A DJ Khaled album is less a creative statement than a launchpad for prospective hits. His full-length releases are always stuffed with superstars, but they play like movie soundtracks - not stylishly curated movie soundtracks, but movie soundtracks that sound like somebody was given a lot of money to throw around without the ideas to justify it. It goes without saying that Khaled is not an album artist.
Khaled is a blockbuster franchise unto himself: one that keeps roping in more and more impressive names, and one that can’t really descend into self-parody because this man has always been a living caricature. In recent years the formula has led to a bloated pantomime of triumphant lavish living - songs that sound the way overpriced liquor bottles in the VIP section probably taste (which I hear is underwhelming, though I can’t speak from experience). This sometimes results in pump-you-up classics like “We Takin’ Over” and “I’m On One” and “All I Do Is Win,” modern-day jock jams guaranteed to send your average millennial’s adrenaline surging. For the better part of two decades, the man born Khaled Khaled has been rounding up as many famous rappers, singers, and producers as he can, piling them onto XXXL pop-rap songs laser-targeted at radio, and shouting various catchphrases on top of them at maximum volume. DJ Khaled’s brand is excess, opulence, and over-the-top enthusiasm.
