Wiz Khalifa: The Echoes of Wisdom

At a secluded estate in the rolling, sun-drenched Malibu hills, Wiz Khalifa eased back with Inked for an intimate chat, revealing the candor, confidence, and humor he is known for. He discussed music, fitness, tattoos, and new experiences, and it’s unmistakable that the “Yiccen” musician is far from finished.

Over the last two years, he released his mixtape “Kush + Orange Juice 2,” his studio album “Khaotic,” and “blog era boyz,” a collaborative mixtape created by Khalifa and MGK. Yet, another album is already about to roll up: “Cool Azz Summer.”

“It’s done. It’s all the way done,” Khalifa shared. “It’ll probably be dropping in a few weeks.”

At 17, Cameron Thomaz was certain about his future: he would be a famous rap artist. Inspired by his nickname and his grandfather, he created Wiz Khalifa and made it permanent with ink.

“I think I became that — it was like a character,” Khalifa explained. “My name is Cameron — I don’t got Cameron nowhere tattooed on me. Wiz Khalifa is the character that’s like Superman getting his “S” or Batman having his symbol. I became the superhero.”

Now 39, it’s loud and clear his intuition was spot on. Audibly, Khalifa is one of hip-hop’s most notable musicians, churning out chart-topping hits and selling out tours. Aesthetically, he is a central figure in the tattoo, fitness, and cannabis cultures.

“I’m proud that I made it through the whole fantasy of being a musician, and I’m actually able to live with it under my belt,” Khalifa shared. “A lot of people look at it, and you don’t really know what it is or how to navigate through it, but I think I’ve been through everything that it takes to understand it. And I still came out on the other side as a normal human being.”

While Khalifa continues to master his music, the father of two is leaning into fitness and has arrived at a giving stage. “In a crazy way, it’s like I was allowed to accumulate so much stuff through hard work, and now I feel like I’m giving back with that same hard work,” he said. “I just feel really grateful to get to that place because I think so many people are just climbing and clawing at this thing, and they don’t even really know what they’re trying to achieve.”

Make no mistake, he still lavishes in the luxuries and champions cannabis, but his outlook has evolved into something more judicious and mature. “People have the opportunity to change and grow in their legacy, expand. So, I’m just using the time that I have to make what I feel is important now at the forefront as well as bring my legacy with me,” Khalifa shared. “I don’t mind what I’ve done, but that’s not my only trick that I have in the book.”

Khalifa peeled back the colorful layers of his life, loves, and ambitions, and shared a vision of where he sees himself at 50. The “See You Again” artist relishes his ink and views it as a part of his being, and although he’s short on space, more tattoos are a given.

“Tattoos for me is like my second skin,” he explained. “Having a whole second layer of skin is a cool idea, whether it’s my face, my hands, my legs, my back. I’m realizing I’m not going to have the original skin that I was born with. This is my new skin, so that’s what it means to me as being a new person and having a whole brand-new layer of skin.”

In a relaxed state of mind, free from the Los Angeles noise and hustle, Khalifa was kicked back and candid, sharing the stories that helped shape his identity.

You tattooed Wiz Khalifa on yourself when you were 17, before the world really knew who Wiz Khalifa was. What made you do that?” – Wiz Khalifa on his newest song “YICCEN”

Back then, everybody had a two-part rap name — it was Jae Millz, J-Hood — so I was like, I need a two-part name. I was already going by Wisdom, and my granddad, he gave me the Khalifa part, so I was like, “That sounds official, that sounds like a real name.” So, I was Wiz Khalifa, you know what I mean? To me, it was tough, so I went ahead and tatted it, and I knew I was going to be calling myself that forever. I knew that was going to be my name, so that’s why I got it tatted.

In 2017, you told Inked, “At first, it was more like filling up space and getting things I like tattooed on me. But the older I got, the more I realized how spiritual my tattoos are. Everything I feel on the inside is on the outside.” Can you elaborate on this? What do you feel is your most spiritual tattoo?

