astral Realm and landed him in Complex-Pigeons and Planes’ highly respected Best New Artists feature for their October edition.
“[Wahid’s] unique reference points and experiences provide nuance and taste that sets him apart.” - Pigeons & Planes, Best New Artist
“A true original who learned the rules first, just so that he could break them.” - CLASH
Orlando-based rapper Wahid announces his new EP, THEY ALL GO MAD!, out October 29th, and shares the lead single “GENESIS!” Following his recent EP feast, by ravens, THEY ALL GO MAD! continues with Wahid’s gift in merging classic MC traditions with forward-thinking cadences and melodies. In his double-time acrobatic flows, he’s distinctly post-Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Wayne – blessed with a novelist’s eye for minor detail and a virtuoso’s gift for ransacking hidden pockets of a beat. He can turn a warped post-Dilla instrumental to ashes with 16 bars and croon a plaintive falsetto wail on the hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jeremih album.
“The mission statement with this EP was/is… ‘It’s time to prove a point,’” Wahid explains. “The title of the EP has a double meaning. We feel like all of the songs are ‘Mad’ or massive. Very dope, and dynamic batch of records. The second meaning kinda coincides with my temperament at the time, as I was definitely mad or upset about a few things happening in my life at that moment. Feelings of betrayal, feelings of being overlooked. I just used it as fuel to create this project. ‘It became personal with me’, as the great Michael Jordan would say.”
Nothing was a given in Orlando, Florida, a city best culturally known for its theme parks and boy bands. Wahid had lived here since the age of five, when his parents relocated the family from the Bronx. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, there were no real local role models for success. He and his best friend would try to find open mics and shows, but they were few and far between. It wasn’t until Wahid attended Florida A&M in Tallahassee when he became fully immersed in a flourishing hip-hop community. And by the time he returned home in the middle years of the last decade, Orlando had finally incubated a diverse scene that encompassed rap, folk, electronic music and indie-slanting guitar rock.
But as soon as Wahid co-founded the nine-person collective See You Soon in 2020, his star really started to ascend. A national tour with the band 99 Neighbors and an imminent major label deal ostensibly had them on the precipice of massive success. But the usual “creative differences” soon brought about their dissolution. The ensuing depression was all-consuming. There were days where Wahid didn’t budge from bed, drawing the blinds closed, dealing with false recriminations, and numbing the wounds with bottle after bottle of liquor. Despite his best efforts to salvage the wreckage, none of his attempts yielded anything positive. But through the duress, he discovered his inner resilience and perseverance, which led to the creation of his March 2024 EP, feast, by ravens. “In regard to feast…, that project felt more like journal/diary entries of a tumultuous period in my life. It was a bit more experimental in its approach as well,” Wahid explains. “While this new project contains some of those same elements, I believe it is a lot more accessible, and potentially more enjoyable, sonically.”
“What I’m most excited about for this project, or rather, hopeful for, is the feedback and reception from it. Vitamn and I took our time to make sure the lyricism was dense yet catchy, and the same goes for the production. I’m hopeful fans of blue collar hip-hop dig it. We’re trying to bring back the blog era feel,” says Wahid. If Wahid has learned to glide with humbleness and a sense of nobility, now, there is no mistaking what lies behind the curtain. Beginning his second chapter, we now see the serious artist with his head aimed towards the heavens, aware of a higher calling yet all too aware of the snakes lurking in the grass. Grateful for survival, incapable of surprise, ready for what’s next.