If you’ve been paying attention to the rising wave of hip-hop underclassmen over the last half-decade at all, you know about Florida. For as bad as the Sunshine State is at almost everything else, it managed to produce a healthy run of rising stars in hip-hop that rivaled the likes of Chicago from 2012 to 2016 and [insert any three or four year period you want] in Atlanta.
When I was writing for Elevator in 2015, we saw Florida’s underground explode into the mainstream in real-time and covered a lot of these artists at the outset of their careers. Working with Florida underground legend Bukkweat Bill extensively at the time, I’ll never forget the day he sent me the “Surrrf” video.
Bukk was sending it to me half-jokingly, saying, “Hey look at the dance I did at the beginning of this video,” but the song that followed Bukk’s dance was infectious. It stuck with me for the rest of the year. A new sound, all new faces, something completely different than what we were hearing around the rest of the country.
The crew went by Swamp Posse, and the four artists in the “Surrrf” video were Wifisfuneral, SKYXXX, Max P, and Keez. The four then-relative unknowns were poised to make a serious impact in the South Florida scene, alongside their peers Ski Mask the Slump God and the late XXXTentacion. And while the Swamp Posse disintegrated and all of them went their separate ways, they’re still very active. Sky just dropped a single with Valee a couple of months ago. Keez has toured with Wifi and drops music consistently. Max P puts out a ton of great content and does numbers on YouTube.
But it was Wifisfuneral who skyrocketed in popularity, landing a coveted spot on the XXL Freshmen List, racking up over 40 million YouTube views, 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and collaborations with everyone from Coi Leray and Curren$y to Yung Bans and Buckcherry. Yes, that Buckcherry.
This year, after letting loose three well-received mixtapes, Wifisfuneral delivered his debut studio album, Pain?. It’s a new sound from the West Palm Beach-native, a giant leap in the direction he had been gradually taking his music.
Even early on, it was clear that his attacking, rapid-fire cadence was going to attract fans. Wifi was often compared to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony frequently at the outset of his career, but the irony lies in that he was more Juicy J than Layzie Bone then, and much more melodic now. The comparison makes sense in recent years, Wifi gained confidence in his singing voice, showing his range on new songs like “End Of Story” and “Lost In Time.”
“This whole album was just supposed to be rap,” Wifi told me over a Zoom from his hotel in Miami. “But then we got drunk as shit one day and Jimmy told me to try singing. So, I did it and it ended up being one of the first records we made for the album, called ‘Take Me Away.’”
These melodies carry a very real pain and it bleeds through on Pain?. In the last couple of years, Wifi lost one of his closest brothers in XXXTentacion to a senseless murder and has struggled mightily with addiction, almost losing his own life. The seriousness of Wifisfuneral’s tone was always evident, but now love and loss have added layers to the talented young artist’s story.
Wifi and I caught up and talked about how he overcomes everything life throws at him, among a range of other topics.
DUKE LONDON: In the early days, is this what you envisioned, or has some of your success caught you by surprise?
WIFISFUNERAL: I had a lot of high hopes and aspirations, so to some degree, it was kind of what I wanted to set myself up for. But nine times out of ten, if I’m being real, my success has surprised me. I didn’t think I’d ever reach this many people or that my music would affect people to the degree it does. I have all my core fans from day one and then I have new people finding out about me every day. It’s very brand new, it’s very fresh. And I’m still in the beginning phase of my career, as much as people think that I’m not. I feel like a young old guy. Part of me is knee-deep in the game with all these projects under my belt, but I’m only 23. I haven’t even really lived like I want to yet. I’m still trying to break through the ceiling.
There have been many times when you were really going through it, and you’ve shared that pain through your songwriting. What’s it been like to weather that storm in the public eye?
It’s life, bro. This shit can happen to anybody. A lot of people are private about these issues but I just happen to be at the forefront. And I wasn’t going to act like it wasn’t happening. I’m all about accepting the good, the bad, and the ugly. Whatever type of bed you make for yourself, you have to lay in it. You have to go through a lot of struggle to get to the end of the tunnel when you’re digging for that light. I just keep digging. Even at my darkest moments, I just keep digging and treat every day like it’s my last.
