Photography by Sean Berry
Wiz Khalifa’s big record deal, drug of choice, & undying love for our city.
Once in a while, an artist comes along who truly personifies his hometown. The streets of New Jersey have Bruce. Detroit has Eminem. And Pittsburgh has Wiz Khalifa. The songster cocked a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap and filmed a chart-topping music video, sweeping through our city’s bridges, steel stacks, and skyline, with bright whips of Terrible Towel only outshined by the flash of a glinting “P” necklace. Since his 2005 start, Khalifa has touted Pittsburgh in every interview, from Rolling Stone to the cover of XXL Magazine. He’s taught his “Pittsburgh Sound” to sold-out audiences across the country, and he’s expanded Steeler Nation (as if that were possible) with his cult-catchy “Black and Yellow.” In his debut, Khalifa called himself the Prince of Pittsburgh, but with international fame, and the most-anticipated Atlantic Records album, Rolling Papers, due out March 29, the rapper has seen a rise in royalty. Long live the king.
Our History
We met Wiz Khalifa in 2007, the night after the Hip Hop Awards in Pittsburgh. The studio had been shot up, rumored to be the retaliation of some sore losers who weren’t happy with Khalifa’s clean sweep. It was Martin Luther King Day, and the young rapper, just 18 at the time, had an almost regal air about him when he described the choosing of his name: “‘Khalifa’ is the arabic word for ‘successor,’ and wisdom is shortened to ‘Wiz.’” We were as impressed with the artist as we were with Benjy Grinberg, the Squirrel Hill native who launched Rostrum Records. Grinberg became a close friend (and even dated a former “WHIRL girl”). We kept tabs on Khalifa when Grinberg would attend our company Christmas parties or brunch with us in between trips to Los Angeles and New York. We shot Wiz for the cover four years ago, but the time wasn’t right. Today, it is. We are as enamoured with the Pittsburgh star as the rest of the world — maybe more so, as we consider ourselves to be some of his longest-running supporters.
Black and Yellow
The song that became an anthem for the Pittsburgh Steelers (and for all of “Steeler Nation”) was the first released collaboration between Rostrum Records and Atlantic Records. It debuted at No. 99 on Billboard, and, at the time of press, had peaked at No. 1 on iTunes. “I had big hopes for it,” Khalifa says. “I threw it out there, and it ran a marathon. And I wear my colors a lot. That’s how I represent.” The Rooneys took note and attended a Khalifa concert in December 2010, where they asked the rapper to perform the tribute before the AFC Championship game against the New York Jets. A sold-out Heinz Field gleamed with the waving of 65,000 Terrible Towels to the thumping bass beat of “Black and Yellow.”
The Leak
“Fly Solo,” a break-up song gone swanky, was leaked onto the Internet in August 2010, seven months before the rapper’s Atlantic Records album release. “That Good,” his collaboration with Snoop Dogg, was also famously leaked, along with the news that the two artists were working on a movie together. Eric Dan, owner of ID Labs in Lawrenceville, where Wiz recorded his first albums, called the leaks the work of professionals. “These are big-time hackers,” Dan says, “guys who actually do this for a living. They’re hacking onto servers and into e-mail accounts — or they’re sending us really goofy e-mails that will take us to a page with really specific details, trying to get us to put passwords in.” As a cautionary measure, the names of songs and albums are spoken of in code among Khalifa’s crew. One track was even nicknamed, “Chocolate Chip Cookies.”
On Record
Wiz Khalifa’s first mixtape was Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania, under Pittsburgh label Rostrum Records in 2005. The buzz lead to his debut album, Show and Prove, in 2006, which earned Khalifa an “artist to watch” moniker from Rolling Stone. The rapper signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2007, but kept working under Rostrum, and released the single, “Say Yeah,” rotating widely on urban radio airplay and charting on Hot Rap Tracks. In November 2009, he released his sophomore effort, Deal or No Deal, and the mixtape, Kush and Orange Juice, the following year. In the summer of 2010, Khalifa signed with Atlantic. “For me, it’s been a constant grind to the top,” Khalifa says. “Signing with Atlantic was a big deal, but as far as the work goes, it’s pretty much the same. Benjy, [the owner of Rostrum Records], and I know each other, professionally, better than anybody. We’ve grown together; we’re growing every day. It’s a Pittsburgh thing.”
Khalifa was arrested in November for marijuana possession after a concert in Greenville, N.C. His next single, “Roll Up” was thought to be nod to that experience, but it actually a song for the artist’s female fanbase. However, Khalifa has a menagerie of songs praising pot, including “Still Blazin’” (“Why can’t everyone just smoke like me? Just give me a quiet place, and let me roll my weed”), “In the Cut” (“Drop the nerd you with; come smoke a joint with he who’s winnin’”), and “Up” (“If you don’t smoke, I don’t know why, cause everything’s better when you’re high”). With a smoker’s laugh, he bragged in one interview about a $10,000-per-month weed habit and even launched his own brand of rolling papers. He’s dropping his new album, dubbed Rolling Papers, on March 29.
Taylor Gang
Khalifa’s entourage has been nicknamed “the Taylor Gang.” Many thought this was in honor of the MC’s love for Chuck Taylor shoes (Though, we originally thought the name was a shout-out to the rapper’s alma mater, Taylor Allderdice High School). However, Khalifa says it’s about the lifestyle. “Everything that we do is tailored to us,” he says. “Make everything you do fit you.” The group first encompassed the crew members Khalifa brought on stage with him, but today, “Taylor Gang” is an international brand, encompassing all fans, and boasting a proud populace of Websites outlining the “life$tyle” and encouraging followers to finish the phrase “Taylor Gang or [insert unfortunate explicative here].”
For more information on Wiz Khalifa, visit wizkhalifa.com. Rostrum Records, rostrumrecords.com.
