Blacc Hollywood

When we first met Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa, he was the young de facto general of the Taylor Gang, a musical collective that rose out of his home city. He still holds this enviable position (though the Gang has changed), but his career has constantly been in flux since his come-up. Pop-rap blockbuster, “Black and Yellow”, from his 2011 major label debut, Rolling Papers, made certain that there was no regressing to his low-key mixtape and independent roots. An arena-sized anthem (that was eventually remixed as an unofficial song for the Super Bowl) has a funny way of doing that. But Khalifa couldn’t be more content with the way his career is unfolding. And why shouldn’t he be happy? His net worth has skyrocketed, he wed a supermodel (with whom he now has a child), and now he can smoke all the weed in the world. And, for a monster stoner like Wiz who’s never been shy about his chronic habit, that might be the most important aspect of this fame game.

Part of Blacc Hollywood is a massive feat. The fact that Khalifa can still come up with so many various ways to talk about his weed (after four previous albums and innumerable mixtapes) is impressive even though he’s starting to re-use quips. “I blow it by the O,” he raps on “So High”, a tired line that he’s recycling here from past tracks. When Khalifa’s not bragging about the pounds he inhales, he boast about his wealth, his cars, or how much he can drink (consider Wiz a tank when it comes to that).

Wiz isn’t a gifted lyricist at this point and he utilizes a limited lexicon here, but he still has an ear for catchy melodies. His singing voice has never been anything to write home about either (at least until the auto-tune rescues him), but bangers “Staying Out All Night” and “So High” still flourish despite his blatant weaknesses. Sizzling trap beats are frequently Khalifa’s saving graces especially on the insipid choruses of “Ass Drop” and “The Sleaze”. Where Big Sean’s “A$$”, was a similarly childish ode to a woman’s curves, at least he was clever (and witty) with his wordplay. Khalifa is often too blunt(ed) for his own good to come up with any real punchlines or “did you catch that?” moments.
There are two ways to look at Blacc Hollywood. If you’re in it for the live-it-up-till-morning jams (and they are entertaining), then you’re going to be spinning this record at plenty of house parties. But artistically speaking, the album isn’t a progression of the rapper’s career; it’s content to stay on the same eternally- stoned playing field as 2012’s O.N.I.F.C.. Sure, Wiz is singing here more than ever, but that was (and never will be) his forte. Moving forward, it seems unlikely that Khalifa will hang up his stoner persona even though it’s become such an exhausted routine for him; after all, it’s half of what made him a star in the first place. And who cares? When Wiz is having fun, we’re having fun. Maybe next time amidst all the partying he’ll make us think a little bit more. Where there’s a Wiz, there’s a way.

Wiz Khalifa Sings Killer Rap Version of Adele’s “Hello”

While the internet is still ablaze with people doing parodies of Adele’s smashing hit “hello,” there’s always room for another interpretation right? We’re pretty sure that you’ve never heard Adele’s hit song quite like the one Whz Kalifa sang on the radio yesterday. In classic Wiz style, he actually freestyled over Adele’s hit during his appearance on Power 106’s “The Cruz Show.” What appears to be a somber ballad soon becomes a new anthem for today’s generation which of course included Wiz’s signature laugh.

We don’t want to get into too many references as the video will surely display them, but let’s just say that the state of Colorado would most certainly appreciate the lyrics. Considering Adele’s outstanding rap performance in James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke,” I’m willing to bet she’d appreciate this one. Though technically we’re not sure if she’s heard this yet.

Just a few weeks ago Corden had Adele in his car and said, “I heard a rumor that you, which may be surprising to some fans, are quite the rapper,” Corden said to Adele. “That you can spit some rhymes, some lyrics. You’ve got some rhymes in your locker.”

Adele confirmed Corden’s rumor by slaying Nicki Minaj’s verses in the song “Monster.”  That video has since gone viral.

