Buried in the clouds, Wiz Khalifa’s chartered flight on his headlining Waken Baken tour recently landed the Pittsburgh native in Gotham City. Without an empty space in the crowd, the hip-hop hippie light up the Best Buy theater in Times Square. Following the show, VIBE caught the Taylor Gang pilot rolling up another paper square inside Atlantic offices, where he spoke on the Taylor Gang movement, diversity in his fanbase, shaking off labels, his next release, and more. —Mikey Fresh
I think this last show really won a lot of music critics over in the Big Apple.
[Laughs] Yup, New York, man. I think wherever you go, when people hear good music, they will react to it. All I try to do is go onstage and have fun and be myself. I want everyone else to just let go. There wasn’t really anything that made New York feel different. They smoke just as much weed, know all the words, and go just as loud. My fans all react crazy out here, just the same. I think it’s more of a Taylor thing, than a regional thing. Being that it was in such a critical city, it was good for other people who dont believe to see that.
Was forming the Taylor Gang movement always the plan?
I always hoped that I would get to this level and have these kinds of fans, and as I got older and learned more about the business, marketing, and branding, I saw that I could do my own thing. I was always a part of other artists’ cult followings when I was younger. I was a big Bone Thugs, Wu-Tang fan. I was into it but I didn’t understand how I could develop my own movement.
When you performed “Glasshouse” with Big K.R.I.T. and Currensy for the first time, it felt like the record had been out for a decade. The crowd reaction you get is unlike most other "new" artists.
It felt like we were on HBO. We can do whatever we want to do. That’s how it is right now with this game. We have more control over the music. With our own fanbase, can’t nobody really tell us “no” to anything. We do what we want to do and there’s definitely enough bread in this thing to keep it going.
I just talked to Yelawolf who was saying how there was a number of times where he was booed while opening up for you. Why do you think that happened to him?
Yela is just a talented dude. I wanted to have him on the tour because he’s so homegrown and grassroots. We got the same goals. I believe in him. I know some of the cities were rough but his heart is so huge that he made it work. Later on down the road when he’s a superstar, he can laugh about it. It’s just building character.
Are you planning on dropping another mixtape before the album?
I’m working on a bunch of material. Some of it, I’m just going to throw out there for free. I’m doing a bunch of collabos and features at the moment. Maybe a mixtape. I’m looking at the album coming out in March or April of next year. I can’t give you the title yet but you know what to expect from me.
What has been your favorite collabo thus far?
Definitely, it was working with Juicy J and Snoop. I did something with the Doggfather for his album. But people don’t know I’m a huge Juicy J fan, I grew up on Three 6 Mafia. I look at them the same way I look at Snoop. We actually got another record that we haven’t released yet.
You and Snoop are a-likes. How big of an influence has he been on your music?
Hearing Doggystyle for the first time was really important. I was living in Georgia at the time with my Mom. I was too young to even be listening to it but she had a ghetto homegirl who used to blast it in her truck when she would give me rides. I remember it sounded so bad like people getting their heads cut off and the blood squirting out. [laughs] That’s just the vision it gave me. But I was so into it. My favorite song now is probably “G’z Up, Hoes Down”. But back then you know “Gin & Juice” was like the single of the decade.
You have a big single of your own climbing up the charts with 'Black & Yellow', there have been rumors that the Steelers reached out to use it at games. True?
Yea, they are. I haven’t been talking to them personally but it would only be right. They’ve been talking to my management about it for sure.
It’s probably your most successful song to date. But, really it sounds more like one of the joints that you just had fun with.
Yea, that’s vibe, man. When we were done with it, the producers Stargate were really happy with it. And from they’re reputation alone, it made me think twice about it. I took it to the label and everybody was clapping by the end of the meeting. People can’t box my sound in anymore.
How do you feel about the whole ‘weed rap’ labeling?
It’s cool because people are always going to label you as something. And before this year, it really wasn’t that genre of "stoner rap" at the forefront or whatever, but I’ll just use it as motivation to build on and change people’s opinions of me. Even with whatever people want to label me with, there are so many other sides to me.
I’ve noticed a big change in your music sonically over the last two years. You really focused in on the melodies and switched to a more organic hip-hop sound versus the dance influenced material you released with Warner early in your career.
It was definitely a conscious thing. I just wanted to gear people back toward some of the things that I felt where my best qualities, which are my lyrical capabilities and strength in my melodies and harmonies. And my beat selection, but my music always been me, but I was just playing with a lot of different things. It all got me to where I’m at now.
That really reflects in your fanbase, do you ever wonder why you are able to draw such diverse fans?
I never wonder. My music and just my mentality has always been that everybody is a regular person. You don’t have to be a certain thing to be cool. If you’re white, you don’t have to act black or whatever. Just be you and know who you are. I’m just happy that my music reflects that in my fanbase.
Did you ever face criticism for not being “hood” enough in your music?
Not really because Pittsburgh is pretty set. There’s just poor and rich. There’s rich black people and white hoods and vice versa. So I knew both sides from a young age. I’ve heard people say I’m not hood enough in Pittsburgh before but I’m just here to do something different. I never paid it no attention. Then all of a sudden you are hood enough when you got arrested. [laughs]
Do you think the authorities were unfairly targeting you?
They were just trying to make an example out of me, scare me basically. They know a lot of the charges won’t stick. But to get the headlines they threw extra stuff on there.
Yea, it’s pretty obvious you’re not out there touring the country to sell weed. Any tips for your fans to not get busted at a Wiz Khalifa show.
Hide it, hide it good. And if they find it, have a good lawyer. [laughs] In my case, it was just weed, nothing else. I didn’t have crack or any pills. There are way worse things, the cops jus exaggerated everything. So I’m not in big trouble, the media is jus tripping off it. But it’s cool though, it comes with the territory.
Do you ever think you’ll give up the green?
Well, I’m licensed to carry weed in those states that allow it. So unless it has to do with my freedom, I’ll always be smoking.
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