It has been a surprisingly great year for mainstream hip hop. Usually a genre in which singles mean a lot more than albums, several rappers in mainstream have put out impressive, well thought out projects in 2014. Rick Ross, Future, and especially YG's albums from this year were excellent, with the latter still being my 2nd favorite album of the year so far. Today, I will take a look at another mainstream release, Wiz Khalifa's Blacc Hollywood. As time has gone on, I have become less and less of a fan of Wiz Khalifa. Years ago, I was a huge Wiz fan, and his projects at the time were pretty solid. I can safely say, though, that I haven't liked any of this guy's work in a couple years. Will he regain me as a fan with this new album, Blacc Hollywood?
Instrumentally, I felt this album was pretty weak. On Wiz's past albums I have appreciated the forward-thinking, atmospheric production. I was disappointed to hear this album conform to the trap production that many albums these days go for. There was nothing unique about the production here. The production was not terrible or bad, but it was just very repetitive and boring. Songs like Hope, We Dem Boyz, Raw, The Sleaze, Still Down, and No Gain were all very dull, and uninteresting. I was let down because Wiz Khalifa albums have always had very distinct relaxing vibes to them, and this just didn't have that. Even the more unique beats just didn't work for me. The song Promises went for a slow, ballad-like instrumental, but it was just not strong. The beat sounded flat and not much stood out. The song Ass Drop was just ridiculous, in a bad way. This production was awful, with the high-pitched chipmunk vocals and odd piano interludes right in the middle of the track. I really had no idea what they were going for here.While some songs on this album had nice, chilled out beats, like House in the Hills and True Colors, there were too many unimaginative and boring instrumentals on this project as a whole.
Much like the instrumentals, I felt like Wiz himself was trying to go for a more trap friendly sound with his rapping on Blacc Hollywood. He didn't sound very good on a lot of these tracks. He was either using a boring, unoriginal flow or trying something new and failing. First and foremost, though, there were a few solid tracks on this album. I enjoyed the hit single, We Dem Boyz. Even though I don't think Wiz should use auto-tune that much, I felt it worked well on this track. This was just an exciting, infectious song. House on the Hills was a good track as well. I felt Wiz rapped well here, getting a bit personal with the lyrics. The hook was catchy, and then Curren$y comes in with a great verse. That is pretty much it for tracks that I thought were actually solid here. Hope, The Sleaze, Still Down, and True Colors, were just okay, and I had no problem with these. Every other song, though, was straight up bad. Promises was a weak love ballad, and KK was a boring track with a very annoying hook. Even Juicy J could not save that song, with a weak verse at the end from him. This album really hit a low point once it got to the three-song stretch of Ass Drop, Raw, and Stayin Out All Night. These were the three worst on the album, and it was torture to hear them all in a row. Ass Drop was a confusing, schizophrenic song, with its constantly changing beat and awful content. Raw was a boring trap banger that was pretty hard to listen to. Wiz just should not go down that lane. I felt Wiz Khalifa tried a lot of different things on this album, but a lot of them didn't work. Some examples would be his flow on the track So High, and his singing attempt on the hook for True Colors. Neither of these sounded flattering. I will give credit to True Colors, as it was a decent way to the end the album and Nicki Minaj's verse was pretty tolerable. Overall though, this album was a bit of a dud from Wiz. It had no cohesion, and the album tried too many different things. I think Wiz should stay in his lane, because in my opinion, Blacc Hollywood was one of his worst projects ever.
BLACC HOLLYWOOD WRAP UP
+A few pretty good songs
+Some nice relaxing production here and there
-Too many boring, unoriginal instrumentals
-Wiz did not impress me with his rapping
-He tried alot of new things, most of which felt forced and did not work for him
Best: We Dem Boyz, House in the Hills, Still Down
Worst: Raw
Wiz Khalifa- Blacc Hollywood
4.3/10
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