See You Again made Wiz Khalifa a superstar – but has he sold out?

The tribute to Paul Walker from the Fast & Furious 7 soundtrack is the biggest rap record of the past two years – but that doesn’t mean it’s any good

 

Wiz Khalifa: toast of the tabloids. Photograph: Andrew Toth/FilmMagic

Wiz Khalifa has had the No 1 song in America for four weeks running, See You Again. A tribute to Paul Walker from the Furious 7 soundtrack, it’s a massive hit, topping charts around the world. It’s easily the biggest thing Khalifa has been a part of, probably the most-spun hip-hop track since The Monster by Eminem and Rihanna, which was also No 1 for four weeks, in late 2013 and early 2014.

But that doesn’t mean See You Again is any good. Featuring a falsetto hook sung by a diminutive, chubby-cheeked youngster named Charlie Puth, it has a distinctly Lite FM flavor, the kind of thing you might hear while picking up your allergy medicine at CVS.

In any case, the track has pushed Wiz Khalifa into the top echelon of rap superstars, and at only 27. He’s run up a long string of gold and platinum singles, and though he doesn’t pass the “rapper your mother has heard of” test, that’s probably not far off. But his ascent has been unlikely: he’s a stick-thin military brat from Pittsburgh, who slowly built his career over the course of a decade. He won over his city with early mixtapes like 2006’s Show and Prove, which is highlighted by Pittsburgh Sound, on which he raps fast and nimbly. His underground following swelled largely on the basis of songs about smoking weed, like Flight School. (He gets as high as an airplane, you know?)

For a while he didn’t really need the mainstream. His fan base wasn’t huge, but it was passionate enough to keep him in Converse and marijuana – he claimed to spend $10,000 a month on weed at one point. His breakout came in 2010 with the explosion of his songBlack and Yellow, which sold 3m copies. It was an inspiring hometown anthem (waaay better than Empire State of Mind) that shouted out the Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers’ team colours, as the latter surged to the Super Bowl. It also had a quick tempo, though many of his later hits wouldn’t.

By this point he had signed with Atlantic records, home of big-name rappers like Lupe Fiasco and BoB, and also Bruno Mars. Atlantic relied on a formula: radio-friendly raps buffered by giant sung hooks. Not everyone liked this approach(Lupe Fiasco famously denounced some of his own songs), but it was undeniably successful, and Khalifa had hits with slower-paced tracks like No Sleep, When I’m Gone, Remember You and Young, Wild & Free, with Mars and Snoop Dogg.

Snoop has grumbled that Khalifa borrowed heavily from his sonic template. “I guess the old school version would have been for me to ‘smash’ him [because of the similarities],” Snoop told me in 2013. “[But] my heart was to love him, because I loved what he did, and he was an extension of what I had put out.”

Khalifa’s latest album Blacc Hollywood is a lumbering, big-budget collection of hip-hop cliches about women, the club, and getting high, with a motivational tone. By the time of its release last August, Khalifa’s tatted-up face had become a tabloid mainstay, considering he’d moved to Los Angeles, and married and had a son with Kanye’s ex Amber Rose. This notoriety, combined with the fact that he was rapping slower and more deliberately – he sounds completely different than early in his career – has helped him secure his perch atop the rap pile.

Thus, we got See You Again, which is disappointing not because it doesn’t talk about smoking one down in Walker’s memory, but because it’s full of vague platitudes (“That bond will never be broken/ The love will never get lost,” etc) Also, the saccharine chorus makes me want to commit genocide. But apparently that’s what people want, as the song broke Spotify’s record for most streams in a day, some 4.2m. It’s a cliche to pine for an artist’s younger, hungrier days before they had every comfort in life. But as far as I’m concerned, Khalifa’s Pittsburgh incarnation was much more appealing than his Hollywood one.

