On an August afternoon in Miami, in the living room of the more-than-12,000-square-foot South Beach mansion he's affectionately dubbed "the Resort", Khaled cues up 'Heart of the City'. He says it's the type of energy that he wants from his upcoming 14th studio album, Til Next Time. The kind of music people play "to motivate themselves, to sing or rap along to," he says. "Anthems." Khaled, 48, has made a life out of motivation.
In the rap community, he's been a reliable source of hits rooted in the rags-to-riches ethos of the genre. All he does is win, as he emphatically told us in 2010, and his hustler's intuition has laid the foundation for a decades-long career working alongside some of the biggest names in music, from Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Drake, Justin Bieber, and Rihanna, Khaled's relentless positivity is by now part of the DNA of popular culture. When you hear him chant his name - stretching the syllables in the word "DJ" to their phonetic limit - you know it's going to be a banger.
Despite being something of an architectural marvel, Khaled's house manages to still feel cosy. Across the room, there are kids toys for his sons Asahd, seven, and Aalam, three, within view, and the family cat, Coco, shuffles pensively around the back hallway. Photos of the family occupy space on pretty much every surface. It's like being at your uncle's house if your uncle had a handful of certified platinum records under his belt.
At home, Khaled makes sure to get dressed up for the occasion of our interview, wearing a Loewe button-down shirt and black trousers, along with a pair of J Balvin Air Jordan 3's. He and the Colombian star recently collaborated on a single called 'Dientes', featuring R&B legend Usher. "He's the biggest hype man in the world," Balvin says of Khaled, before jokingly adding, "And the way he dances is amazing, too." Khaled wears a pristinely lined haircut.
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Denne historien er fra February/March 2024-utgaven av Rolling Stone UK.
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Sounding the Alert - The UK music industry is calling for the new Labour government to make essential changes to rescue British music - from halting the closure of venues to providing essential opportunities for new talent
To quote one Bob Dylan: "the times they are a-changin." After 14 years of Tory rule, 4 July saw a changing of the guard in British politics as Sir Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street to mark the start of a new Labour government and - according to the man himself - a decade of national renewal.Not that the result was ever in doubt, however. A cursory look at polls over the preceding year showed that a Labour landslide was very much on the cards, and it seemed like those aforementioned Dylan lyrics were about to ring true.
Staying Power- As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids
As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids. Here, they open up about the bonds they share between themselves and their devoted fans, as well as their common goal of super stardom
BACK TO THE GRIND
The Clipse broke up when a spiritual path called to one of the brothers from Virginia. Now, one of the greatest duos in rap returns
THE SCREAM QUEEN NEXT DOOR
In just a few short years, Hunter Schafer has gone from small-town North Carolina to global runways, Euphoria stardom, and her first lead role, in the horror flick Cuckoo
Together in Electronic Dreams
Raphaella Lima of video game publisher Electronic Arts brings music to her childhood love of gaming to spotlight many of the most exciting emerging acts of the past two decades in the hit football game EA SPORTS FC
JAMIE XX WAVE AFTER WAVE
Nine years after his decade-defining debut album In Colour, Jamie xx returns with In Waves, a darker and broodier follow-up that saw him fall back in love with making music
"You can feel trapped when people perceive you as one thing"
On their career-best fourth album, Fontaines D.C. have shed their skin of old to deliver something more fantastical. Grian Chatten tells us the story behind their evolution
IN COMPLETE CONFIDENCE
Confidence Man's Janet Planet and Sugar Bones go bigger and wilder than ever before on 3AM (LA LA LA), an album made about partying, while partying, and perfect for partying to
Collective consciousness
Ezra Collective return with Dance, No One's Watching, the roaring follow-up album to last year's boundary-moving Mercury Prize win
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
Welsh techno-pop artist Kelly Lee Owens is the first signing to Dirty Hit's new dance label, dh2. She talks \"transcending my bullshit\" on the euphoric, thumping club tunes of fourth album, Dreamstate
