Roll Up

Album: Rolling Papers (2011)
Charted: 42 13
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the second major label single released by Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa. The song acts as the follow-up to his breakthrough hit "Black and Yellow," which was titled after his hometown football team's black and canary color scheme. Khalifa explained that the song's inspiration was a resource he's familiar with. "Really, I just needed another single and we were trying to come up with a look and then me and [my manager] talked about it," he told MTV. "We talked about it for three minutes. And then I came up with that song."
  • A song called "Roll Up" from the album Rolling Papers must be about marijuana, right? According to Khalifa, that's not the case; it's about being willing to "roll up" and see your girl whenever she needs you. Khalifa told MTV News: "I was trying to be funny, be clever as possible," said Wiz. "It's for the chicks. It's for guys to sing to chicks. And it's just a fun song."
  • The song was previously released in September 2010 as the lead single on Los Angeles producer and rapper Terrace Martin's EP Here, My Dear with Khalifa as a featured artist.
  • Khalifa's summer-love anthem features production by the Norwegian team Stargate, who were also responsible for his breakout hit "Black and Yellow."
  • Khalifa explained during an UStream session that there were a few reasons for the album title. "It's called 'Rolling Papers,' like the papers that you roll, the papers that I roll, the papers that we smoke. But it's deeper than that too. I thought of this before I even started recording the album and before it was a full idea. It's not just about the weed thing. It's bigger than that. My career really took off when I started smoking papers.

    The second reason I called it 'Rolling Papers' is when I left Warner Bros., I sort of got my 'rolling papers," he continued. "I got my contract, f---ing rolled up and smoked. And I was able to walk and I was able to leave and I was able to do my thing and I was able to capitalize off that. The third reason why I named it 'Rolling Papers,' I quit writing a long time ago. I stopped physically writing it down or putting it in my BlackBerry or iPhone. I write notes down, but I don't write whole verses, so it was like saying goodbye to the paper. The paper's rolling out too."
  • The song's music video finds Khalifa courting his love interest, who is played by R&B singer Cassie.

Comments: 1

  • Jake from St. Louis, MoThat makes me sad. Thought it was about weed with weed customers lol
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