Concert review: Wiz Khalifa, Vector Arena

Wiz Khalifa performs at Vector Arena in Auckland. Photo/Aaron Moffitt

There are weed-obsessed rappers, and then there's Wiz Khalifa, an artist so obsessed with the sticky stuff his eyesight is probably restricted to various shades of green.

The North Dakota star took just seconds at his first headlining New Zealand show to prove just how deep - and how ridiculous - his dedication to marijuana is.

"Make some noise if you smoke weed out there," Khalifa told the Vector Arena crowd as an introduction to California, the first of the night's many marijuana anthems that came with the stage bathed in dark green.

Wiz Khalifa performs at Vector Arena in Auckland. Photo/Aaron Moffitt

"Roll a joint, roll another one," he sang, before practicing what he preaches by inhaling something passed up to him from the front row.

Weed obsession in hip-hop is nothing new, and Khalifa's relentlessly green-tinged anthems - now spead across five albums in a 10-year career - would have been fine if he'd proved he had anything else to say.

But backed by a band that seemed to be attempting to mimic the downtuned thuggery of Korn, there were few moments that didn't reference Khalifa's favourite past-time while being delivered like a hammer to the head.

True, Ass Drop and Raw gave Khalifa a chance to show he has some bounce to go with his swagger, while We Dem Boyz was the night's best beers-up anthem, even if it's really only a super-catchy chorus repeated endlessly.

Wiz Khalifa performs at Vector Arena in Auckland. Photo/Aaron Moffitt

But the only song that showed any kind of depth was the night's closing anthem See You Again, his Fast & Furious 7 mega-hit that paid tribute to the film's late star Paul Walker and in the process made Khalifa a bigger deal than he probably deserves to be.

To put it bluntly, this was a half-cooked show from a probably half-baked rapper.

Who: Wiz Khalifa
Where: Vector Arena, Auckland
When: Friday, September 25

- nzherald.co.nz