Waka Flocka Flame has “it” factor. Whether you consider that a good "it" or a bad “it” depends on which side of the rap ideological spectrum you fall on. Fan and critical opinions aside, there’s one thing all rap followers can agree on: his 2010 major-label debut,
Flockaveli, completely altered the contemporary rap landscape. Buoyed by Lex Luger’s, apocalyptic 808s and slasher film synths,
Flockaveli was a relentless assault, 17 songs of boisterous ad-libs, machine gun sound effects and post-crunk rage MCing - the rap equivalent of a Red Bull IV drip. The aggressive
“trap” sound that it spawned quickly became monolithic in street rap. Two years after
Flockaveli, Flocka is enjoying the spoils of a rapper in the midst of a full-on crossover marketing blitz – cover stories for traditional rock publications, endorsements with left-leaning interest groups, posing for hipster-baiting celebrity photographers. Whether or not these new comforts and an expanded audience will cause Waka to lose the primal urgency that made
Flockaveli a gangsta rap epoch remains to be seen, but Waka's career has certainly taken a turn towards corporate synergy that's impossible to ignore.
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