I feel like one of the most spiritual tattoos is on my stomach. I got this Martin Luther King quote where it says, “The ultimate measure of a man isn’t where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at moments of challenge and controversy.” And I was really young when I got that. I just thought it sounded cooler than shit, but growing up, that’s a really, really deep tattoo.

I have a lot of family members that passed away, so of course, their names and the memories of them, and just stuff that I went through when I was younger that I see now that I really understand as like a badge more than just a piece of art.

Have you gotten a tattoo lasered off yet?

No, I tried, bro. That shit hurts. Hell no. I’m not doing that ever, bro. I was working on my hand because I was like, “Let me just laser my hand and then redo it.” But fuck that. It hurts so bad and there’s no relief. It just hurts.

So, are you Team Just Cover Up? Like, you’re just going to tattoo over tattoos?

Yeah, I’ve been seeing some tough blast overs, so I’m Team Blast Over. I’m Team Just Keep Your Tats, Bro. You know what I mean? Wear that shit.

You have a pumpkin tattooed on your face for your son Bash. Have you gotten a tattoo for Kaydence yet?

I got Kaydence’s name on my face — some sick linework. My boy Brian Henry (@bhens), he does really good thin tattoos that don’t make everything swell up. So, I got a KK tat. I got my brother who passed away on my face. I got KK’s mother’s name on my face. I got Sebastian’s name on my face. I got all my family’s names on my face.

What was the last tattoo you got?

Actually, I’m working on my ass cheeks now — whole ass sleeve.

What are you getting?

I’m doing Japanese-style art. You know the scrolls when you unravel the scroll? They tell a story through each thing that’s on the scroll. So I just keep adding bits and pieces that come together to make one, but they’re all basically inspired by Japanese scrolls.

What does it say on the scroll?

There are words and pictures. Mine represents loss in family, making it out of certain situations that people put you in and that you didn’t think you would get out of, and there’s the strength in numbers. Whether it’s a crane, a waterfall, or leaves from the tree going into the pond, there are ways of incorporating a real story into the picture. So that’s mainly what I’m doing with my ass sleeve.

The mixtape era revolutionized the way artists used social media and released music. When did you stop feeling like a new artist and realize you’re now the blueprint?

It started feeling like I was the blueprint when I started bringing artists on tour with me. We were all peers at a certain point — we all enjoyed each other’s music — but I started to realize my shows were selling out a little bit more than everybody else’s. We all have our time, but there was a time that, leading the pack, I was like, “OK, I kind of got this right now.” And it was due to all of the support and just all of the work that everybody had put in to make our narrative so strong at that time.

You used those tours and that platform to break new artists. Who comes to mind when you think back on those early days?

Trinidad James. Because I think that was his first and only tour as an artist — he does creative direction now. But anybody, if I liked their song, that was the time when it was like, ”Yo, I like your song. I like your movement. Come on tour with me, man.” We would meet, smoke together, talk. Everybody was inspired by everybody and we wasn’t no haters, so it was just like, “Let’s get this money together, let’s share the platform, let’s travel, let’s make some history.” So that’s definitely one of the homies that instantly comes to mind.

But Kendrick (Lamar) opened for me as well. Mac Miller, we went on tour together. (A$AP) Rocky, we had a legendary tour. Iamsu! and HBK (Gang) and P-Lo and all of them. Lil Uzi (Vert) was on tour with us early. Jack Harlow, on tour with us early. So, a lot of people in their early stages — those were the guys that we were rocking with. And it’s good to see everybody really successful and having their own shine now.

Although Pittsburgh is the city you put on for, some people might not know you moved around a lot during your childhood. What were those early years like, and what do you feel you were able to bring to a city like Pittsburgh after living in other places?

It’s funny growing up in Pittsburgh because everybody is one way. It doesn’t matter what color you are — we all act exactly the same. It just depends on what hood you’re from. So even in Pittsburgh, I grew up in different hoods. I lived on the East Side and the North Side, and I went to a lot of different schools, so you get to see different people in different pockets and how they get down. Every neighborhood in Pittsburgh has its own way of operating. Living in different cities helped me normalize stuff that people in Pittsburgh wouldn’t really be on to.

