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What kind of entrepreneur gives his product away for free? Judging by the decade Wiz Khalifa has enjoyed, a very successful one. (Spoiler alert: He doesn\u2019t give everything away, and definitely not Khalifa Kush.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
A walking, talking, and\u2014as befits the reputation of a man who once claimed to spend $10,000 a month on cannabis\u2014smoking embodiment of the requisites demanded by the \u201cslash\u201d economy, in which the line between patron and artist isn\u2019t so much blurred as it\u2019s one contiguous broad stroke, the musician-slash-businessman-slash-social media-powered marketing machine broke the internet for three solid days way back in 2010, when he chose to release the critically acclaimed mixtape-slash-lifestyle manifesto Kush and Orange Juice for free. His winning ethos: partying, hanging out with beautiful women, chasing positive vibes and staying extremely high.<\/p>\n
The business genius lay in knowing that gifting his audience content also meant growing his audience, and thereby his dollars. The next year, Wiz Khalifa was riding on top of the Billboard 100 with \u201cBlack and Yellow,\u201d the addictively catchy anthem paying homage to Pittsburgh\u2014his adopted hometown where his acumen in the recording studio attracted attention from record labels before he was even old enough to drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By 2013, the prodigy was generating $14 million a year, according to Forbes, enough to be mentioned in the same top-ten list as other luminaries\u2014and similarly multi-faceted business empires anchored in music\u2014including the likes of Drake, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. Of course, there was one major difference: Aside from Snoop Dogg, Wiz was the only one doing it while also centering weed. And he was doing it well before cannabis legalization entered the mainstream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Had he been coming up a decade earlier, that might have been dismissed as too risky of a move by Wiz\u2019s handlers in the marketing department over at his record label. Of course, by that time Wiz had already ditched Warner Bros., his original label, for taking too long to release music and went independent via his own label Taylor Gang\u2014and relying on his demonstrated social media virality to do the job a whole floor\u2019s worth of marketing music professionals couldn\u2019t, even if they tried.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Looking back now, centering cannabis wasn\u2019t a conscious or calculated decision, Wiz tells me candidly. It was just who he was and what he was about\u2014and what he believed to be right and true.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really wasn\u2019t a choice, just how I came up and the lifestyle,\u201d he insists. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018This really isn\u2019t that bad of a thing.\u2019 People thought I was crazy putting weed on YouTube on college campuses, but that\u2019s just what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than a dozen years later, the man born Cameron Jibril Thomaz outside a lonely North Dakota US Air Force base remains as omnipresent and as squarely on the cutting edge of just about everything there is in popular culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I do mean everything: In between demanding real estate, in popular video games while also dropping new music in the Metaverse; collaborating with fellow Yinzer Girl Talk and other producers on Multiverse, his seventh album released in July 2022; organizing a free concert; critiquing other rappers who claim to wear expensive outfits once before moving onto the next fit\u2014\u201cnot a flex,\u201d Wiz said and praising President Joe Biden\u2019s potentially revolutionary first step towards federally rescheduling (or, maybe, finally, legalizing) cannabis, Wiz visited Florida to launch the latest collaboration selling his eponymous Khalifa Kush\u2014this time in concert with Trulieve, the Sunshine State\u2019s most powerful cannabis business empire. (Along the way, he\u2019s also studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai kickboxing, and is raising his nine-year-old son, born when Wiz was married to the model and media personality Amber Rose.)<\/p>\n
Whew. That\u2019s more of a lifetime to-do list than it is a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, but it\u2019s all there. How does the hip hop superstar stay focused on so many lanes all at once? He doesn\u2019t, at least not with any kind of one-at-a-time tunnel vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all feed each other,\u201d Wiz said in between a flurry of meetings and appearances. \u201cI love making music and I love the companies I\u2019ve created. I\u2019ve built a trusted team around me, that knows the vision and knows how to make shit happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, as a brand and as a reputation grows bigger,\u00a0 the bigger the risk of dilution. Perhaps nowhere has this been more prominently and more keenly felt than in commercial cannabis, where industrial-scaled offerings from Big Weed continue to struggle to compete with tax-free, cottage-industry grown traditional market fire. Trulieve grown-and-sold Khalifa Kush will avoid that trap, Wiz assures me, in part because he has inserted himself into the quality-control process, as any true aficionado would.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\u201cWe only partner with people that we know we can trust, and that give our genetics the love they need,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been smoking KK for more than a decade, and it\u2019s the same thing we put in jars and grown with the same love\u2026\u00a0 it doesn\u2019t get more authentic than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for other celebrity cannabis brands and their struggles to break into and stay in a competitive industry, Wiz isn\u2019t all that concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of room in the industry for other people to do what they do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe focus on putting out only the highest quality products using our exclusive genetics. We just dropped our second strain ever, Khalifa Mints, a cross of KK x The Menthol. We have a bunch of new genetics on deck to launch over the next year and beyond. We\u2019re working more\u00a0than a year out at this point. It\u2019s all about the strategy and patience for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Someone this busy and this successful might have his very own joint-roller in a swollen entourage, but as befits someone who took heat for a fashion ensemble that\u2019s more athleisure than it\u2019s runway-ready, Wiz says he keeps it simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI usually grind and roll myself, but if I\u2019m extra busy I\u2019ve been prepping cones ahead of time so I\u2019m good for a couple days,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf you follow me on social media, you know I\u2019m always rollin\u2019 with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
After celebrating his 35th birthday in 2022, Wiz Khalifa still has a few years of growth to go before the mid-life landmark of 40. As for what the next couple of trips around the sun will entail: well, probably more of the same, with whatever else is new and good thrown into the mix. Twitter, Metaverse, Instagram or something else entirely: With Wiz Khalifa, what you see is what you get, and the formula seems to be working just fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re visible it\u2019s important to set an example using your platforms,\u201d the talented Khalifa says. \u201cI focus on being a good dad, raising my son the right way, working hard and taking the stigma out of being a stoner.\u201d<\/p>\n
After all, he says, \u201cEveryone smokes weed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was originally published in the\u00a0print edition<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now.<\/em><\/p>\n
The post Oh, To Be Wiz Khalifa<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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