Wahid

Orlando-based rapper Wahid announces his new EP, THEY ALL GO MAD!, out October 29th via Innovative Leisure, 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.