1: The Good Fly Young, exceeds the expectations set by his less-than-topshelf recent output and his history of incessant trend-hopping.
#WIZ KHALIFA TIME HOW TO#
Many a millennial-this one included-learned to roll a perfect joint by watching the now-canonical “ How to Roll a Perfect Joint with Wiz Khalifa.”īut at his laziest, Wiz Khalifa’s inability to commit to a single style can leave his albums unfocused, as on last year’s woeful Rolling Papers 2. His Taylor Gang record label revived the career of Juicy J, introduced us to Ty Dolla $ign, and he was one of the first mainstream acts to work with the likes of SpaceGhostPurrp, Chief Keef, and Thundercat. This adventurousness has made Wiz Khalifa one of the most quietly influential rappers of the last ten years. His greatest assets are malleability and flexibility, which have allowed him to try out a variety of styles and subgenres, from the relaxed stoner rap of Kush and Orange Juice to the Top 40 trap of “ We Dem Boyz.” Khalifa claims Pittsburgh, but he’s also an army brat his voice is accentless, and there’s little in the way of regional flair to his music. His appeal was always in his effortlessness-every syllable crisply annunciated, each bar delivered with a little melody. Somehow, throughout rap’s tumultuous and transformative last decade, Wiz has persisted. But instead, Cameron Jibril Thomaz signed with Warner, dropped a single that sampled Alice DJ’s “Better Off Alone,” ended his relationship with Warner, released an independent mixtape that flipped everything from Camp Rock to the Chrono Trigger score, signed with Atlantic, and became a star off a Super Bowl anthem. There’s an alternate universe in which Wiz Khalifa fell off the face of the Earth entirely, like his fellow 2010 XXL Freshman Pill, or became a full-time marijuana farmer like the fizzled-out Internet sensation Jackie Chain, who debuted a year after “Say Yeah” with his own trance-sampling single. Being a Wiz fan in 2019, in other words, gets you about as much respect as wearing a Harley Quinn shirt in public or slapping a Paul Walker memorial bumper stacker on your Nissan Skyline. The Pittsburgh rapper’s two most streamed tracks on Spotify are a good indication of his current clout level: the Charlie Puth-featuring “See You Again” from the Furious 7 soundtrack and the Hot Topic-approved posse cut “Sucker for Pain” from Suicide Squad. It’s been a long time since it was cool to like Wiz Khalifa.