In this thread, I'll express my thoughts on DJ Khaled and his place in the online music discussion. For a long time, it didn't feel right to dog on DJ Khaled together with the rest of the internet, and I’ll do my best to tell you why. This text addresses three points of my personal interest; I hope they will find their place in a larger narrative, or maybe expose the subject and this text to more criticism. We'll see by the end of it.

Let’s start slow and revisit the age-old question: what does DJ Khaled actually do? For most people, he is at best a really good schemer, a socialite who has every single big artist at the tip of his fingers, ready to take in their musical contributions to create his own, an unoriginal thief that he is. We could say he obtains material from individual musicians–uniquely at their discretion and as their original contribution,–and then breaks down those individual pieces to create their own body of work. And we can also say that it's a very instrumental feat of our favorite genres and artists. And so, if we describe it as such to a person unfamiliar with the subject, then they would rightfully ask:

Isn't that what a DJ does?

Here, I want to proceed to my second point, and also address this body of text once again. While my first point concerns the ontology of Khaled’s music, two other points will deal with perception. I don’t believe I’m too far off in understanding that perception, but for some, it may wary and you may have never heard one bad word spoken about the subject. Nevertheless, I think it’s a very important distinction.

In 2019, DJ Khaled went viral for his now-infamous rant as pertained to Tyler, The Creator's album blocking him out of the #1 spot on Billboard. The rant introduced the term that would find its stay in many peoples' minds, even ones that weren't favorable of Khaled before that. I'm talking about mysterious music. In writer's own opinion this term changed how people see some of the biggest and «untouchable» names in the industry: from Childish Gambino to Frank Ocean to a plethora of alt-R&B musicians thinking they can be a Frank Ocean. The 'mysterious' marketing not only exists and works (IGOR went on to be Tyler’s biggest album), but it has also become a point of criticism, a gimmick. The smoke and mirrors of mysterious music became exactly that, they're not cool anymore, just mildly annoying. Besides, we gotta talk about how Khaled does exactly the same thing the internet's beloved do: he applies modern internet marketing to keep people engaged, he comes up with memes, he turns s*** around and knows when a thing goes viral for all the right, or all the wrong, reasons. It's that 'accidental genius' of playing Bob Marley's guitar all wrong or doing bad turntable scratches that make him a talking point of Twitter critics and IG accounts*. This brings us to my last point.

Let's be super real: most, and I emphasize on MOST, of yall are one Fantano/Professor Skye video away from turning around on Khaled. Not too long ago I would strongly disagree on the notion of critics making or breaking bands in the Conde-Nast-Pitchfork era. R.A.P. Ferreira FKA Milo got his jump from positive Fantano coverage, sure, but it's been so so long ago for both of them, who even cares. These days, it feels like we're slowly coming around to that, but under a more ‘liberal’ guise (fucking libs man). Just like streaming was the answer to payola until labels started making sure all the ‘hot’ singles end up in the right playlists.

As far as criticism and opinions, one critic completely changed the entire trajectory of one rapper in particular–Logic. Fiercely hated at first (I've been there in prime Logic hate era–it could get super nasty), it took a couple of interviews and random shoutouts for a whole plethora of folks coming around from 'strongly negative towards Logic' to at the very least 'neutral and not too bad as of recently.' People need to hear their opinions from talking heads, and it’s not a bad thing. They want to understand and get some enjoyment out of something because music is always a joy at the end of the day. For some, it might take a more knowledgeable person to present it in a different light. For others, it's a matter of experience and spending more time with the subject, understanding its context. And for some, it might take leaving their favorite chat rooms and the familiar atmosphere to actually take a look around.

• something I didn't mention in the post regarding the mysterious marketing point: let's not forget how when DJ Khaled called out Tyler absolutely nothing came out of it. He's got a rare fanbase of the 'outside' people, but not stans. It's Tyler's stans who carried the word of their own idol and attacked Khaled and made fun of him. People talk about toxic fandoms and let's see where Khaled's end us.

FAQ:

Yes, I typed it all out myself;

Yes, it is a very undeserving subject for a dive this deep and an essay this long. Idk if I’d rather do that or see another ‘deep dive’ into some of the most conversational and safe modern music (Fuck Dissect);

It’s midday where I’m now so no, I didn’t wake up at 6 to type this all out. And even if I did

Khaled is a goat

not reading all of this but khaled is unfairly hated on and is a true legend in hip hop. anyone who hates on him for "having no talent" or whatever has no idea what they're talking about

They didn’t believe in us

Drake did

Eid Mubarak

DJ Khaled brings hits every year or so but he does nothing special.

His music is Basic, entry level if your looking for new artists to listen to or old artists.

I give it to him, he’s better at putting Albums together than DJ Drama.

You wrote a lot of words and didn't really say anything, the bigger complaint about DJ Khaled is that he makes bad music, has no musical talent and relies on gimmicks and memes, this thread didn't change my mind whatsoever

nigga no just no

No one outside of KTT says mysterious music

Like literally no one

Let’s not forget he also gets clowned for not eating p****

The last point is just you saying think you're smarter than everyone here and that everyone else is a sheep

you’d have such a fire resume with the time you spent making this

Whole post is just showcasing their terminal case of Internet Brain

Who the hell hates Khaled? You gotta be miserable or one of those Tyler stans who took that “mysterious music” jab way too serious.

You are right about the mysterious stuff becoming a serious critique on this site though. Niggas have been running that s*** into the ground when it comes to rap that isn’t street or trap

A whole load of nothing.

Just a new way to say "you don't go to parties" or "scare the hoes music"

And I’m sick of it because years ago KTT would never be on that energy lol but I guess it’s a lot of new kids on here cause IRL they feel the same way

It's been like that for years... there's always been users who don't f*** with "artsy music" and just wanted to listen to bangers and street music

I do agree the "mysterious music" term made it more annoying but it's not like Khaled changed KTT that's my point, it's just a stupid KTT term

mf dont eat seafood yet eats all the food he sees

You best believe I stack them