It’s about as close to “sensitive” as a song that revolves entirely around marijuana and hundred-dollar bills can get. The song features a delicate, ethereal production that glides hazily over a slow jam drum pattern as the MC’s trade off verses. At 17 tracks and more than 73 minutes long, the album quickly begins to drag, with tracks like “It’s Nothin” and “Initiation” adding nothing new or interesting to the sonic portraiture.Ī notable exception is “The Bluff,” featuring a guest appearance by NYC rapper Cam’ron. as a whole the production and guest appearances are on the money, but Khalifa lacks anything new to say as well as a new way to say it.Ībout 90 percent of the lyrics concern either the rapper’s love of smoking weed or his love of his own money. The song works well enough, but ultimately lacks the intangible energy captured in “Black and Yellow” and the rest of Rolling Papers. The verse mostly consists of Khalifa bragging about how rich he is, while the chorus strives for something a little more profound: “The quicker you here, the faster you go / That’s why where I come from the only thing we know is / Work hard, play hard.” The production is massive and grandiose, with a steel mill drum pattern pounding over an ominous single-note bass line. His first attempt is with O.N.I.F.C.’s lead single “Work Hard, Play Hard,” another Pittsburgh-centric anthem that does much to mimic his breakthrough hit.
After generating local interest - which eventually became national - with a series of mixtapes and independent releases, Khalifa rocketed to superstardom with the chart-topping Steelers anthem “Black and Yellow,” followed closely by his critically and commercially successful debut album Rolling Papers.Ī motion picture role alongside Snoop Dogg followed, and now the 25-year-old MC must produce another hit on par with “Black and Yellow” in order to maintain his newfound popularity and relevance. This is the all-too-familiar problem Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa finds himself battling on his sophomore major label release O.N.I.F.C. On the other, those very anticipations can have a crippling effect, as all of a sudden your art is created with other people’s expectations in mind rather than your own. Commercial success in the music industry is a double-edged sword on the one hand, you’ve made it - hundreds of thousands, even millions of fans are now awaiting your highly anticipated next release.