Wiz Khalifa releases repetitive, yet melodic new album

Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa released his third album “Rolling Papers” on Tuesday.

The album is supposed to serve as a breakthrough for Khalifa, who saw a big increase in mainstream popularity in 2010 for his popular Pittsburgh anthem “Black and Yellow” and the subsequent imitations by other artists.

Although I never have been a big fan of Khalifa, “Rolling Papers” is the first album of his that I’ve been able to listen to from start to finish. Khalifa brought his best work to the table and proved to critics and doubters that he isn’t more bark than bite.

Let’s get this out of the way ahead of time: Khalifa’s lyrics are about as deep as a rain puddle in the African desert.

In the majority of his work, he’s talking about weed, smoking weed, buying weed, thinking about weed and spending massive amounts of money on women and weed.

It’s not the subject matter that bothers me, but the repetitiveness of it — the man has made his entire career to this point on the merits of getting high, and making sure everybody knows about it on a constant basis.

I even would argue the content of lyrics is correlated to his inability to rise up into the mainstream music market to this point.
This album doesn’t vary that aspect up at all — even the title of the album doesn’t bother to confuse anybody.

But what the music lacks in quality and varying themes, it more than makes up for with a melodic flow and clever hooks that make his music catchy and embraces his signature style.

The album embodies the mixtape genre where Khalifa has made his name and it immediately caters to his followers. His mixtape “Kush and Orange Juice” arguably is as good as any of the albums he has released.

Although it’s not clear if “Rolling Papers” will be as groundbreaking or memorable as “Tha Carter III” or “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” have been in recent years, Khalifa steps into the spotlight and embraces the role as one of hip-hop’s young guns.

Others such as Big Sean, Mike Posner, Kid Cudi, Lupe Fiasco, J. Cole and Nicki Minaj also personify that role and are on the cusp of hip-hop superstardom.

It’s important to remember Khalifa is 23 and isn’t nearly as polished as he eventually will be.

There are questions about whether Khalifa can stay out of legal trouble ­— he was arrested in November 2010 for having 60 grams of weed on his tour bus. Legal trouble could derail a very promising career with a lot of potential.

But if he can remain hungry to get to the top, Khalifa will be a force to be reckoned for years to come in the hip-hop community.

For now, Khalifa has released a strong album that likely will receive radio play, and I hope he will parlay that popularity into another tour and eventually, mainstream success.

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