By Mike MaherWiz Khalifa’s new album “Rolling Papers” dropped yesterday. The hype behind Rolling Papers was bigger than usual because it was not a mixtape, which is Wiz’s usual method of music. Less than 24 hours after the release, sales seem to be promising. On itunes Wiz has the number one single with “No Sleep” and the number two album behind Britney Spears (babe).
The album itself has a different sound than the music Wiz has put out in previous years. There is a lot of singing, specifically featured on the hit single “No Sleep” as well as in songs “Cameras”, “Roll Up” and “Fly Solo”. The songs also discuss different topics than the ones Khalifa got famous from, which include weed. This could be very interesting because critics usually attack Wiz’s lack of diversity in songs, claiming that he only raps about “pot and partying”. Although the album has its fair share of those topics, he also dips into other areas.
Another aspect that will be interesting is the radio. In the past Wiz could rarely be played on the radio because of the contents of his lyrics. With the new album comes an edited version, which I’m sure will get a lot of play on the local hip-hop radio station. This could only mean one thing, teenage girls and wiggers (Deacon in high school) all around the country will get to hear the hits off the new album and fall in love with Wiz. This will lead to the girls and high school Deacon’s believing they “discovered” the best new “rapper” out there. It will be both good and bad for Wiz. Good because it will broaden his fan base, but bad because the good songs will get way overplayed by high school Deacon’s and become bad songs because of them.
I think Wiz is about to blow up in the next couple months, through this album and his movie “High School” with Snoop (which should be hilarious). It will be interesting to see if the main stream changes Wiz. I do not think it will. Dude’s real.
-Legend
P.S. I think the blonde streak is pretty fresh.