Five years ago Wiz Khalifa released his classic mixtape Kush & Orange Juice. Before it came out I was only a casual listener of Wiz. I remember first hearing of him when he released his first single; the 90’s dance music inspired “Say Yeah” in 2008. I enjoyed the song, but that was the only music I would hear from him for a couple years. Over the next two years Khalifa would release three mixtapes, an album, and a joint project with Curren$y entitled How Fly. This is all that led up to what is widely known as Wiz’s most complete body of work in his career. Following the release, Wiz would reach success that he wouldn’t of even thought possible; starring in a movie with Snoop Dogg, headlining sold out shows across the country, getting a strand of weed named after him (Khalifa Kush [KK]), and having his first child with a supermodel wife. Many things have changed since K & OJ, but one thing remains the same; it’s still a classic.

I was made aware of the mixtape’s availability through the massive Twitter campaign he launched in preparation for the release. #KushAndOrangeJuice was trending for a week leading up to the drop and was the number one trending topic on the day it was finally released. Khalifa was on the forefront of the internet marketing campaigns that we see most popular artists using today. The strategy certainly worked on me, and I downloaded the album the first day it came out. I remember the first time I listened to Kush & Orange Juice. It was during my freshman year of college, and it instantly became the non-stop sound track to my life. I have a vivid memory of just sitting in my dorm room by myself listening to the entire project over and over again. I thought the guitar riff sample on “Visions” was actually speaking to me. When I heard “In The Cut” I imagined attending the best party of all time. The final lyrics on “Up” made me feel like smoking and listening to this music was by far the best use of my time imaginable. Every song gave me a certain feeling that I can always go back to every time I listen to K & OJ.

In a recent interview with MTV reflecting on the success of Kush & Orange Juice, Wiz compared the project with classic albums such as Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic, and Ready To Die. There are differences between K & OJ and those classic albums from Jay-Z, Nas, and Biggie though. The most obvious one being all three of those rappers are in the conversation of best rappers of all time. Wiz Khalifa is nowhere near that conversation.

After Kush & Orange Juice Wiz has suffered from trying to appease his die-hard fans and his label at the same time. When you listen to the three albums he’s released with Atlantic, they’re inconsistent. There is an obvious clash between “Radio Wiz” and “Mixtape Wiz”. Let me clarify that I’m not claiming to know how Wiz Khalifa should run his career. Nor am I saying that I wouldn’t be enticed to make a couple subpar pop songs in exchanged for millions of dollars and everything else that comes with being a popular musician.

The most obvious exploitation of his fame was Wiz’s courting of stripper/model/video vixen and former girlfriend of Kanye West, Amber Rose. Rose reached out to Wiz on Twitter after he said he wanted to get with her in an interview. The two would go on to get married a year later and have a son together. Many die-hard fans attribute this relationship to the downfall of Wiz’s music. I tend to disagree with that statement. There hasn’t been a downfall, it’s simply been a shift to mainstream music, and more fans, and more money. Who are we to tell Wiz not to make as much money as he possibly can off his name?

Five years after the release of Kush & Orange Juice we find Wiz at a crossroads in his career. His most recent album Blacc Hollywood was a solid effort and even earned a Best Rap Album Grammy nomination. His record label, Taylor Gang, has a solid roster with artists like Juicy J, Chevy Woods, and Ty Dolla $ign. He’s getting ready for a major summer tour with Fall Out Boy, a pretty obvious (and most likely profitable) attempt to merge rap and rock demographics. He also had a pretty public divorce with Amber Rose, and was accused of cheating on her with twin sisters. This was a major blow to his “mainstream pop star” image he worked so hard to build. From this point, Wiz could take his career in numerous directions. He’s single again, so he may gain back some of the fans he lost once he started dating such a public figure like Rose. His next album will likely follow the blueprint he’s had for the previous three albums. Start with a catchy radio hit (“Black and Yellow”, “We Dem Boys”), throw in a feature from an established artist (“Let It Go”, “True Colors”), a party song (“No Sleep” “Stayin Out All Night”), and fill the rest out with what he actually wants to make. Wiz Khalifa is a brand synonymous with having fun, partying, and marijuana consumption. His songs will be played at every college party for at least the next 10 years.

Kush & Orange Juice came about at the perfect time in Khalifa’s career. The sweet spot in-between the artist finding out exactly who they are and what makes them so great and a record label exploiting that image for profit. K & OJ was released independently for no charge, which means there wasn’t as much riding on the success of the project compared to a normal album. There weren’t as many voices in the room influencing the direction of the project. This was Khalifa in his rawest and most potent form and he knew it. Wiz introduces the vibe K & OJ will have and announces the mission statement for the project in the opening track, “Waken Baken”.

Up above the clouds

No one holding me down

Smoking

Chilling

Up at the top of the world

To me, Kush & Orange Juice is about not being held back by what other people want you to do. It’s about finding who you are at your core and being that person. No outside influences telling you what you should be doing. This is the struggle that many millennial’s are going through today. I know what I want to do, but how do I go out and do that? Wiz explains K & OJ as “Sort of me coming to change what I had seen and what I knew there was a void in the game of. That was that ridin’ and smokin’ music, that chillin’, relaxin’ shit that I do on the everyday anyway. That was my angle when I did that.”

Kush & Orange Juice is a rare moment in time when Wiz Khalifa was able to be the most himself he could possibly be. There are only a few times, if any, an individual will be able to do that in their life. This moment is what helped get me through my early college years and continues to bring me joy to this day. If Wiz can get back to the sound and attitude he had on K & OJ isn’t what matters. All that matters is he released a piece of work that perfectly describes a moment in his life, and that’s something very few people are able to do.