Wiz Khalifa looks to ‘ level up’
Following his rare club tour for the mixtape “2009,” Wiz Khalifa is back on bigger stages doing bigger hits on the Decent Exposure Tour.
This annual summer run finds the Pittsburgh-raised LA- based rap superstar, who just released another mixtape, “Fly Times Vol. 1: The Good Fly Young,” topping a bill with French Montana, Playboi Carti, Moneybagg Yo, Chevy Woods and DJ Drama.
To promote the tour, which stops at KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown on Saturday, the 31- year- old Khalifa did a recent media teleconference, where, unlike his recent sit- down with podcaster Joe Rogan, he spoke on topics other than weed and MMA training.
Here’s what he had to say: What Decent Exposure means: “I wanted to come up with something that sounded bad but then we make it good. We’re in this day and age where things before that weren’t they’re legal now. So, instead of ‘ Indecent Exposure,’ where you’ll probably get in trouble for a lot of the things that you do that you would have done before, it’s Decent now. It’s cool to act the fool, so we’re gonna wild out and we’re gonna have fun.”
Favorite life experience: “My favorite life experience so far as 100% has been my son. Spending time with him, rolling with him. He’s in kindergarten, he just finished kindergarten. So, he’s going to first grade now. That’s an experience that’s just always fun. It’s getting better and better as time goes on.”
Visiting Taylor Allderdice: “It’s crazy going back to the Dice. It looks the same and pretty much feels the same. People always say when you go back to your old high school or something like that, that it looks and feels smaller, but the Dice was huge and it still is.”
Memories of Mac Miller: “I think some of my favorite memories of Mac was like early when I used to be in the studio and I was, pretty much, about to be on my way up out of there, just being on the road and doing a lot of different things, and I just remember seeing him coming in and grinding a lot, and it reminded me of myself, how I will come to the studio and grind. It was real fun to see another kid from the same city with the same enthusiasm for the grind.”
Memories of Nipsey Hussle: “Yeah, I got a lot. One of them is probably been in Puff Daddy’s backyard at like a GQ afterparty or something like that. It was just a lot of different types of people there. I don’t know if he felt comfortable with or I felt comfortable, but as soon as we seen each other we was like, oh man is lit. I got super drunk that night, and the next day he told me I threw up in Puffy’s pool, and I was really proud of myself.
On a 10- year anniversary party for “Kush & Orange Juice”: “Nah, no reunion and no anniversaries for ‘ Kush & OJ.’”
On “Mac and Devin Go to College”: “It’s on the way. We still actually writing it, so sometime soon, but I’m glad everybody’s still wanting it.”
Artists he would like to collaborate with: “I definitely want to work with Dr. Dre. And Jay- Z, for sure.”
What he has left to accomplish: “I’m always going to keep trying to top myself musically, so there’s new music on the way, stuff with TV, animated series, TV shows, working with my artists, making sure their careers go the way they’re supposed to go. And taking care of my son. Those are like my main goals, for real, for real.”
Where he fits in the world of hip- hop and what he represents: “I just think I represent talent, hustle and just mind elevation in general.”