Your album is called Pain? and you’ve been very vocal about your battles with addiction and depression. Was writing this project therapeutic for you?
For sure, because I don’t know any other way. I’ve gone to therapy and shit but it doesn’t really work for me. I try talking to other people about my problems and that doesn’t really work, either. I’ve tried a lot of other healthy coping mechanisms, and a lot of it just doesn’t work for me. These have been very hard things for me to deal with, to be honest. And I do it through my music.
What has the process been like trying to kick your addictions?
I just take it day by day. You can only worry about that 24 hours, and you just have to survive that. I kind of apply that rule to my entire life every day. I set high standards for myself, but not so high that I disappoint myself. Sometimes I have to go hour by hour. I’m just figuring out how to live my life without hard drugs. I play a lot of video games. I don’t know what it is, but whenever I’m thinking of getting a fix, I just go straight to my PS4 and lock in for hours. I turn my phone off, I don’t let anyone talk to me. I ignore everything and just play. Right now, I’m playing a lot of Naruto, both Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 and Shinobi Strikers, and some Elder Scrolls and a couple of other ones. I just got this PC with all these emulators on it, so I can play all these old ass PS2 and Gamecube games.
Greatest system ever. What PS2 games have you been playing?
I’ve been playing a lot of old Japanese wrestling games. I’ve been playing a lot of Smackdown, Fight Night, and Def Jam: Fight For NY. Also, Leisure Suit Larry.
This album took a much more melodic turn than your previous work. Was that planned?
I would always fuck around and joke and hit notes, but not thinking that I’m hitting them, just fucking around. My manager Vice has been trying to tell me for the longest that I should be singing more. He would tell me, “You know, you can actually sing.”
With Pain? I was just trying to make the most mature Wifisfuneral album I could make. Everyone involved helped me accomplish that to a T. We weren’t feeling the vibe for the original concept of the album and this just worked. Jimmy knew I wasn’t all that comfortable singing but he was confident that’s how the album should sound. I chucked everything I’d planned for over a year out the window and we started over from square one. It wasn’t a super clear direction it was going in, it just happened. I make my best music when I’m not stressed out over what I’m making.
How do you quality control new music you record? In the car?
If I record ten records, I’ll probably bring three of them out to the car. If I only like the bridge and the hook, I get rid of everything else, keep listening to it over and over again, and build on that.
How do you think your projects have aged? I feel like I’ve seen you criticize your own old music on Twitter but how do you really feel about them?
The only reason I ever speak negatively about my old projects is because of the specific standard that people hold me to. Whatever was going on in their lives that they connected with my old music is why they like my old music more than my new music, not because it was better sonically or some shit. I’m not taking anything away from fans or telling them they can’t have their opinion, but I don’t like it when they make broad statements like they’re facts. Judge music as music, not as how you were feeling when you heard it.
Do you think it works the other way too, though? Like, do you look at those early projects slightly more negatively because you were conversely going through really bad times when you made them?
Yeah, it’s like going back to an old wound you weren’t able to close. And you’re just ripping the staples out of that shit and never letting it heal.
What are some of the new struggles you face as an older and more mature Wifisfuneral?
Just being forced to grow up. Damn, you kind of opened up my brain with that one, I haven’t even thought about that much. There are just more responsibilities. A lot of boring shit.
Who have you been listening to lately to escape all the boring responsibilities of being a star?
I listen to a lot of Don Tolliver. But other than that, I’m on my Lil Wayne shit, only listening to my own music. Tunnel vision. When people ask me about other artists and I’m like, “Who?” It’s not that I’m not supporting other artists, I’m just focused on me right now. I’m trying to get to the finish line. I’ve been like this for two years. This is project number five in not even two years. I feel out of the loop with a lot of it.
What’s the finish line look like to you? When do you know you’ve hit that mark?
That’s like asking a ball player what they need to feel like they made it in the NBA. I need a chip. I need a ring. At least one. A number one song, a platinum plaque, something I can take back to my mom and be like, “Look, I did it.” Something that makes all my doubters shut the fuck up.
***