Rapper Wiz Khalifa forced to ground by officers in reported hoverboard incident

Wiz Khalifa at the airport. Photograph: GVK/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

The rapper Wiz Khalifa was handcuffed and forced to the ground by US customs officials at Los Angeles international airport on Saturday, claiming afterwards the use of force was prompted after he refused to get off his hoverboard.

The 27-year-old, whose real name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz, posted a video clipof the incident to his Instagram account, in which he was seen pinned to the floor by six officers.

One tells him to “stop resisting”, to which he replies: “I’m not resisting, sir.”

The video’s timecode suggests the incident occurred at 3.56pm.

Calls to a number listed under Thomaz’s name in Los Angeles were not answered, but the rapper sent a series of tweets shortly after incident, in which he seemed to suggest that riding the new technology would become a rights issue of the future

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Wiz Khalifa at Los Angeles international airport on 18 August. Photograph: Broadimage/Rex Shutterstock

“Haven’t been slammed and cuffed in a while. That was fun,” he tweeted, before launching into a defence of the personal transportation technology he haspromoted numerous times.

“I stand for our generation and our generation is gonna be riding hover boards,”the rapper posted.

The self-balancing Segway technology has seen a recent run of celebrity endorsements, including one from Justin Bieber. The singer posted a video of himself using one to roll around a private jet. The actor and musician Jamie Foxx posed with one in a recording studio. An Instagram video shows Wiz Khlaifa being held down by US customs officers.

A spokeswoman for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said privacy laws prevented discussion of the specifics of the incident, but added: “An uncompliant passenger or any disruptive behavior could put many at risk in this highly secure area.”

The response is unlikely to satisfy Khalifa, who predicted CBP officers themselves would one day use the technology.

“They’ll be riding them soon as well,” he tweeted. “Maybe ones I design.”

Khalifa’s PR team did not respond to a request for comment.

Amber Rose Forgives Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa During Los Angeles SlutWalk

Amber Rose

Over the weekend, Amber Rose held her first SlutWalk in Los Angeles, and during her speech about why she organized the event, she broke down in tears recalling how Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa both slut-shamed her.

Rose’s very public relationship with West was brought back into the public eye earlier this year after he mentioned how he had had to take “30 showers” before starting his relationship with his now-wife. Those comments came after Rose and West’s sister-in-law got into a Twitter argument involving the subject of whores.

“She’s just soaking in the moment,” West said of Rose. “If Kim had dated me when I wanted, there would be no Amber Rose.” It was after making that comment that he mentioned the 30 showers.

“Unfortunately, I was extremely slut-shamed,” Rose said during her speech at the SlutWalk event. “I was called ‘nothing but a stripper.’ [He said] why would he ever be interested in me, I’m just a bald-head stripper from Philly. I was a gold digger; apparently he had to take 30 showers after being with me. That’s what he said. I guess that just washed all my sexy bald-headedness off of his ass.”

Regarding Rose’s estranged husband, Khalifa also had some shady comments about her once they broke up. But he didn’t air his dirty laundry during an interview; he did it with a song. In Juicy J’s “For Everybody,” Khalifa rapped, “Man, I fell in love with a stripper/Funny thing is I fell back out of love quicker.”

Now, this is the same stripper who gave him a son and who was good enough for him to marry.

“In the midst of being hurt—if anyone had been going through a separation, or have ever been divorced, you know there’s a lot of feelings involved and it’s a very difficult time—he went on to make a song saying that he ‘fell in love with a stripper, but fell out of love quicker.’ As you can imagine, him being the love of my life, regardless if we’re going through a separation or not, that was extremely hurtful,” Rose recalled.

Whether or not you like Rose, it’s always interesting how some men take a breakup. They can go from loving on a woman, regardless of her past, to calling her every name in the book when they break up. Talk about sour grapes. And this was one of the points at the core of Rose’s event.

Rose recounted how she was slut-shamed at the early age of 14 by classmates. And to those not in the know, by the time she was 15, she was already being exploited as an underage stripper.

