Ben Franklin had his lightning bolt. Newton had his apple. For Wiz Khalifa, the aha! moment must have come when he realized the words "green," "blow," "rollin' " and "paper" all applied to both marijuana and money. "Some say it's a problem/Blowin' my greens/Not savin' my collards," he raps on his hotly anticipated major-label debut. (Spoiler alert: He doesn't agree that it's a problem.)

Photos and Video: Wiz Khalifa, Cage the Elephant and the Smith Westerns Rock the Year's Coolest Looks

On Rolling Papers, Khalifa, the 23-year-old Pittsburgh rhymer responsible for the jersey-waving hit "Black and Yellow," manages to give life to those kinds of cash-gorged perma-baked clichés by warmly luxuriating in the space between pop's fresh-faced exuberance and hip-hop's easy arrogance - between skater and playa, Bieber and Biggie. This is a guy who can effortlessly segue from the ominous G-funk whir of "On My Level" to the adorably crushed-out R&B crooning of "Roll Up."

Video: Wiz Khalifa At SXSW

Khalifa doesn't record with big-name hip-hop cameos (unless Too Short and Curren$y count as big names). Stargate (the Norwegian hitmakers behind "Black and Yellow") and Pittsburgh homey E Dan give tracks like "Wake Up" and "Star of the Show" a warm, lush synth-gauze that lends lines such as "Got money, minor league turn major/Got money, white people turn neighbors" a surreal joyousness. Which is exactly the point: Khalifa hustled for years to get his big break, suffering record-label indignities, releasing mixtapes and using Twitter to build a following. When he raps, "I don't wanna wake up," on "Wake Up," you can't help but hope his dream lasts a while.

Listen to "On My Level (featuring Too Short)":

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."