Wiz Khalifa – Rolling Papers (Album Review)
Wiz Khalifa – Rolling Papers
(Release Date: March 29, 2011)
www.twitter.com/REALWIZKHALIFA
1/2 out of
Wiz Khalifa the wunderkind who captured the hearts and minds of a nation (and even a football team) with the release of his hit single on his third debut debut debut. Yeah you heard me right this is his third album… watching this journey unfold still amazes me. You see when a artist tanks from weak single rotations and their album gets pushed back into the ether only to be dropped from a major, said artist usually fades away into oblivion but not Wiz he put his head down and built his own buzz back up from scratch. I have never seen an artist come back bigger and better than before on their own back and that alone deserves recognition. 2006 to 2011 is a long time in the music industry but it is an eternity for somebody trying to make it back on top.
I actually remember in 2006 when he was trying to get this album “Show and Prove” out, it’s kind of funny but at the time everybody was talking about this kid from Pittsburgh (much like today) who was going to be the next big thing, the internet buzz was tremendous on its own and then poof he just disappeared from my radar. When people ask me my thoughts about the music business I always tell them, to have great determination but remember whatever so and so did is a onetime occurrence never to happen exactly like that again. If anything think of career paths in the music industry like snowflakes they are all made from the same secret sauce but no two are exactly alike.
Wiz Khalifa is the second coming in a lot of ways, he is the second coming of the smoke raps (Snoop Dogg, Redman/Method Man made popular in the 90s). Wiz is also the second coming of people just chilling for a change. Rap music right now has a problem of taking itself way to serious, everybody has to be on the block trapping/selling snowmen or shooting people and if it isn’t that everybody has to remind you how much money they are throwing in the air because of these amazing drug deals, I almost think it is ironic that Wiz was able to skip all that by bragging about how much weed he smokes over how many people he smokes. I have to say that it is nice to see a popular rapper not take life so serious for a change.
Wiz puts me in a difficult position, in addition to rooting for the Steelers this past Superbowl I was also rooting for him. To put it bluntly I was really hoping this album would be amazing instead words like lackluster, disappointing, and below average pop into my head. 
I pride myself as being an objective hater if you will, if I don’t like something I can tell you why with a fairly straight forward argument, which allows you to agree or disagree with my conclusions on your own terms but at least you can see where I am coming from. This review is no different, as greatly as it pains me to say this, Rolling Papers sounds more like a rushed lazy mixtape than a complete official album, it feels like a collection of random songs with zero enthusiasm. If you were looking in the dictionary for the phrase “phoning it in” Webster’s would probably point you in Wiz’s direction. I don’t know why or how but the joy seems to be completely sucked out of the disk and you can color me un-amused. I don’t know what to say maybe it’s me, maybe I am just listening wrong…
Now that I have gotten off my high horse I can’t tell you not to buy the album if you loved everything you heard from Wiz so far then by all means, but If you were expecting more like I was prepare to be disappointed. To put it another way whatever you saw on the surface is all you are going to get from this steel town native so enjoy. From my perspective 15 songs about getting high start to loose their shine after song number 3. Ok so you like to smoke weed now what?
