As his Snapchat followers know by now, DJ Khaled is staying away from “they.” Instead, he’s been hanging around successful people, including President Obama, Kendrick Lamar, his new manager Jay Z, and his Epic label head L.A. Reid. Now, he’s also gearing up to tour with Beyoncé and on top of all that, he’s readying a new album, Major Key.
On Tuesday (Apr. 19), Khaled sat down with New York radio station Power 105 to talk about all of theses new ventures and his future plans. During his interview with famed radio host Angie Martinez, he also discussed some new celebrity fans like Chris Rock, his private meeting with POTUS, and a new deal with Kim Kardashian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\\_1aTmNBRPP8
On Beyoncé: “I haven’t talked to her since they gave me the news that I’m on [the “Formation World Tour”], but I’ve been blessed to be around Jay Z and Lenny [Santiago] and see her presence. When I see her, I praise her and I just run. I’m focused. I don’t plan on saying nothing wrong but the key is to focus on not do too much. It’s just focus.”
On his new album Major Key: “I drive to be great every single time, but I want y’all to imagine all this energy that’s going on that’s special, the good vibes. This energy is coming in the music too. I got everybody on it but I can tell you this: I got the ones they can’t get too. I got the verses that they can’t get and they barely do it for themselves.”
On meeting President Obama: “The big man invited 15 of us and I didn’t know who was gonna be there. When I got the call, I was like, ‘They gonna let me in?’ I don’t know how this works. So, I got the call and we canceled whatever was on the schedule that day. It had to go. That’s President Obama and not just that, that’s somebody I really like and look up to and I voted for. And that’s the prez.”
On Obama’s message: “The keys was basically uplifting and inspiring the young world but at the same time working on ways to come together to make the world better.”
On his venture with Kim Kardashian: “We came up with a dope idea and y’all gon’ love it.”
On his celebrity fans: “Stallone. When I was at Clive Davis’ dinner at the Grammys, he knew who I was and that’s love. Rocky, that’s an icon on another level. He was just celebrating and it was cool that he knew who I was. And then Chris Rock. You know I’m a fan of Chris Rock…He was doing all the Khaled. I bump into him a lot but when someone actually talks some keys…That’s Chris Rock. Everybody’s showing love.”
On his new marketing plans: “I’m doing everything new. My whole career, if I’ve ever been in a marketing meeting or meeting amongst my guys about things I want to do, I always tell my team that I don’t want to do no dinosaur stuff, the regular dinosaur…This is how they do it. It’s been done for 20 years. We gotta give [fans] different presentations.”