WifiGawd uses digital portals to manifest in different regions, tripping through time and space like a rap game Bill & Ted. Raised in Washington D.C.’s Rasta community on profound amounts of reggae and classic New York hip-hop, Wifi doesn’t discriminate musically. Instead, he funnels familiar elements from all of rap’s historically powerhouse regions into his own psychedelic world. In this way, WifiGawd represents a vision of post-region rap that never really happened. In an era of algorithmic gatekeepers, he feels like a maverick.
To the uninitiated, the scope of WifiGawd’s body of work might seem daunting. He’s been recording prolifically since the mid-2010s, building a phenomenal collection of hectic tapes that rumble and surge like they were forged during hypnotic all-nighters in the studio. Because he moves so seamlessly between styles, it’s tough to single out any WifiGawd song as representative of his ethos. His new album Chain of Command offers a natural point of entry, distilling what makes Wifi such a gripping virtuoso in 11 distinct but successful cuts. The fact that it’s his first album to be pressed on vinyl solidifies the feeling that this is the deepest version of WifiGawd to date.
Though in the past he has often favored operating with a single producer per project, here Wifi assembles a crack team of collaborators. The result is one of the strongest batch of beats boasted by an underground rap record in recent memory. Wifi favors dense soundscapes and chaotic collages, all presented in a lo-fi, decayed manner. The intro of Chain of Command, co-produced by Wifi and Maryland’s AMAL, is built around what sounds like the iconic riff from the Isley Brothers’ version of “Summer Breeze,” with splashes of piano keys and orchestral stabs filling out the sound. Appearing later in the album, the Tyris White-produced “365” features buzzing synths and sampled strings; it feels like a classic West Coast beat that’s been left out to bake under a blood-orange sun.
WifiGawd might have a highly tuned ear for beats, but his real gift is synthesizing his performance to the music. Finding comfort deep in the mix, his voice can sound dank and translucent, like you’re spacing out at the end of a party and he’s speaking to you from the opposite corner of the room. But while he might seem content loitering in the background of his own songs, Wifi is one of the most innovative rappers to come out of the Soundcloud generation. There is the bugged-out “4 My Skaters,” where he forms part of the percussion by rapping with a steady pulse, managing to find time to talk about his life-long crush on Nia Long and explain the benefits of Covid-19 lockdowns to a criminal. On “Fuck The Law,” he transforms into a spectral presence, floating gently above a cheesy sax line.
A confirmed disciple of Kid Cudi, Wifi is versatile with his melodies. On the beautiful and stirring “Kawasaki,” he switches from swagger rapping to bled-dry singing, making the transition feel seamless. Then there’s the romantic and strangely affecting “Slide Thru,” where a laidback WifiGawd sounds like he’s cruising towards a sunset in a convertible sports car, the ringing of a cell phone highlighting the urge he has to speak to his sweetheart.
The topics are familiar, but WifiGawd’s frequently cracked writing is solidly funny. On two-minute flexing classic “God of War,” he depicts a neighborhood tear-up by threatening to turn the block into a warzone and send his enemies to Lucifer—“Shout out to the cell/If you try to cross ‘em I’mma send yo’ ass to Hell”—before bigging up his propensity for making merry: “I’m the big dog/Step into the party everybody blast off.” It’s simple stuff, but presented with compelling confidence, sardonic charm, and zero cliché.
The only disappointment here is that there’s no track where WifiGawd opens his chest and spits full throttle like we know he can. A song like this would be have completed his quest to show every side of himself, and reasserted the feeling that Chain of Command is the jewel in the baseball cap. That omission notwithstanding, the collection of songs here weave together like rich fabric, forming an expert piece of underground rap. He gives you a glimpse of his indelible presence before jetting off into the next otherworldly realm.
