Wiz Khalifa | The Rewind
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00:00 None of my tattoos have any connection
00:02 to my martial arts or physical journey.
00:03 Just because I tattoo, all of the fun spots,
00:06 the only places that I have left are my ass cheeks.
00:09 So whenever I decide to do that,
00:12 then we'll get some martial arts tattoos.
00:15 But until then, we just chillin'.
00:16 [laughs]
00:18 Yo, what up, it's your boy Wiz Khalifa.
00:19 Men's Health has asked me to look back at my journey
00:22 to see how far I've come with my own health,
00:24 wellness, and some of the other fly stuff I've done.
00:29 This is the Rewind.
00:30 [upbeat music]
00:32 In this picture, I was actually in Japan.
00:43 I think I was probably about 12 years old,
00:46 maybe 11 or 12 years old.
00:47 As you can see, I have a little chain here
00:50 and I was on my way to thinking I was super duper cool.
00:53 Yeah, it was all about that chain right there,
00:55 just trying to show everybody I was on.
00:58 You have your own brand of marijuana.
01:01 Is weed an important part of your well-being?
01:04 Explain.
01:05 Ha ha, yeah, I would say weed is an important part
01:07 of my well-being because it helps me out mentally.
01:10 There's been places I've been able to go when I smoke weed
01:13 that I know for sure I wouldn't have been able to go there
01:16 unless I was stoned off of marijuana.
01:19 And I'm very thankful for the plant.
01:20 I'm thankful for its medicinal benefits.
01:24 I'm thankful for its social benefits.
01:26 And I love how it makes me feel.
01:28 And this picture right here,
01:31 me on stage with George Clinton.
01:33 Not only was it like a starstruck moment,
01:35 but it was a learning moment as well
01:37 of how to keep the show going on
01:39 when you're [beep] 80 years old.
01:41 This man's 80 years old, still controlling the band,
01:43 singing, performing like a real G
01:46 and not taking his craft for granted.
01:49 And in this picture, I'm just a young G,
01:53 soaking up some game.
01:54 The song "Ink" my whole body was inspired
01:57 by just the lifestyle and the mindset
01:59 of like me just getting tattooed everywhere.
02:02 We were going pretty crazy at that time,
02:04 just getting blasted everywhere.
02:05 And it wasn't like now where you get like face tats
02:08 or we would get little face tats,
02:09 but it was more kind of just big chest pieces,
02:12 big back pieces, sleeved out,
02:15 just covering every inch of your body with ink.
02:18 What's the most challenging move
02:20 you still want to master on your skateboard?
02:22 I'm done trying to challenge,
02:24 I mean, trying to master moves on my skateboard.
02:26 I'm 36 years old.
02:28 I don't have any business, you know,
02:29 flipping it, twirling it, hitting it off my shins,
02:33 going down steps.
02:34 I'm not doing none of that [beep]
02:35 I'm just cruising.
02:37 Do I play any other sports?
02:38 My main thing is mixed martial arts.
02:40 That's a sport.
02:41 So, you know, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, muay thai.
02:46 Those are the sports that I'm into now.
02:48 None of my tattoos have any connection
02:50 to my martial arts or physical journey.
02:52 I got aliens and weed, bone thugs and harmony
02:56 and pit bulls and all types of [beep]
02:58 The only places that I have left are like my ass cheeks.
03:01 So like, whenever I decide to do that,
03:04 then we'll get some martial arts tattoos.
03:07 But until then, we just chilling.
03:09 My friendships in the music industry,
03:12 they're super cool because everybody
03:13 that I work with closely, I genuinely like.
03:16 I think the best part about it is the stuff that we create,
03:19 we really believe in before it turns
03:22 into this massive interpretation by the world.
03:25 And it's just super cool to just love what we do,
03:28 be there when the magic is created
03:30 and see how it works on people.
03:32 I'm a real big fan of all of the people
03:34 that I work closely with.
03:35 So it's good to, you know, make our own moments together.
03:39 What music do I listen to when I'm training?
03:41 It depends.
03:42 I go through different waves and stages.
03:44 Sometimes I might listen to some old school hip hop
03:46 if I'm trying to get inspired.
03:48 Sometimes I'll listen to country music
03:50 when I'm trying to hear something
03:51 that I never heard before and just be inspired.
03:53 Sometimes I'll listen to jazz
03:55 if I don't really want to hear any words.
03:57 You know, it's just cool to just hear music sometimes.
04:00 Yeah, I like to switch it up,
04:01 just depending on the type of mood I'm in.
04:03 What did your diet look like
04:04 at the beginning of your career?
04:07 I really just started out eating whatever I wanted to.
04:09 My family is Muslim, so I never really ate pork.
04:12 A lot of Caribbean food, a lot of late night Chinese food,
04:16 and Papa John's, it wasn't that good at all the time.
04:19 The diet pretty much stays the same.
04:23 I have a chef come with me so I can get some balanced meals.
04:26 It's really difficult to eat balanced meals on the road.
04:28 My chef is cooking, you know, a lot of chicken,
04:31 a lot of rice, a lot of vegetables.
04:32 Real ass meals though, too.
04:34 I like pasta, I love steak and potatoes.
04:37 It depends on where we're at, too.
04:38 A lot of times the chef has to go shopping.
04:41 We might be in Austin, Texas,
04:42 and the damn stove blows up 'cause of the heat.
04:45 So, gotta make do with what we have,
04:47 but it works out how it's supposed to.
04:49 This looks like one of my earlier shows
04:52 based off of the black and yellow chains.
