By now, you should know who Wiz Khalifa is and if you don’t, get from under that rock. Over the past 9 months he has dropped two of the hottest mixtapes of last year, left his major label so that he could control his own destiny and proved that he made the right decision with his aptly titled album Deal Or No Deal. With such a jam packed ’09, Wiz is on pace to make sure everyone knows who he is in 2010. We sat down with Wiz Khalifa to talk about his plans for this year, his feelings on commercial success, How Fly: The Movie, and what’s an interview with Mister Spacely without talking about the nuggets? TGOD!iR: Wiz Khalifa, welcome. What’s up man?
W: Nothing bro, how are you?
iR: Good. Trying to make 2010 my bitch. What big things do you have planned for 2010?
W: Trying to build my movement. I’m still going to be on the grind on the internet, a lot more of the same. I’m also in the studio trying to get this album ready, smoke a lot of weed [Laughs].
iR: Well I can’t possibly see you not smoking a lot of weed this year [Laughs], but you mentioned you're getting your album ready and Deal Or No Deal had some original material, but also some songs from previous mixtapes. Is First Flight what you’re working on that’s on the way?
W: Oh yeah. We’re not gonna call it First Flight though we’re going to change the name, but there is an album of original material on the way. Deal Or No Deal introduced a lot of my new fans to my music which is something I really wanted to do, because some of them had only heard Flight School or How Fly, so I included a few old tracks to get them familiar, and for my original fans who have been holding me down, they got some new shit, but they got the old bangers that they love, so I think it was a good mix. My new album is on the way.
iR: Who is going to be on the album? Is Sledgren still going to handle most of the production?
W: Yeah, Sledgren is going to do some beats, Juliano, my man Big Jerm, and there will probably be some songs on there with Josh Everette. We’re gonna keep it home team.
iR: Sounds like it’s going to be very legit, when do you anticipate it will be released?
W: We haven’t put a date on it yet.
iR: Can we get ready for a 2010 release, or is it going to be later?
W: Oh I will make sure it gets released this year. With the situation I’m in now, I have a lot more control over that kind of thing, so it’s definitely coming this year.
iR: Let’s talk about your situation, you left your major label deal and you’re going the independent route now, but do you ever feel that an artist can get the worldwide tours and vast commercial success without the backing of a major label?
W: I think it’s possible. I think anything is possible. You just have to get the money situation right by having enough people to buy your music. That’s what I’m working on as an independent, building a following that will be around for a while.
Wiz Khalifa - Hello Kitty (On The Pill) (Ft. Kev Tha Hustler)
iR: Do you feel that your career is building enough steam to get the kind of look you got with Deal Or No Deal, on a consistent basis?
W: Hopefully. That’s why I’m always in the studio, on the internet or on Twitter, shooting all types of videos, reading all of the comments. Most rappers won’t read the comments; they think “niggas just hatin” but almost all of the hate is legitimate and I read the hate so I know what people aren’t feeling. I want to make everything about my career available to my fans and I think that has helped a lot, because I got a lot of new fans in 2009 and I think that’s a big reason the album did as well as it did with no nationwide ad campaign or a major label anywhere in sight. If I just keep putting out good music then I can definitely see us being able to.
iR: I want to address a growing trend on Twitter—one that you haven’t been a part of thankfully—what are your thoughts on rappers retweeting dick riding comments from attention hungry stans?
W: I hate that! I’m glad you noticed I don’t do that. I will get on Twitter after the show and tweet something occasionally, and I will retweet someone who was part of it, like I pass joints out to fans at shows, so I will retweet something like “smoked a joint with Wiz!!” but if I release a project I won’t retweet “you’re the best man! Keep doing what you’re doing. I love you!” Those are people using the powers of twitter for evil. [Laughs]
iR: Do you think that this trend just proves what many have been saying for awhile: twitter is just an echo chamber for celebrities?
W: Nah, twitter has a lot of good uses, and it’s helped me out a lot to get me where I am now. It’s just like anything, like a power, it’s going to be used for bad and for good.
iR: We have to stop the lex lugers of twitter. But one thing that’s not hard to see is that you have a genuine “started from nothing” story…would it be fair to characterize your movement as grassroots?
W: For sure. We started from nothing. Five years ago I couldn’t get people to pronounce my name right, now I’m definitely a rapper that you can’t sleep on. When you just look at everything about me and the progression you can tell it’s authentic. I didn’t have a hit single and get a twitter page with 100,000 followers in a day. I started with zero and now I’m at 50,000[editor’s note: 58,188…don’t be modest]. It is definitely a grassroots movement.
iR: What do you think that adds to your mystique as a rapper?
W: Reality. It lets the fans know that I’m real. My fans know I don’t need a $10,000 beat to have a good song they know I can just step in the studio and do it. They know that because I chat with my fans live in the studio and they see it, they know I’m a real ass nigga and part of that is because of—like you said—my movement being grassroots.
Photography by: Amanda M Hatfield | Edited by: mikewaxxiR: With that being said—what do you feel about rappers who may have had assistance from established entities in the game claiming that they also are “grassroots” in order to boost their street cred?
W: Do you. I don’t refer to myself as that on a consistent basis. I’m just trying to create my own space. I can’t tell them they aren’t. If you feel that you came from nothing call yourself grassroots [Laughs].
iR: You just mentioned creating your own space, and trail blazing has been quite consistent throughout your career, be it Twitter, Ustream or something else. Do you think that staying in your own lane is more important than commercial success?
W: Yeah. You gotta be yourself at the end of the day. If you jock someone else’s style you might get paid, but you won’t have any staying power if you’re unoriginal.
iR: Considering the crop of rappers on MTV right now…do you think that you have to sacrifice one in order for the other? Commercial success or being original?
