Best New Artist at The BET Awards of 2011 – Wiz Khalifa

Known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, was born as Cameron Jibril Thomaz on September 8, 1987 in Minot, North Dakota. His mother and a father wer serving in the military. The family moved to Pittsburgh when Khalifa was the age of two. In October of 1990 Wiz was separated from his mother,who left him in the hands of her sister while she served in Operation Desert Storm. His parents divorced when Khalifa was about three years old.He would move between Pittsburgh and South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Germany, Japan, and England as his parents were reassigned to different posts over the next thirteen years ufabet.

Wiz was forced to mature quicker than his peers during his travels. He was constantly faced with new schools, and new sets of friends, and he found it difficult to become attached to anyone outside his family roots. This kind of life gave Wiz an opportunity to broaden his mind, and offered him many experiences from which to draw inspiration. He would write his thoughts down every day and began to perceive the world differently than most kids. These thoughts would become the foundation for his future recordings.

By the age of 14, with a few songs under his belt, Wiz was already drawing comparisons with his commanding voice and witty wordplay. While he has been influenced by artists such as Jay-Z, Camron, and the Notorious B.I.G., Wiz was determined to create his own identity.

Pittsburgh has long been searching for its first major Hip Hop star. Some have flirted with success, while others have floundered in the masses. At the age of 19, Wiz Khalifa has developed into the prodigy that Pittsburgh has been looking for, and he plans to represent his city to the fullest.

His stage name is derived from khalifa, an Arabic word meaning “successor”, and wisdom, which was shortened to Wiz when Khalifa was fifteen. Khalifa stated that the name also came from being called “young Wiz ’cause I was good at everything I did, and my granddad is Muslim, so he gave me that name; he felt like that’s what I was doing with my music.” He got his stage name tattooed on his 17th birthday.

He released his first official mixtape 2005 Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania. His first full length street album named Show and Prove he released later in 2006. In 2007, Khalifa released two mixtapes: Grow Season, hosted by DJ Green Lantern and released on July, 2007, and Prince of the City 2, released on November, 2007. His debut Warner Bros. single “Say Yeah” reached number 25 on the Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 music chart.

The samples “Better Off Alone” by Alice Deejay. Khalifa’s vocals from “Say Yeah” appear near the end of Pittsburgh mash up producer Girl Talk’s 2008 album, Feed the Animals, over music from Underworld’s “Born Slippy”, Usher’s “Love in This Club”, and the Cure’s “In Between Days”.

Khalifa appeared with The Game, David Banner and Play-n-Skillz at U92’s Summer Jam at the USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City, Utah on August 2, 2008. Khalifa released the mixtapes Star Power in September 2008, and Flight School in April 2009.

He left the Warner Bros. Records in July 2009 after numerous delays in releasing his planned debut album for the label, First Flight. Khalifa stated to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that, “I learned a lot during my time there and matured as an artist during the process. I’m happy to be moving on with all of my material and having the chance to be in control of my next moves”.

Since then he has released a further six mixtapes and a collaboration mixtape titled How Fly with friend Curren$y. His debut album, Deal or No Deal, shown up in November of 2009. It reached first place on the iTunes hip hop chart.