All in all, this year's Red Bull Culture Clash looked like a good time for everyone involved. On Friday night, four different crews, each with its own soundsystem, took turns on the stage in London's O2 Arena to see who could put on the hottest show and come through with the most exclusives.
Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang was the only hip-hop crew in the contest, and they faced off against the NYC-based dancehall label Mixpak, the Eskimo Dance grime collective, and the UK Garage Allstars. In his first Culture Clash, his team was an automatic underdog, but Wiz was more than ready to engage in the combative spirit of the event and talk plenty of shit to his competitors. As is protocol, he also came armed with an array of unheard dubs -- basically remixes of hot records that have been recorded exclusively for the event.
Mixpak prevailed as the Culture Clash champs, and it was Popcaan's deploying of an exclusive dub of Drake's "One Dance" that helped his crew seal the deal. He shouted out Drizzy Drake and yelled out "Fuck Wiz Khalifa!" before playing the song, which included lyrics that were repurposed to include his name.
Though Mixpak was victorious, Wiz was not impressed with the new "One Dance," and he joked about the exchange that might've taken place for Drake to update his lyrics. "Hey Pop Tart," he addressed Popcaan, "I know you gave Drake a handjob for that drop."
In Wiz Khalifa's opinion, the slightly amended "One Dance" doesn't constitute a "dub." "That was a drop, that wasn't a dub," Wiz told Popcaan after retaking the stage. "I could play his [Drake's] album too, motherfucker. He gave me a drop too, motherfucker. We playin' dubs tonight," he said, not to the amusement of Mixpak boss Dre Skull. "I'm supposed to be American, I'm not supposed to know what real dubs is, right?" continued Wiz. "But why the fuck Taylor Gang got all the illest dubs?"
Taylor Gang did come through with an impressive list of dubs -- as they were able to get exclusive new mixes from the likes of Big Sean, Fat Joe, Rae Sremmurd, and Travis Scott. Joey Badass even made a surprise appearance on behalf of the gang, and Ty Dolla $ign performed a remix of "Shut Up" by grime emcee Stormzy, a competing member of the Eskimo team. Luckily, Wiz has already implied that he plans to release some of those dubs for his Taylor Gang faithful.
His team didn't come out on top, but Wiz was certainly proud of the Gang's effort, convinced that they "won respect" in their first attempt at a "real sound clash."
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