Since being in the public eye, Rose has been called every name under the sun. The fact that she hasn’t let that deter her should be commended. But Rose isn’t any different from everyday women.

God forbid a woman wears a short skirt or revealing clothing—she’s called a slut.

Don’t let a woman have a sex-positive attitude—she’s called a whore.

At the end of her speech, Rose forgave West for his comments. And she revealed that she had already forgiven Khalifa after he apologized to her. Although he probably should have never talked sideways about his son’s mother and estranged wife, Khalifa definitely showed a sign of maturity in realizing that his comments not only hurt but were unnecessary.

Rose advised everyone attending the walk to be the bigger person and forgive those who have talked dirty about them. And as she walked off the stage, you could tell that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Wiz Khalifa

Happy birthday to weed-loving emcee Wiz Khalifa, who turns 24 years old today! Born Cameron Jibril Thomaz, Khalifa earned a boatload of accolades even before he released his debut album, including being named one of Rolling Stone’s Artists to Watch, one of XXL’s Top Ten Freshmen, and Source magazine’s Rookie of the Year. When he finally released ‘Rolling Papers,’ it shot to No. 2 and went gold. But how much do you really know about the Pittsburgh rapper? Here are 10 facts about Wiz Khalifa you may not have known.

10. Wiz knew as a kid he wanted to cover his body in tattoos.

His mom took him to get his first tattoo at age 16, but even prior to that he had an artistic vision for his skin. “Even before I got my first tattoo — since I was young — knew that I wanted to be covered. I just plotted out what I felt and put it on my body to sort of tell my story,” he told Interview. “I still leave little places and spaces to add stuff. I want to be getting tattoos forever. I don't want to run out of space while I'm young. I just really want my tattoos to be meaningful.”

9. He doesn’t regret his Eurodance single.Khalifa's only single for Warner Bros. was 'Say Yeah,' a song that sampled the recognizable synth part from the Alice Deejay song 'Better Off Alone.' Though the song is a far cry from his current, laid-back style, Khalifa has no regrets about it. “I love that song,” he said. “It was a great idea that we had, and we executed it right, and people received it well, so for people to relate that to me, that's cool, I like that. I pride myself on not playin' myself. Anything I do, I don't regret it, I don't look back at it like, 'I shouldn't have done that' … It's all a learning experience, and I'm just moving forward.”

8. He was born in North Dakota.

He's known as Pittsburgh's biggest hip-hop export, but Wiz was actually born in North Dakota to a father who served in the military. He moved to Germany, England and Japan before settling in the Steel City. He says the experiences overseas helped broaden his horizons and made him more of an extrovert, since he always had to make new friends after every move.


7. If you’re a Wiz Khalifa fan, you’re part of Taylor Gang.

“Taylor Gang or die” is the motto of Wiz's crew Taylor Gang, which, depending on which story you believe, was either named after Khalifa's Taylor Allderdice High School or the Chuck Taylor shoes he wears. “Taylor Gang is the movement, it's the lifestyle,” he said. “It's me and my crew, but it's the fans who support me as well. We all rep Taylor Gang together.”

6. Khalifa willingly left Warner Bros.

Most artists would kill to get a record deal, but Khalifa was happy to walk away from his when he couldn't see eye to eye with Warner Bros. after 'Say Yeah.' He never put out a full album with the label and went the indie route for another year, turning down an offer to join Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group, before Atlantic signed him in the summer of 2010. 'Rolling Papers' became his major-label debut in March 2011 and reached No. 2, behind onlyBritney Spears' 'Femme Fatale.'

5. Girlfriend Amber Rose has met his mom.

He introduced them in January at a Pittsburgh Steelers game. “They actually really, really dig each other,” Wiz said. “Amber is a sweetheart, and my mom, everybody who meets her loves her anyway. So it was really tight.” That’s a good thing, because if Amber is really going to be having his babies at some point, we’re glad that the future grandmother approves!

