Wiz Khalifa: Rapper and Weed Entrepreneur

The Pittsburgh-raised rapper and weed entrepreneur smoked a mere two joints before this interview. Clarity ensues as he takes on everything from cops to Kanye.

- Jeff Weiss

Q1: You will have released two albums by the end of this year. Khalifa came out in February, and Rolling Papers 2: The Weed Album will drop later this summer. What phase are you in right now as an artist?

kHALIFA: I’m in the reinvention stage, like when Justin Bieber was a child and then transformed himself into a different person but one who was still successful. I was a streetwear brand, and now I’m a high-end designer. People are going to accept me as a grown man. A lot of people don’t even know I’m only 28 because I’m kind of ageless.

Q2: Your song “Black and Yellow” reached number one on Billboard and was nominated for two Grammys. Did you know it would be a huge hit?

kHALIFA: I actually did. It was crazy. As soon as they played the beat, I thought of the hook in two seconds. After [2010 mixtape] Kush & Orange Juice, I knew I had to switch up my style and do something different, but how could I do that and make the label and myself happy? So I wrote a bunch of songs about the first thing I thought of whether it was corny or stupid, I was going to record it. But once we recorded “Black and Yellow,” the label went back and forth on it. I was like, “Man, that’s the song. That song is the shit.” They waited all summer for me to try to record other shit, and still I was like, “That’s the song!” I took it back to Pittsburgh, played it for a roomful of people and was like, “This is my new single.” They were so excited to hear it. Then when I played it, they were like, “Damn, he about to lose again.”

Q3: What kind of artists did you gravitate to when you were growing up?