04:53 I had just got those, and those was what I wrote
04:56 the song "Black and Yellow" about, those chains in my car.
04:59 The majority of my health journey
05:01 started later on in my career.
05:05 I started touring when I was 19.
05:08 So you got about 10 years of me, you know,
05:10 kinda just wildin' out, kinda just building a brand,
05:13 just doing what it really, really takes
05:15 to be a successful businessman.
05:18 Like, you gotta put it all on the line.
05:19 I don't really regret anything, either.
05:21 It was a fun time, and it was a time to learn
05:24 where not to go back to, you know, as far as habits.
05:29 I stay motivated to work out,
05:32 really just by watching things that remind me to work out.
05:35 Instagram is really cool.
05:36 Sometimes I'll just be scrolling,
05:38 and there'll be a video of somebody boxing,
05:40 or there'll be a video of somebody lifting,
05:42 or there'll be some advice on there
05:43 about form or something like that,
05:45 and that kinda gets me in the mood.
05:46 I'll be like, "Hey, need to go ahead and do my thing."
05:49 What did your workout routine look like in 2011?
05:53 What does it look like now?
05:55 In 2011, the workout routine was non-existent.
05:59 I wasn't even interested in weights, or fitness,
06:03 or physical activity, or anything.
06:05 Now, I'm in the gym six days a week.
06:08 So yeah, now I'm in the gym very consistently,
06:11 and that's part of my everyday routine.
06:14 It's not just something that I pick up and put down.
06:17 How has martial arts training changed your life?
06:21 Martial arts training changed my life.
06:23 It helped me a lot physically.
06:24 It gave me another purpose.
06:27 I wouldn't say in life, but just creatively,
06:30 you know, for the past five or six years.
06:33 If I hadn't, you know, gone into it on my own,
06:36 if I would've just watched
06:37 freakin' Bruce Lee movies all my life,
06:39 I would've never known how cool it is
06:40 to actually be a martial artist myself.
06:43 The main thing about staying healthy on tour
06:47 and on the road is just keeping a good routine.
06:50 And my coach kinda explained it to me,
06:52 where it's like training before tour is like off-season.
06:55 So you can lift heavy, you can do, you know,
06:58 a little bit more, but while you're on tour,
07:00 it's just the season.
07:01 So you're just maintaining.
07:02 And I'm pretty excited 'cause that shirt,
07:05 it wasn't that small when I left for tour,
07:07 but clearly my chest and back got big as hell
07:10 to the point that when I lifted my arms up,
07:13 my damn shirt was coming up.
07:14 So that's pretty cool, I love that.
07:16 What did your pre-performance ritual look like
07:18 at this moment in time?
07:20 Probably just, you know, rolled up like 20 joints,
07:23 played some, either some Rick James or some Willie Hutch.
07:26 This was probably a Willie Hutch day, judging by the smile.
07:30 I'm never really nervous before a show.
07:32 People always ask me how I go from just chillin'
07:35 to being a monster out there,
07:36 but I don't really know.
07:37 Like, I just kinda just kick it.
07:39 I like to be relaxed.
07:40 And then when I go on stage, that's when I do my thing.
07:43 The music game is such a competition-driven thing.
07:46 Everybody wants to be number one.
07:48 Nobody wants to be number three.
07:51 So you get caught up in competing a lot of the times,
07:55 but my thing is just to create and to exist.
07:58 This is when we were promoting Young, Wild & Free.
08:02 When we first did Mac & Devin Go To High School,
08:05 we were kinda just putting the world onto, you know,
08:07 our way of life.
08:09 Everybody had already seen Snoop in the gangster persona.
08:13 They had never seen him with a young hippie
08:16 and somebody who was like, you know,
08:18 just cool to the younger people
08:20 and cool to different crowds, but he also existed there.
08:23 I think that's always been the good thing about Snoop,
08:25 is he can transcend through every crowd.
08:29 Supporting my mental health at such a young age
08:31 really wasn't even a priority.
08:33 It was more about just having fun,
08:35 building the business, expressing myself,
08:38 and just getting to the next level in my career.
08:41 The older that I got, the more I realized
08:44 how much it's important to kinda slow down
08:46 and just rebuild those things
08:48 that make life's experiences what they are.
08:52 My most powerful way to take care of my mental health
08:55 when I need a break is chilling with my son.
08:57 So if I'm not in a place where I feel like
09:00 things are lining up,
09:01 I can always go and kick it with him,
09:03 even if it's for 20 minutes or 30 minutes
09:06 and we can laugh or I can, you know,
09:08 take him out and entertain him,
09:10 do something that he's completely into
09:12 that's not even, you know, something that I'm trying to do
09:15 and it's not anything that I have to force
09:18 or put aside feelings for.
09:21 It's something that I really, really enjoy.
09:23 The next milestone I wanna reach,
09:25 I just really wanna keep evolving.
09:28 That's my main goal, just keep evolving with style,
09:31 with music, with production, with presentation.
09:35 That's what I look most forward to
09:37 and that's what really keeps me motivated as well,
09:39 is kind of being the role of the subject and the object,
09:44 where I'm myself but I'm looking at myself too,
09:47 how somebody else would
09:48 and the things that I see for myself are pretty awesome.
09:51 Yo, what up, it's your boy Wiz Khalifa
09:53 and I'm kicking it with men's health.
09:54 This is my interview and this is my time.
09:57 Hope you guys love it.
09:58 (upbeat music)
10:01 (upbeat music)