Album Cover could be brightest spot of album

well its been a few days and I’ve tried to let the new Wiz Khalifa album, “Rolling Papers,” grow on me. Fortunately it has but that only pushed it from a 3/5 to a strong 3.5/5 . Sounds harsh but allow me to air out the kush clouds on this one.I knew I was in for a little disappointment when the anticipated single “Roll Up,” dropped . The song is truly catchy but so are Ke$ha and Jason Derulo songs. The Taylor Gang sound was completely lost in the Top 40 feel and poorly sung hook by Mr. Khalifa himself. Not doggin’ him for singing though, we can’t all be Drake right?

The overall feel and theme of the album, surprisingly for wiz (who usually sticks to entire Mixtapes  devoted to one of his favorite pastime), lacked a true theme to me. I mean of course RP has its marijuana laced tracks a plenty, with some pretty delightful guest appearances (Currensy, too-short, and Chevy woods) but this song seems like it went through several cycles of the Record Label commercialization blender. Honestly the most noteworthy song would still be Black and Yellow, even if it wasn’t force-fed to America for the last 6 months.

Noteworthy, however, does not crown Black and Yellow as the best track on RP luckily. The Race (see Link below) is Wiz’s best showing on RP, but that also disappoints since it was a previously released mixtape track, and we know how much that sucks when mixtape tracks make our favorite artist’s album. The Race is a prime example of the Production angle of RP, which I do actually appreciate. I did fear it would be riddled with a few random Lex Luger beats to appease the thug shoppers, but alas. the wake-and-bake feel flows pretty smoothly through all 14 tracks.

To sum up Rolling papers in a sentence…. Rolling Papers sounds like a less focused, overly commercial, but ambitious Kid Cudi mixtape previous Man on the moon II.

Wiz Khalifa feat. Curren$y- Rooftops

The Race by Wiz Khalifa

Overall the Album is a decent first album for an artist who hasn’t reached his peak in popularity, skill, or success.

Now for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Rolling Papers

The Good:

Entire CD is listenable which is RARE. Songs like The Race, Top Floor, Cameras, and Wake up show the strengths of Wiz on this album and really raised his score that .5!

The Bad:

after listening to the album straight through, I forgot what I had just listened to. Truly a “safe” freshman album. and WHERE WAS MAC MILLER?! Honestly 4 stars if a dope Miller/Khalifa joint was added to the finished product.

The Ugly:

The amount of untapped potential this album had.