4. His parents supported his pot habit.

Wiz started smoking at a young age and still remembers his first time. “I got really stoned. I thought I was asleep but I was awake. I was a little bit younger than I should've been,” he said. “My dad didn't like it. My mom didn't care. After a while, they saw it wasn't affecting anything. I was still productive.” He added with a laugh, “My mom smoked weed, so she just wanted in.”

3. Wiz is a nerd – in the movies, at least.

Wiz and Snoop Dogg seem like a natural fit for a stoner movie, so it makes perfect sense to see them filming ‘High School.’ Khalifa told Billboard. “It's a great buddy film. It's just about – Snoop's the cool guy in school and I'm kind of the nerd.” It's hard to imagine such a cool guy as the nerd, but we'll wait and see. He added that he and Snoop want to release a soundtrack: “We've got 10 songs already and we're using all 10 of them… We're just doing things that people aren't doing these days.”

2. He took a risk by turning down a chance to tour with Drake.

Drake made a personal appeal last fall for Khalifa to join him on tour, but Wiz, who hadn't yet released 'Rolling Papers,' politely declined. He wanted to perform for his own fans, even if the crowds were much smaller. “No disrespect to cuz or anybody else who might wanna see me do some more collaborative things,” Wiz told XXL, “but to keep buildin’ and keep my brand as strong as what it is, I gotta keep focusin’ on what it is.” Noting that Drake made $10 million in the previous year, Wiz added, “Maybe when I make $10 million, then we can tour. “

1. Khalifa actually wrote ‘Black and Yellow’ with the intention of having it become the Pittsburgh Steelers’ theme song.

When Steeler fans embraced ‘Black and Yellow’ as the team advanced to the Super Bowl in February, it was no accident – Wiz planned it that way. He told MTV when the song was released that he hoped it would become an anthem for the club. Several months later, he found himself performing the song prior to the AFC Championship Game, and the track reached No. 1 during Super Bowl week.

Why Wiz Khalifa won the Golden Globes’ red carpet

Forget Cate Blanchett’s pale pink fringed Givenchy, or J.Law’s red-hot Dior sheath. The best look atSunday’s Golden Globes came from none other than Wiz Khalifa, the dreadlocked, tattoo-covered rapper nominated for his song “See You Again,” from “Furious 7.”

In a sea of bland black suits-and-ties, Khalifa stood out in his shrunken Thom Browne tux (think Pee-wee proportions), snazzy French cuffs and rakishly knotted, silver-print tie. My husband called him: “the George Clooney of hip-hop.”

And indeed, Clooney is one of the few male stars who can wear a tux with the nonchalance and ease that Khalifa wore his own more fashion-forward duds. He didn’t walk the red carpet; he rolled onto it like it was his 1,000th Golden Globes — even though it was his first.Modal Trigger



Even his red-carpet interview — usually a bastion of awkwardness and empty patter — was natural and charming, matched only by an adorable lightsaber wielding 9-year-old, “Room” star Jacob Tremblay, and the delightful Irish brogue of “Brooklyn” ingénue Saoirse Ronan

But Khalifa’s look was also adventurous and unique. He took the standard suit-and-tie and deconstructed it to fit his personality. His round sunglasses added mystery, while his editor-approved Gucci loafers (worn without socks) established his fashion bona fides. And, he did all this while still respecting the formality of the event, unlike Kanye’s tired jacket-sans-shirt shtick.

Sure, a lot of celebs dressed well Sunday night. Ryan Gosling looked dapper in a white jacket, while David Oyelowo’s purple three-piece had a lot of pizzazz. And, when it came to suits, “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway’s powder pink power tux was hard to beat. But, Khalifa had something that’s increasingly rare on the red carpet these days, and that’s genuine style, which is why I’d rather see his exuberant tuxedo mashup than a dozen floaty ball gowns any day.