Wiz Khalifa Fights the Fame Monster on “O.N.I.F.C.” (Album Review) Posted by Nathan S. on 12/05/12 | Filed under Opinion, Wiz Khalifa, Album Reviews

When I'm not busy posting booty pics elevating the field of journalism on RefinedHype I'm knocking out album reviews for the mothership, and after RefinedHype Nation asked for more album reviews I decided to flip the biggest reviews onto these pages as well. Next up is the one and only Wiz Khalifa and his new "O.N.I.F.C." album.

I've included some select paragraphs from my DJBooth review below, hit the link at the bottom of the page for the full thing. Feel free to tell me what a fucking moron genius I am in the comments below and we can really break down "O.N.I.F.C.". I'm already getting hate mail from Taylor loyalists, let the debate begin.

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He may not be the “best”, or the richest, or the most powerful, but Wiz Khalifa is certainly one of the most famous rappers alive. Thanks in large part to his new girlfriend’s large parts Kanye West’s every move is carefully chronicled, Jay-Z’s got entire arenas watching him instead of the Brooklyn Nets, and 50 Cent is the unquestioned GOAT when it comes to self-promotion, but outside of those …hold on, let me really think about this….yeah, I’m hard pressed to think of any rapper more likely to find his name in the headlines than Wiz Khalifa. He’s certainly the most famous rapper under 30-years-old. So I don’t doubt that he does often find himself the "O.N.I.F.C."

His transformation from every man stoner to unabashed millionaire, his increasingly eccentric style, celebrity wife (soon to be celebrity baby momma) and laid back charisma have ensured that the world wants to watch and read about Wiz. It’s an incredible accomplishment for a kid from Pittsburgh, and a testament to his hard work, but the danger of fame like that is that it can eclipse the music that earned you fame in the first place. The music isn’t the driving force anymore, it’s the thing you do between the shows and the interviews and the club appearances.

With that in mind, at the very least Wiz hasn’t become a victim of his own success. "O.N.I.F.C." isn’t a great album, but it isn’t lazy either. As easily as he could have gone on auto-pilot and coasted through his sophomore major label album, this album isn’t a throwaway. For starters, the production is excellent, although often subtly excellent (there’s no smack you in the face beat like "Black & Yellow" here). "Paperbond" is hazy enough to be appropriately hypnotic but with enough small touches to keep things interesting, the same goes for the Killa Cam-assisted "The Bluff", and "Fall Asleep" is lock to be one of the year’s most tragically overlooked instrumentals. (ID Labs is the sh*t, is the point). And of course "Remember You" is exactly the kind of distorted soul that I love from The Weeknd, although it certainly feels far more like a Weeknd track featuring Wiz than vice-versa; it’s nearly two minutes before we first hear his voice.



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Read the Full "O.N.I.F.C." Review via The DJBooth

See Also: Wiz Khalifa Hopes To “Rise Above” With Help From Amber Rose, Pharrell & Tuki Carter (Listen)