I was living in Oklahoma, and that’s how I found out about screw music, like Mike Jones, Chamillionaire, and Slim Thug. Their music was local down at that point; it hadn’t really crossed over to mainstream. At that point, I was listening to Dipset and D-Block and all that stuff. Three 6 Mafia was the furthest down south that we would go in Pittsburgh. We loved Three 6 Mafia. Experiencing other people’s cultures and what is home to them helped me identify my own pride in Pittsburgh as well. Sometimes I feel like, in the city, we might take how good we got it for granted, or how swagged out we are, how different we talk, or just our attitude toward getting it. I think they get slept on when you’re in the city and you don’t really go outside of the city to experience other places and realize how dope we really are. (But) I had the experience to do that.

Then it really started to cross over when I got older and when I traveled to New York and saw how people did music. I traveled to L.A. and I went to New Orleans with Spitta, and I was like, “Yo, we gotta do it like this.” You know what I mean?

It stops being a place you’re from and becomes a piece of who you are.

And you really want to put on; you really want to turn up. You really want to take a regular day and turn it into a movie. We live in a great city. We gotta make it a movie out here.

Is that where “Black and Yellow” comes from? Like, we’ve got to do this for us.

Yeah, we’ve got to make it a movie out here. And we got all of the surroundings. We got everything that it needs. We just really need to make it a movie. And I think just that attitude and that pride, that’s what “Black and Yellow” is about. It’s Pittsburgh pride. Just loving my city. Everything that I get is going to be black and yellow at this point. It’s to the point where if you see a black and yellow car in traffic, you’re like, “That’s probably Wiz.” So I did what I wanted to do, but I also want people to feel that for themselves and know how dope the city is and how you can just make it a movie every day. That’s what people are going to follow.

When you listen back to some of those songs now, do you hear things that make you think, damn, Wiz really knew what he was doing?

Absolutely. I was listening to “Boarding Pass” (on the “Flight School” mixtape) the other day, bro. Man, I snapped on that song. The flow, the punchlines that I was using, and just the lifestyle we were talking about. We had never flown first class before. All of that stuff was brand new, like getting my first Louis (Vuitton) bag, getting my first Louis belt. That shit was all in the music and the way I was popping it; it sounds good. And I was only 22-23 years old. We were young, bro. Heaven.

The last few years have been an incredible time to be a Wiz Khalifa fan. You’ve been feeding the fans with new music. What’s your proudest song in the last year?

Definitely “Yiccen.” That’s the newest song that I just put out. It’s on the new album that I’m going to drop called “Cool Azz Summer.” I’m proud of picking up and starting streaming, too, learning the technology of Twitch and just the whole Ingest system.

But with “Yiccen,” I feel like it’s so good because it has something people can relate to as soon as they hear the song. In music nowadays, it’s bigger than just the song and the video and the artist. It’s about what people are experiencing with it. To have a song that people are diving into and engaging with right now, I feel like I did a great job. I’m really proud of myself, and I’m going to keep going.

Can we settle this once and for all? So it’s “yiccen.” What does “yiccen” mean exactly?

“Yiccen” is money. It’s slang for chicken. I like how back in the day people were like, “Yo, I need my chicken, I’m getting chicken out here.” So, I was like, man, I like that term chicken for money. But in Pittsburgh we say getting some “yiccen.” “Get us some ‘yiccen.’” “Run me my ‘yiccen.’” Or, “I’m about my ‘yiccen.’” “Send some ‘yiccen.’” Instead of some bread or some money, it’s “yiccen.”

Have you even listened to the album on your runs?

