SNAPCHAT idol
DJ Khaled is getting lots of app-reciation from Bey and millions more
THINK Snapchat is for narcissistic millennials? Try telling DJ Khaled that.
The 40-year-old Miami resident has built a solid career in the hip-hop world during the past 10 years, with eight albums and several Top 40 hits such as 2007’s “I’m So Hood” and 2011’s “I’m on One.” But in the past year, Khaled has made an even bigger name for himself by using the social-networking app to broadcast his often surreal life (like the time he got lost on a Jet Ski), as well as for giving his followers short motivational pep talks that explain the “keys” to success. (In case you’re curious, one of them is eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch with almond milk.)
Khaled has 6 million Snapchat followers, and 14.3 million people in total checking him out on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, reports Adweek.
Ahead of his Friday-night set at this weekend’s inaugural Panorama festival on Randalls Island, and next Friday’s release of his guest-filled new album, “Major Key,” he tells The Post about touring with Beyoncé, posing with lions and the possibility of Snapchatting the birth of his first child. The new album has a lion on the cover. Did you really pose with him, or was that Photoshopped? It was real! I Snapchatted it. The lion represents me as the king of the jungle. He represents power, strength and survival. His name was Felix, but I didn’t feed him. I ain’t playin’ with that. He was well-behaved that day, but I was concerned that he might get in a bad mood. But we were blessed. The album has some remarkable guest spots from Jay Z, Future, Nicki Minaj, Bryson Tiller, Nas and more. Was it difficult to get them all?
Some of these people don’t even do features. I was supposed to give up, but I didn’t. I refused to turn the album in until these vocals were done. I didn’t just give the fans one or two hits for the summer, I wanted an album full of hits. You’ve mentioned that you’re planning to Snapchat your first child’s birth later this year. Is your fiancée OK with that?
She knows I want to do it. If the doctors say the coast is clear, I’m going for it. She may not have a choice! She’s probably going to be screaming and cursing me out anyway. You know how it goes. But she got love — she knows I’m special. How did you end up on the Formation World Tour opening for Beyoncé?
Jay Z [who now manages Khaled] reached out to me and said Beyoncé wanted me on her tour. I didn’t get the full details of what she wanted me to do. I was worried that I would have restrictions because it’s not my show. But she told me to do what I do, including bringing out special guests that I wanted to bring out. What was her reaction to your sets?
When I talked to her, she told me I was “rippin’ s - - t down.” And if I hadn’t been, that tour would have been cut short! There was a couple of times I lost my voice before a show, but it would come back onstage. That’s God, you know what I’m sayin’?