On Wednesday night, Oakland party machine Wallpaper, fronted by the raucous and mysterious Ricky Reed, treated a national television audience to a mannish performance of their hit single “#STUPiDFACEDD” and “FUCKING BEST SONG EVERRR” (Yes, they’re spelled like that). For the uninitiated, Wallpaper may confuse you. What’s with the caps lock and extra consonants? And what type of music do they make anyway? But once you slam a 4 Loko with SoCo out of a super soaker while Reed, Novena and their three drummers thrash the stage, none of that shit matters. Here is the footage of the aforementioned songs that they performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday.
If you’re now even more confused, allow me to break it down for you. Wallpaper’s brilliance lies in the fact that they make great party music while parodying pop party culture in the process. “FUCKING BEST SONG EVERRR” for instance has a BFF friendly anthemic hook that could easily turn it into the latest pre-game song for drunk college co-eds; and yet there is an edge to it too. It’s simultaneously Black Eyed Peas cliché and new-age, post-hyphy dope. It is, as many of their songs are, a caricature of a party anthem, featuring distorted bass, excessive drums and a catchy ass hook.
For a perfect example of the tongue in cheek humor in their music, look no further than the lyrics of “#STUPiDFACEDD,” “White girls buy produce / Take ‘em home, make ‘em drink Grey Goose.” Then factor in that Ricky Reed is a party animal archetype who is never seen without a fedora, huge sun glasses and crazy confident thrift store steez. Wallpaper’s music is pulsing, humorous and infectious, their shows are absolutely maney, and their videos are epic and rare. Haters will hate, but at a Wallpaper show, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll gig until you assault someone and then hug it out. It’s the Oakland way.
In addition to Wallpaper’s latest #STUPiDFACEDD album, they also recently filmed a video for Too $hort’s new album, No TrespASSing. Watch it HERE.
