I discovered Wiz Khalifa with his 2011 album Rolling Papers. I really liked that album. It was an interesting take on the world Khalifa found himself in and I'm beginning to believe he was at the peak of his art. Of course he was 24 when that album came out. In many ways Khalifa is now a more talented songwriter, but his lyrics are sliding into a deeper, darker, angrier space where all the drugs and partying seem to be living up to all the emptiness he so predicted with the Rolling Papers album.
I think one of the hardest things in life is seeing all the problems that are inherent to your life choices and having to make the choice of either continuing with what you know or trying something different.
Soren Kierkegaard brilliantly spoke of this in his book Either/Or. In that book we have two characters. One is a young man who is living a life of affairs and partying and making the argument that this is the best way to take full advantage of life. The other is a married man who makes the argument that in fact a life of marriage and family offers a much more challenging much more fruitful existence. After all each affair is in essence like the previous affair while every day in marriage your faced with a different set of choices.
Wiz Khalifa in Rolling Papers showed a depth of understanding of his existence that reflected someone on the verge of making a life choice. He chose to stick to the path most traveled and now is producing an album where we find him getting angrier and more paranoid about the world he has chosen to be a part of.
There is something about it that is quite sad, but there are some good hooks scattered around and you could easily find some good workout music off this album.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give the album 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.
Explicit Warning
This was a great review.
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