Wiz Khalifa earned the biggest single of his career in 2015, reigning over the Hot 100 chart for 12 weeks with "See You Again". Now he's getting ready to drop Rolling Papers 2, the second of two albums released in 2016, and he answered 20 questions for Playboy about the many things going on in his life at this point in his career. He spoke to the publication about how he's transitioned from streetwear to designer brand as an artist, his experiences with police brutality, and of course, his Max B-informed beef with Kanye earlier in the year. Read the story here and view some notable excerpts below.
On his current phase:
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.
On police brutality in Pittsburgh:
Cops there are crazy. I've never been pulled over without them having a gun to my head. Even with traffic stops, they'll put a gun to your head and say, "Get the fuck out the car. What you got?" Searching you, breaking shit, twisting your arm. They're cool about weed, though. I got jammed up a lot in Pittsburgh, but I never did real time.
On his Twitter beef with Kanye:
That was a weird situation, because it was something I would do in real life. All I did was speak my mind. I'm a Max B fan, and if me and Kanye were in a room and he said, "Yo, I'mma name my album Waves," I'd be like, "Don't do that. You're not allowed to do that." Nobody really does that these days. Nobody checks niggas like, "Nah, nigga." No one is above being spoken to, and if you've got real friends, they'll tell you how they feel. That's how I handle all my situations in real life. Even if I have a problem with somebody, I'm not gonna advertise it. We can go around the corner and we can really do it. But all in front of people? That's not me. Niggas talk shit every day, and niggas say shit about my ex, niggas say shit about my kid. It's all good. There's competition in rap, and Kanye obviously sees me as that.
