After dropping Kush & Orange Juice 2, the sequel to his breakout 2010 mixtape Kush & Orange Juice, Wiz Khalifa has embarked on his “Taylor Gang The World” tour alongside DJ Bonics and two Taylor Gang rappers, Chevy Woods and Fedd the God. Minneapolis was their sixth stop. Founded in 2008, Taylor Gang is Wiz Khalifa’s entertainment and record label company, based in his native city of Pittsburgh.

By the time I arrived at First Ave, DJ Bonics was already getting the party started, and the Mainroom had become a hazy hotbox. For good measure though, Chevy Woods came out, lit up a joint, took a couple of tokes, and passed it to the crowd.

Steel City rapper Fedd the God was the first to perform. He delivered a high-energy set, involved the crowd in a lot of songs, and even successfully crowd-surfed toward the end—something uncommon for an opener.

Chevy Woods, another Pittsburgh native, came on next with some sweet flows. My favorite from him was “Paper Route,” a 2010 song by Mac Miller that Woods featured on. He also passed around a couple more doobies to the crowd and summed up the atmosphere of First Ave that night perfectly, saying, “I was gonna ask if y’all smoked good weed out here, but… *cough *cough, I can see it… and I can smmmelllllllllll ittttttt!!”

Finally, it was time for Wiz Khalifa to take the stage. He lit up his first joint to the intro of “Red Eye,” a cool track from his latest release. The song has a beat with some classic Jamaican reggae/dub influence, with lyrics that, of course, discuss lighting up joints and smoking kush:

“Smoke Khalifa Kush, my eyes lower / Mind of a stoner / F*** that, mind of a owner”

Khalifa Kush is Wiz’s very own cannabis company. Wiz carried on the generosity and continued passing out joints to the crowd throughout his performance, which I imagine had to have been the Khalifa Kush brand.

A couple of songs later, DJ Bonics got a “Taylor Gang” chant going, which segued right into the song “Taylor Gang” off one of Wiz Khalifa’s most successful albums, 2011’s Rolling Papers. Meanwhile, some dudes from Wiz’s crew came out on stage with armfuls of huge inflatable joints, which they started throwing at us like javelins.

Later in the show, introducing his next song, Wiz said, “I’ve been to a lot of places and sometimes they know me, sometimes they don’t know me, but they always know this one.” The banger “Black and Yellow” started playing, met with an eruption from the crowd.

Toward the end of the evening, King Khalifa performed another banger that everyone knew: “Young, Wild & Free.”

“So what we get drunk? / So what we smoke weed? / We’re just having fun / We don’t care who sees”

And even though I don’t drink or smoke, and by the end of the show, my throat stung from inhaling all the second-hand smoke, it was still super fun. Wiz Khalifa is an iconic dude, and he brought awesome energy to First Ave.

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