Essential Atlantic: Wiz Khalifa, ROLLING PAPERS

Wiz Khalifa made the jump (back) to the major labels on his own terms. The Pittsburgh rapper had built a massive and diehard following over the course of two albums--Show and Prove (2006) and Deal or No Deal (2009)--followed by the instantly classic mixtape, Kush and Orange Juice (2010).

The stage was set for Khalifa's Atlantic Records debut, and he delivered another hip-hop touchstone: "Black and Yellow." Released on September 14, 2010, the song's pro-Pittsburgh vibes made it the anthem of hometown NFL franchise, Pittsburgh Steelers, for the year. It was the #1 song in America for the week of February 19, 2011.

Khalifa was still basking in the glow of topping the Hot 100 for the first time when he released his Atlantic Records debut, Rolling Papers, on March 29, 2011. The album's second single, "Roll Up," dropped in February, and would go on to peak at #13 on the singles chart over the summer. There would be five singles from the LP in total, with "On My Level," "The Race" and "No Sleep."

With the pre-release hype hitting a fever-pitch in light of the "Black and Yellow" breakout success, Rolling Papers launched out of the gate to debut at #2 on the Billboard 200 right behind Britney Spears' Femme Fatale. By June 2016, the album was certified double platinum.

"It's my job to keep the fans entertained, to find new ways to keep people involved," the rapper told NBC in 2011 about his online-based success. "I can't say that everything I do, I plan, either. Some of it is just like, letting fans keep up with you and see you in an everyday type of light. The internet has always been a great tool, because you can reach the cool people who are up on new stuff first...but lately people have seen like, how much you can do with Twitter and everything like that. Everything is web-driven, everything is available. You gotta put yourself out there where everyone can see you, and you can only do that with the web."