Wiz Khalifa is one of hip-hop’s most well-known stoners; an image that he’s cultivated fairly consistently over the years. A rapper loving marijuana isn’t rare at all, but one thing that has set him apart from many of his contemporaries is his decidedly nonviolent subject matter. In a genre often criticized for glamorizing gunplay, Khalifa keeps it fairly easygoing and focuses on money, partying, women and weed. During a recent interview with VladTV, the Pittsburgh native shared why he decided to take the road less traveled.
“I still keep violence out of my music because a lot of the kids from where I’m from … and just the inner city, in general, that’s all we hear, all we know and all we really look up to,” Khalifa explained. “As a kid being different, I gravitated towards other things along with that. So I just want to give kids an option to look at somebody who doesn’t talk about that stuff, who they still think is cool as those same people.”
Khalifa also said that he’s not trying to put on a persona.
“I really like to just bring people on a journey with me,” he added. “Whatever I’m into or however I feel, it’s like — I want people to be on that same path with me.”
Khalifa recently released his fifth studio album, Blacc Hollywood. Although his music has mostly been “stoner,” Wiz was asked about his early Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania mixtape, and he chuckled at the title and his approach at the time.
“I was in high school when I made that mixtape,” Khalifa explained with a laugh. “You could just look at my clothes and see where my mind was at.”
