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Cameron Jibril Thomaz also known as “Wiz Khalifa” was born on September 8th, 1987. Wiz Khalifa is my favortie music artist of all time. He was born in North Dakota, but finally ended up settling in Pittsburgh in 1996 where he attended Taylor Allderdice High School. Soon after moving to Pittsburgh, Khalifa started to make his own lyrics and write his own songs before he was even a teenager.
Something unique about Khalifa is his name. The name “Khalifa” comes from an Arabic word that means “successor” and wisdom. The name come from being called “young Wiz” because he was good at everything he did. Something interesting about Khalifa was that at the age of 15, Khalifa was regularly recording his music in a studio called I.D. Labs. The studio was so impressed with his music that they actually let him record it for free. Khalifa got his first chance with Rostrum Records. In 2004, Rostrum Records president Benjy Grinber met Khalifa when he was 16 and announced him as “an artist to watch” in Rolling Stone Magazine.
Some etnrepreneurial traits that Khalifa demonstrated was signing with Warner Bros. in 2007. Khalifa used the company to get his name out there and preform some of his first songs like “say yeah.” Khalifa eventually made the business decision to leave Warner Bros., but claimed that he was glad Warner Bros taught him how to grow with his career and lead him to be able to make his own next moves. Khalifa is innovating everyday by making new music. His most recent album “Rolling Papers 2” was released on July 13, 2018 and was a big hit. Most fans enjoyed the album and when he went on tour to preform the album.
Khalifa inspires me because he started his industry at such a young age. He was making music at age 9 which is very impressive to me. If Khalifa could start making music at the age of 9, then I should be able to be an entrepreneur at age 19. Some principles that I have learned from Khalifa is to stick to what you believe in. Khalifa had many doubters at first (which you would expect), but he kept at it with the music industry and now he is one of the most famous and (my favorite) artist out there. Another principle that Khalifa taught me was to keep an open mind. When Khalifa had trouble writing music, instead of getting frustrated he would relax and just let the lyrics come to him. As an entrepreneur, you can’t overthink or you will just end up costing yourself.
Wiz Khalifa started out at such a young age making music, and never stopped until he made it big. I never realized this and it is truly inspiring to me. Wiz’s open mind when it comes to the music industry helped him to excel past those around him, which is a very important skill for entrepreneurs.
I have always been fascinated about how some of today’s top singers got to where they are now. There are so many that started off with a rough upbringing and not much going for them, but have defied the odds and end up making it big. Being from Pittsburgh, I am very familiar with Wiz, especially his song “Black and Yellow” which always gets me hype. I had no idea that he started at nine years old, and it shows that with hard work and determination, you can do almost anything you set your mind to.
It’s awesome to see how driven Wiz was to get to the studio and record at such a young age. Many kids his age would never has aspirations like that. What is more incredible was how he was able to record for free because of how impressed the studio owners were.