Wiz Khalifa’s fatherly advice to rappers with expensive taste
Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa is a hip-hop artist who had a brief time in the limelight. However, he still had an impact when he first arose on the scene. Signed initially to the independent Pennsylvania label Rostrum Records (the label that birthed Mac Miller), Khalifa exploded in the mid-2000s.
The artist first erupted with his track ‘Say Yeah,’ a rap rendition of Alice Deejay’s iconic Euro house track ‘Better Off Alone.’ The track featured on his 2008 mixtape, Flight School.
Since the 2010s he has grown as an artist and as a person. That said, in during an appearance on DJ Whoo Kid’s Whoo’s House podcast, the emcee expressed how he places little importance on jewellery nowadays and wanted to give some advice to the younger hip-hop artists, who, it seems, see chains, watches and grills as the most important part of their image.
Wiz explained how, as he has matured, he has left that mentality behind, expressing, “You grow out of that sh*t, and you place value in other things at certain points. It’s cool to have that mind frame as well, or it’s cool to have the little joint, too. You don’t have to have the biggest, craziest situation going on.”
The ‘On My Level’ lyricist also highlighted how, in recent years, so many artists have been robbed for their ice and emphasised how the deaths of MCs such as PnB Rock and Pop Smoke should inform the new generation, adding, “And with all of these murders and sh*t going on, it’s inviting f**king energy that you don’t really need. And people look at you like they get excited when they see that type of sh*t.”
Wiz Khalifa has been a young man himself and has rocked chains before. However, he admitted that the recent uptick in deaths has made him more aware his own safety, explaining, “Me, I’m the type of person that thinks about my safety first.”
He continued, “So if I could walk into a room and not excite those people who are gonna feel like that when they see those things, I’ll do you the favour because I don’t want anything to happen to you, I don’t want anything to me, so I’m a just calm down the situation for all of us. I’m gonna give us something not to look at.”
In 2022, Wiz shared a similar message following the death of Migos superstar Takeoff. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the Pittsburgh artist wrote, “All that jewellery goin’ outta style,” adding, “Ni**as feel lame wit out it anyway. Says a lot.”
He had previously warned his followers to about the risks of wearing all of their jewellery at once, alluding to the possibility of it all being stolen in a single instance, resulting in thousands and even millions of dollars being lost in the process.