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Wiz Khalifa at KeyBank Pavilion on the Dazed & Blazed Tour.
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Wiz Khalifa talks 'Decent Exposure,' Mac Miller, Dice and who he wants to work with

Steve Kalinsky

Wiz Khalifa talks 'Decent Exposure,' Mac Miller, Dice and who he wants to work with

Fresh off of his rare club tour for the mixtape “2009,” Wiz Khalifa is about to hit the amphitheaters once again, this time on the Decent Exposure Tour.

This summer run will find the Pittsburgh-raised, LA-based rap superstar, who just released another mixtape, “Fly Times Vol. 1: The Good Fly Young,” topping a bill with French Montana, Playboi Carti, Moneybagg Yo, Chevy Woods and DJ Drama. It begins July 9 in Atlanta and will arrive at the KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown on July 20.

To promote the tour, Khalifa did a late afternoon media teleconference on Wednesday from LA and, unlike his recent sit-down with podcast superstar Joe Rogan, people asked him questions on topics other than weed and MMA training.

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When asked about the greatest moment in his life, he said it was having his son, Sebastian, who is about to go into first grade.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

How he plans to celebrate Illinois legalizing recreational marijuana: “Uh, sparking up a big-ass joint.”

Memories of Mac Miller: “I think some of my favorite memories of Mac were like early when I used to be in the studio in Pittsburgh and I was pretty much about to be on my way out of there, just being on the road and doing a lot of different things. I just remember seeing him coming in and grinding a lot and it reminded me of myself, how I would come to the studio and grind. It was real fun to see another kid from the same city with the same enthusiasm for the grind.”

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What motivated him while making “Fly Times Vol. 1”: “I was coming off of tour and I really just wanted to make something for my core fans and something that challenged me lyrically and kind of changed my process of recording. I wanted to go to the next step and I thought that making ‘Volume 1’ was a building block for the next step.”

Whether it’s hard to keep topping himself with the tours: “No, I don’t think it’s harder to top myself. I just really want to give the fans the best experience as well as get bigger and better. Technology changes and there’s always new ways to do things to make the package feel the same but be different. So that’s my main goal is to always just level up so that people can have a better experience, and that just takes me getting in with my team and figuring out what’s what, and what’s cost efficient, things like that. Especially for this year, I’ve got a lot of new things I’ll be doing, so it’s stuff that’s really exciting.”

The lineup on the tour: “All different styles, all really great rappers/musicians. Moneybagg is coming up on the underground scene — not really underground but more the club scene in the urban world. And he’s going to get to experience a new fanbase as well as bring his fanbase with him. Playboi Carti, you know, he’s got a lot of young energy and he’s real fun, so the kids are going to get a different vibe from what they get from me on a normal, they’ll get that from him. French Montana’s got the hits, so everybody’s gonna be able to jam and have a great time. DJ Drama is going to keep everybody excited and pumped up in between because that’s what he does -- he’s great at that. And I’m going to come in and knock it out of the park.”

What he has left to accomplish: “I’m always going to keep trying to top myself musically, so there’s new music on the way, stuff with TV, animated series, TV shows, working with my artists, making sure their careers go the way they’re supposed to go. And taking care of my son. Those are like my main goals, for real, for real.”

On his son’s voice on “Gold Bottles” and making the Oreo commercial: “Yeah, that’s definitely him on there. My son’s crazy. And it was fun making a commercial because he’s really a natural and he’s not the type of kid where you gotta coach him too much or make him do anything out of his character. And all of the reactions were real and everything was solid. I was real proud.”

Visiting Taylor Allderdice: “It’s crazy going back to the Dice. It looks the same and pretty much feels the same. People always say when you go back to your old high school or something like that, that it looks and feels smaller, but the Dice was huge and it still is.”

The tour name Decent Exposure: “I wanted to come up with something that sounded bad but then we make it good. We’re in this day and age where things before that weren’t legal, they’re legal now. So, instead of ‘Indecent Exposure,’ where you’ll probably get in trouble for a lot of the things that you do that you would have done before, it’s Decent now. It’s cool to act the fool, so we’re gonna wild out and we’re gonna have fun.”

Whether he sticks with Khalifa Kush: “I’m majority smoking Khalifa Kush all day just because it’s my brand and I enjoy it the most, but there are other brands that I support…”

His approach to mixtapes versus albums: “For me, I just gotta take it one project at a time, and sometimes I can work on three projects at one time. But I know creatively what goes in what place, so it depends on how I write it or what the context of what I’m saying is, and that’s how I put things in place for what project they go on. And when I make an album, it’s a totally different creative process.”

Memories of Nipsey Hussle: “One of them is being in Puff Daddy’s backyard at like [an] afterparty or something like that, and there were lots of different types of people there and I don’t know if he felt comfortable or I felt comfortable but as soon as we see each other, we was like, ‘Oh, man, it’s late [or lit],’ and I got super drunk that night and the next day he told me he threw up in Puffy’s pool, and I was really proud of myself.”

On a 10-year anniversary party for “Kush & Orange Juice”: “Nah, no reunion and no anniversaries for ‘Kush & OJ.’ ”

Who he would like to collaborate with: “I definitely want to work with Dr. Dre. And Jay Z, for sure.”

On “Mac and Devin Go to College”: “It’s on the way. We still actually writing it, so sometime soon, but I’m glad everybody’s still wanting it.”

Who would win in a fight with CM Punk: “I don’t know. That would be interesting to see.”

Where he fits in the world of hip-hop and what he represents: “I just think I represent talent, hustle and just mind elevation in general.”

First Published: June 13, 2019, 2:13 p.m.
Updated: June 13, 2019, 2:28 p.m.

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Wiz Khalifa at KeyBank Pavilion on the Dazed & Blazed Tour.  (Steve Kalinsky)
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