Usually when I do albums, I overdo it with listening to it — I just get drunk off the music. But this time I chilled. I recorded some songs at the beginning of the summer, and then I didn’t listen to shit. Then I recorded some songs in the middle of the summer, and I didn’t listen to shit. Then I finished it up in September, and now I’m kind of listening to stuff. So, I did take it on a run. It’s run-certified. It’s good for the run.

As much time as you spend in the studio and on tour, there’s also a lot of time spent at the gym, which requires immense dedication and focus. What motivates you to run 10 miles, go to Muay Thai, and then hit weights?

Outfits. I run for the outfit. I just like to get dressed, man. I like to put on the uniform. You got to actually put in the work when you put the uniform on. It’s also the playlist. Music is such a big thing in my life. As a kid, my music took me to the bus stop and to school or wherever I was going. Music got me through that. When I got older, music got me through smoking weed, driving in my car, in the club. Now music gets me through my workouts.

I have to have a good playlist. It has to be a certain BPM; it has to have certain content. And I get excited about things that I’m going to listen to or just how I feel when I’m pumped up and I’m in that groove. It reminds me of being on stage when you’re freaking 75 minutes in, and you’re like, “Man, I could keep going all night.” And they’re like, “Yo, he’s sweating it. The band is killing it.” It’s like, “Yo, but I just got this rhythm, and I could just keep going and keep going.” I feel the same thing when I’m working out, so that’s why I love the gym, and that’s why I love the new music I’m putting out as well. It’s really a reflection of the tempo I’m at in life. I still smoke a shit ton of weed, but that’s not the main driver of what I’m doing now. Before, when I was picking out beats, I was like, “What can I smoke the most amount of pot to?” But now when I’m picking out beats, I’m like, “What can I run to?”

We’ve seen different eras too, like Gym Wiz, Muay Thai Wiz. Is running the era that Wiz is in now?

I still do Muay Thai every day, and I still do Taekwondo. I’m a red belt, so I’m high in the rankings, in case anybody wants to test my range. No, but right now I do everything, all week, five days a week. But I would say yoga, plants, and running are my newest loves.

Are we going to see Wiz Khalifa run a marathon?

Absolutely. Hell yeah. One hundred percent. Multiple marathons. I can’t be running nowhere else before I run Pittsburgh. So, I’m going to do Pittsburgh and then I’ll start doing other places.

What are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of my family. I’m most proud of the man that I’ve become. I’m most proud of how I navigate things on an everyday basis. Yeah, just having my sanity.

If you weren’t making music, what do you think Wiz Khalifa would be doing?

I would definitely be working with kids in some way, whether it’s coaching or a freaking youth center or just dedicating my time to just helping out multiple and large amounts of kids. I love children. Just their minds and the way that they could be shaped and how important it is for them to be molded at that age. But yeah, I feel like that’s my purpose, and my main gift is to just help people.

And to just validate them, too, and make them not scared to be who they are because that’s such a fragile stage when you’re young. You could go either way based on how people treat you or who encourages you or who doesn’t encourage you. So, you might have a good coach or a good teacher or somebody who just believes in you and empowers you and brings the best out of you rather than everybody just beating up on you. Every kid goes through that stage, and they just need somebody to bring them up through that.

You spent your entire life creating Wiz Khalifa through music, tattoos, fashion, and everything surrounding it. Do you feel like you’re still actively creating who Wiz is or just living in the moment and enjoying it?

I’m definitely still creating who Wiz is. I see Wiz and Cameron. I’m 39 now, so I see (Wiz) at like 50.

What’s he doing?

Chilling on a yacht! In Greece, working out on a yacht. You know, I’m about to take a boat to the island for lunch. Got my kids and my woman with me. Might be DJing a show or something later. Chromed out, no stress, no worries. The main thing is, you kind of project yourself into who you want to be later. And I’m still doing that now. And I think the main thing about that is just living like I’m already there. So, it’s not spending money on the yacht, but it’s being as responsible as it would take to get those things and cutting the things out of my life that hinder me from getting there. And just being aware and just valuing myself and my time and the things that I do as stepping stones and blocks that are going to get me to that point.