Rampant stonerism is fine, assuming you don't get so zonked that you put out records like Rolling Papers, Wiz Khalifa's sluggish 2011 debut. The rapper apologized in an open letter to his fans, and atoned earlier this year with a slippery mixtape; now Khalifa repents in full with an album as solid as Rolling Papers was slack. Wiz's subject matter is pretty standard: waking, baking and, between massive bong hits, babymaking with his model-fiancee Amber Rose. The beats, by Pittsburgh homeboys ID Labs and others, whip up aural smoke billows, and Khalifa's are just off-kilter enough – "Is it 'cuz I'm hella paid?/I think it might be/Yeah, my pocket's hella straight" – to give you a contact high.

Listen to 'O.N.I.F.C.'

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."