I had the
opportunity to listen to Wiz Khalifa’s new CD this past week. I absolutely
loved Rolling Papers, his breakout
album from back in early 2011, so I was excited to listen to his new album, O.N.I.F.C., which came out last Tuesday.
The excitement, sadly, wore off approximately 70 seconds into the album, around
the time when Wiz uttered his first sentence, which is “I got enough weed to
last me the rest of my life.” Really, Wiz? You don’t say. I wouldn’t have been
able to tell by the album cover, so thanks for clearing that up for me.
Not to hate on him. I actually
still think he’s quite awesome. After all, the brilliance of Rolling Papers gave him the confidence
and clearance to wear an outfit like that on his album cover. It’s just that O.N.I.F.C. is a shockingly unoriginal
album by someone from whom I really expected something great. It’s little more
than 73 minutes of cookie cutter beats and scattered proclamations of smoking
and spending money like it ain’t nothin’. Let me elaborate. In the 9th
track, “Time,” he begins the song by asking, “Who else you know smoke a half
pound in 7 days,” and 45 seconds later, explains that “I spend money every
chance I get, cuz goddamn I work hard.” Well which is it? Not only is smoking a
half pound in 7 days just a flagrant waste of marijuana, but who is smoking
that much and working goddamn hard?
Maybe he does work hard. I don’t
know. He must have been working hard last year when “Black and Yellow,” a
number-one hit in 2011, came out, and I’m sure he wasn’t smoking any less when
he decided to name that album Rolling
Papers. I’m just disappointed. He’s got really, really good flow. He seems
like an exceedingly likable guy. He rhymes quickly, and his voice has a
distinct scratchy characteristic about it that makes it unique. I wanted to
love his album, but I can’t.
Not that it matters to him. Have
I mentioned his album cover? Does that look like a gentleman who is concerned
what I think of it? That’s probably what I like most about him. Wiz Khalifa
wasn’t put on earth to cause problems. He was put on earth to smoke a lot of
weed, spend a lot of money, and rap. And no, his album isn’t a complete
disaster. Highlights of the album include the 5th song, “The Bluff,”
and the 14th track, “No Limit,” which despite being an intimidating
9:28 long, contains the best rapping of the album.
The best song is the 10th track, “It’s Nothin,” but even that
song relies on 2 Chainz to save the day. Did I really just type that? 2 Chainz
utters the hilariously stupid, yet undisputed line of the album when he tells
Wiz, “All I want in this world, I mean all I want for lunch, is a blunt, and
yo’ girl.”
It’s entirely possible that the
sound waves emitted from O.N.I.F.C. would
travel better if they were cutting through a thick cloud of Purple Haze,
similar to how listening to Dark Side of
the Moon works with watching “The Wizard of Oz.” I wouldn’t know. So for
now I’m going to have to chalk this album up as very, very mediocre. I’m not
going to chalk Wiz Khalifa up as mediocre, and I’ll continue to listen to Rolling Papers; I’m just going to write
this one off. Not that Wiz Khalifa gives a shit. Have you seen the album cover?
Grade: C
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