Speaker: 00:00:00

Today we're talking about the documentary Still Rolling Papers, which is a 10 year

anniversary reflection on Wiz Khalifa's Rolling Papers album.

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On this episode of Hip Hop Movie Club,

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we bury the paper thin storytelling of this documentary

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but praise how it reveals Wiz Khalifa's Pittsburgh pride

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his signature style

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and his kindred connection with none other than Snoop Dogg.

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I'm DynoWright, filmmaker, designer, longtime hip hop fan.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, longtime hip hop fan.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, longtime hip hop fan.

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I didn’t

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find this documentary all that compelling.

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It's more like a 30 minute promotion for the album and the persona of Wiz Khalifa.

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I didn't really get any sign of conflict.

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he thought that “Black and Yellow” should be the single off his album, his first one for Atlantic.

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And people were saying, his manager was saying, this wasn't it, this wasn't it.

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But why?

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Yeah

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I kept asking why.

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Like I listened to the song.

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It's fine.

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Why wasn't this the lead single?

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I didn't get it.

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He stuck to his guns and said that it should be the single.

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And of course it went multi-platinum and the album went double platinum, but it just sort

of happened.

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tell me why you think this is it or it's not it.

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I can get something out of it.

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And I just felt this was just, for the people who love

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Wiz Khalifa, this is probably really great.

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But for those of us who coming into it pretty cold, I thought, okay.

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asking why a lot, like, okay, why?

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Why?

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I felt like a nine-year-old.

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Yeah, that's a great point though because now that you mention it, if they didn't want

Black and Yellow to be the lead single, what was the other song?

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What was the other song?

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Yeah, that's a good question because I'm like, yeah, what was the other song and why was

it?

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Yeah, right.

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have been "Cameras" or something.

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another thing that I wish I had seen more is this transition from Rostrum Records, his

hometown label, the sort of joint venture with Warner Brothers.

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And then he leaves that arrangement, goes on his own for a little while.

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And then he gets signed to Atlantic.

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They give it some lip service, but it was just sort of like, oh, it's happening.

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Why Atlantic?

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Why did Atlantic want him?

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You don't get any of this in a 30 minute documentary, but yeah, I wish I could have learned something substantial.

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Yeah, very good points, yeah.

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I called this “Still Rolling Promos”.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, he left something to be desired.

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It's kind of like it's a snapshot of some of the highlights of his career.

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And again, celebrating the Rolling Papers tour, which became a huge album for him that put

him on the map.

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I didn't come away from oh my God, Wiz, whatever.

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He had this crazy struggle and like you said, no conflict and it wasn't a big arc.

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was just like, yeah, he grinded.

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He's loyal.

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He's Pittsburgh dude.

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And the big thing about him is his Pittsburgh roots.

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So he was from Hazelwood PA right there in Pittsburgh.

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Some called him the Rocky Balboa of Pittsburgh.

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So the fact that he represents Pittsburgh.

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kind of cool.

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In fact his biggest hit that most people remember is “Black and Yellow” which was everywhere back when it came out.

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Which obviously the Pittsburgh sports teams you see is Pirates but the Steelers are known

as the black and yellow but I didn't realize really his car was black and yellow too and

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it was really a lot about his car as well.

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Yeah.

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One thing that I noticed that stood about him too was that he had a strong affinity for Chuck Taylors.

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And that was pretty cool.

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Like usually some people, they blow up and they start deviating from where they started

from.

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They change their style.

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They get these stylists that want create an image, but he wore Chuck Taylors.

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And not only did he wear Chuck Taylors, but he started collaborating with guys who also

wore Chuck Taylors.

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It's like they all were, had the same, pretty much the same fashion sense.

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they all kind of hung out together.

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Hence the start of the Taylor Gang.

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And that was pretty cool like you said, JB, that he had a loyalty to his friends and his

collaborators and they stuck together through it.

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Yeah.

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He's like, I don't spend any money on fancy shoes.

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I mean, I got to spend my money on my weed, my studio time and we're buying Chuck Taylor's

and yeah.

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You have to have priorities.

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He stuck to his priorities.

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And like I said, I love to see that tight knit crew.

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I like the little riffs they do on the Pittsburgh Pirates logos that they did in the

Taylor Gang and some of the

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the swag they had wearing and stuff.

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And then the Snoop Dogg connection, it's funny.

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Snoop said, my kids told me about Wiz and he said, I got to check out this kid.

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of course he related to him being the love of weed and stuff.

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And he said, I see Wiz as like a younger version of himself or reincarnation, so to speak

of, of me.

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I wish Dre produced him!

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What...can you imagine?

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Can you imagine some Dre production?

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Alright, you want to go around and rate this documentary?

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See what we have to say about it?

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Sure.

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Alright.

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So Boogie, for Still Rolling Papers, a Wiz Khalifa documentary, would you bring this funky

flick back or leave it in the vault?

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Hmm.

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Interesting.

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trying to figure out How I would rate this one.

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I enjoyed it, but at the same time, like DynoWright said, it didn't have that full...

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Like, I would watch a documentary on him, but I don't know if I would necessarily want to

watch this one again.

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I need a longer one.

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So for that, I probably will leave this one in the vault.

102

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All right, DynoWright, would you bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

103

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for the fans of Wiz Khalifa, I'm sure it's fine, but I am leaving this in the vault.

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All right.

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I did take some tidbits away from it and ah I'm a PA guy myself and so I will bring this

funky flick back.

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I did laugh when he said the Rocky Balboa Pittsburgh.

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I was like, look at that.

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Being that Rocky Balboa's from Philly, he's like, what?

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He's like, wait a minute.

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I did see him wear an Eagles hat during this thing so I did notice that.

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Liberated fandom or at least he liked the colors.

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Thank you for tuning in to the Hip Hop Movie Club, the show for serious hip hop fans who

want to deepen their cultural knowledge.

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I'm DynoWright, filmmaker, designer, long time hip hop fan, and my go to order at

Primanti's is a pastrami and cheese.

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Love it.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, longtime hip hop fan.

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And I toured the city of Pittsburgh this past summer for the first time, enjoyed the many

murals, including those of the late Roberto Clemente and Mac Miller, both taken from us

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far too

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Yeah.

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And I'm Boogie, DJ, long time hip hop fan, and I've been to Pittsburgh only once.

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And that was for a layover on my way to Indianapolis.

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Long story short, I need to visit ASAP.

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A-S-A-P, I need to go.

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Great city.

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Fun city.

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Really fun.

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And remember, don't hallucinate.

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Whoa, okay.

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Now, I don't know I'm saying.

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Just go up and smoke or like a AI hallucinate.

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I don't know, but sometimes you just gotta, sometimes you just gotta step out of the,

atmosphere, by whatever means.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Haven't used that one before, we had to throw it in there.

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That's good.

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These days.