W: No. You can definitely have both. Look at someone like Devin the Dude who has built a following of fans who will stay loyal no matter what. He’s never changed or dumbed his shit down for a quick check he’s always been the same nigga rappin about getting high and he’s content with that. It’s all about being content.
iR: Well you mentioned being content with that situation, and no diss to Devin the Dude, because in my opinion he’s easily one of the greatest rappers alive, but he hasn’t enjoyed that vast commercial success that we have discussed. He hasn’t ascended to the level of Jay-Z and Kanye. When will you be content?
W: I don’t know I just want to keep focused. I don’t want to put a ceiling on my career. I would love to have a career like Devin the Dude though because he is still getting paid, he gets high all of the time, and he can do a show where everyone is singing along to his shit. I’d much rather be at that level than hit it big with a bullshit single and try to live off that for the rest of my life.
iR: I just can’t get a prediction out of you can I?
W: [Laughs] Nope.
iR: Well five years ago did you hope you’d be where you are now?
W: [Laughs] Shit, 8 months ago I hoped to be where I’m at.
iR: Well then can you give us an image of what you hope to get out of the next five years…or at least 2010?
W: By the end of 2010 I want to be a millionaire.
iR: A rapper millionaire with 100k in real life? Or a legit millionaire?
W: A million dollars in the bank!
iR: Can we hope for How Fly 2 in 2010?
W: Yeah! Me and Spitta are trying to do How Fly: The Movie and we’re going to put out How Fly the soundtrack to go along with the movie.
iR: Tell us a little bit about How Fly: The Movie.
W: Me and Spitta have a nice little storyline for the movie and everything we’re just trying to get it all in motion. Right now we’re just looking for someone to write it, so once that happens we’ll see where it goes. How Fly: The movie coming soon.
iR: Wow… are Spitta and Spacely the next Red and Meth?
W: I hope so. We’re just two cool dudes that love to get high [Laughs].
iR: Speaking of smoking weed and Curren$y, I have seen you praising the nug game down in New Orleans, even ranking it second to California.
W: Yeah, the weed is great down there, I flew to NO last week just to smoke the weed down there with Curren$y.
Wiz Khalifa - This Plane (Live)
iR: Seeing as how you’re ranking N.O. number two behind Cali, can I assume you’ve never been out here to Arizona?
W: [Laughs] Yeah, I have been out there before. I was in Tucson and it was kind of boring, but the weed was pretty good.
iR: Yeah that’s no bueno, Tucson is lame as fuck. You need to make your way out to Phoenix and I will show you what’s up on the nug game out here.
W: I got you! I was out in Phoenix about two years ago, but I guess I need to get back out there.
iR: Most definitely. What’s the situation like back home in the ‘burgh?
W: It’s good. Pittsburgh has some real good weed again. It was good all through high school and until I turned 21, but it kind of fell off after that. The weed was still good, but it was just much worse than I was used to in Pittsburgh, but since I have been 22 it’s definitely gotten back on point. The way the climate is though you can’t grow shit locally so it’s all from different locations.
iR: You’re definitely on a different level musically with regards to the weed, every mixtape or album is—
W: Weed infused music isn’t it?
iR: Yeah. No one can ever question your sincerity when you say “I rap about smoking weed and fucking bitches”.
W: I actually wanted to do a mixtape full of weed songs. [I did] Grow Season and I was going to have a sequel, Grow Season 2 and call it G2.
iR: What happened to that?
W: I don’t want to sound like I’m dissing anyone but Bow Wow released his mixtape called G2 so I [didn’t] (Greenlight 2) strayed away from that idea. I’m thinking about just making a cool little mixtape with a nice vibe to it. A lot of peoples favorite song off Deal Or No Deal is who I am from POC2. I’m thinking about doing a couple songs like that, some odd weird shit for the people
iR: Hopefully we can make that happen. I have to ask, who started the Anti Cigarillo campaign?
W: Well it’s funny because I was rolling joints here and there this time last year. I was smoking blunts but I would still roll a couple joints. I didn’t know how to roll them all the way or smoke them all the way so I was still smoking hella blunts. Then it just came to a point I was rolling more and more joints, that was about the time I met curren$y and I was like no more blunts. Now I won’t even hit them.
iR: More power to you, but how do you go from a cigarillo fiend to an exclusive user of paper planes?
W: It’s easy. You just gotta kick that tobacco habbit man. When you realize the difference in the high and the taste of the weed you’ll wanna smoke joints more than blunts. Them shits man…they make my head hurt. They make me tired.
iR: I respect that, and I definitely agree with you on a lot of points, but what are you going to do about the culture you have created that is exclusively about original swisher sweets?
W: All swisher smokers be showing up to my shows like “hit the swisher” I be like naw man.[Laughs] I tell them it’s papers now and a lot of people are converting to smoking papers. I learned the way of the samurai and the same way I said swisher sweets no Phillies it’s ez-widers no ‘gars now.
iR: Since the problem is a dislike for blunts and not an extreme favoring of papers, what’s your glass game like? We all saw the day today where the bong rips out your heart and spits on your soul [Laughs].
W: I got another one coming out where we hit the six feet bong…I acquired metal lungs [Laughs], but I got a couple pieces, but I don’t do too much glass, they’re too germy.
iR: You have just schooled the world on how to get high, so I guess I will get you out of here on this….Taylor Gang or?
W: Get on the internet while you’re in the bathtub.
iR: Thanks for taking the time to sit down with illRoots Wiz.
W: Thank you. I appreciate it brotha. Good look.
