Why DJ Khaled is horrible

A look at his mediocre “God Did” album released in 2022

Brayden Rak

Contributor

Quentin Distin

Contributor

Everyone, and their first born child knows about the musical “artist” commonly referred to as DJ Khaled. To most, DJ Khaled is a DJ (hence his name) who is “responsible” for some of the greatest “hits” of the 2010’s. I, like many people, forgot about DJ Khaled post 2020, until he released his album titled “God Did” in 2022. There was a lot of attention around this album, so I decided to begrudgingly take the conscious decision to let my ears be verbally assaulted for 57 minutes. I won’t be the first to admit- I have never been an extreme admirer of Mr. Khaled, but I heard that there were a few artists that I am genuinely quite fond of featured on the album. After consuming all 18 tracks, I concluded with an overall feeling of mediocrity. Most of the featured artists presented an ability to make quality contributions to songs, but I was still left yearning for an example of talent from DJ Khaled himself. His contributions consist of his infamous adlibs, which are these random word generated compilations that heavily tarnish the quality of the music, and ruin the listening experience. His constant yelling of the phrase “GOD DID!” every 13 seconds, caused me to violently convulse.

Khaled essentially assembled the avengers to make this album. However, Khaled does not produce, write, or even have a main vocal part throughout the duration of nearly his entire discography. So what does he actually do? The only answer I can give to that question are his (hopefully ironic) adlibs. This leads to increasing confusion on how to title him, as he is not a rapper or a producer. He’s essentially a glorified organizer, and promoter of other people’s songs, a job that’s inherently the musical equivalent of a landlord. This led to GQ referring to him as a ”producer-executive-social media personality-professional yeller.” Does he do a good job of typing “best rappers” into his search engine of choice (probably Bing, knowing him), and giving each of them a phone call? Sure. However, this level of “organizing” is nowhere near worth the sheer amount of fame and money he has acquired day and maybe appreciate her a little more. Your partner tells you they love the gifts, but so does the billionaire that makes money off your private relationships and uses it to cover up another scandal. If Cupid shoots you now, you’re only going to bleed money and little red squares of wrapping paper. But don’t worry, it only happens on a random day in winter that just so happens to celebrate one of three priests. over the duration of this lackluster career.

Now, all of this on its own does not seem particularly horrific, and it’s clear the majority of people thought so too; for the bulk of his career, DJ Khaled has largely been seen as relatively “tolerable”. There was never really a valid reason to hate on him. He seemed like a relatively decent person, who at the bare minimum, understood the climate he took advantage of, and was grateful for the opportunity. Especially when you take into account the certitude of his proportionally poorer upbringing. However, in recent times, there has been a seemingly instant break in character that makes him come across as extremely and utterly ungrateful. Going on record, and making rant videos titled “Why my songs aren’t number one,” and tweets chastising other artists by saying they’re making “mysterious,” and “mistake ridden” music does not bode well with his “tolerable” image. Just because it is music that takes time to create, and takes actual effort, does not mean it’s mysterious. Just because it is off kilter, and not the same generic trap music Khaled

SOCIAL MEDIA routinely releases does not mean it is particularly mistake ridden. All this rhetorically errant dialogue just makes it more publicly known that DJ Khaled has not broken a single sweat in the studio. He might as well just be a label executive as all he’s good for is releasing other artists’ music. It is becoming increasingly clear that Khaled just has a handful of industry connections, and he is upset primarily, not with people calling the music on his album bad or of poor quality, but the idea that his music didn’t make it to the number one spot. This attitude and overall break in character has truly shone light on the truth that DJ Khaled does not care at all about making the best music (as his ad-libs so claim). Instead, he sits in whatever luxurious car he owns, wearing that ridiculous tye dye shirt, and advertising his “nutritional” supplements, realizing that insulting the very artists that write, preform, and produce the near totality of music under his own name, will eventually blow up in his smug looking, ungrateful, materialistic face.