Take one listen to any of Wiz Khalifa's mixtapes or albums, and it will quickly become apparent that the Pittsburgh native loves weed. Nah, you don't get it—dude loves smoking herb as much as Kim Kardashian loves taking pictures of herself. Besides music and his loved ones, there's only one thing that comes remotely close to garnering the same amount of love: his 2010 Dodge Challenger. It's the first car he won't let his friends burn one down in and the first car he's given a name to. We caught up with Mr. Kush and Orange Juice to find out why he wanted a Challenger so badly, what his current dream ride is, and what not to do with a McDonald's bag after you've finished eating.
Interview by Andrew Rivera
Complex: What was your first car?
Wiz Khalifa: The first little joint that I could get on my own, that I was making payments on, was an '05 Envoy. It had a leather interior and shit. Then I got my muscle car, a 2010 Dodge Challenger. Really, I never knew what car exactly I wanted when I was younger. My parents weren't too much into that kind of stuff. So I didn't really know until I was like 16 or 17 when I started liking muscle cars and getting into engines and all that.
Complex: What drew you towards that?
Wiz Khalifa: Just the look, the feel, the appeal of it. It's badass, dog. The respect you get from other people for it, too. Spitta [Curren$y], he really put me on when I met him. He got the SS Monte Carlo, he got the SS El Camino, he got the pickup trucks and shit. So me [purchasing the Challenger] was kind of a big for me and it was big for the city too 'cause it's black and gold.
Complex: Have you gotten any props from people while driving it?
Wiz Khalifa: The older white guys love it. They're like, "Sweet car! How many horses? What size is that Hemi, man?!" Older white chicks love it, too. I'm definitely gonna be scoring plenty cougars in that thing, where I'm from. I drove past with my seat back kind of far, so you couldn't really see me, and this one chick was like, "I'm about to faint!" I heard another girl say she wanted to fuck the car, not me. I have no idea why they're so attracted to cars...I like it though.
Complex: So is it better to be a great car or a rapper?
Wiz Khalifa: Car. [Laughs.] You could stop rappin', but if you're a good car than you gonna be straight. If I don't sell no records in Italy and I still got a nice car? I could still get booty.
Complex: Did you have any rides before the Challenger and Envoy?
Wiz Khalifa: I lost two cars! I still got the Envoy—I finished the payments and gave it to my mom. I had a [Chrysler] Sebring Coupe and I fucking blew the engine out after four months. After that I had a '98 [Pontiac] Bonneville. That was my shit; I was in high school and that was my first name car. That's what people knew me for, like, when you seen the Bonnie you knew it was me. That shit blew up, too, out of nowhere, just driving. [Laughs.] I was going to Maryland, and I was on the turnpike so I had to get towed and spend the night in Breezewood, PA—but I had an ounce of weed so I was straight.
Complex: Does that not make you nervous?
Wiz Khalifa: I carry [weed] in good faith. I just act like nothing is going on. I just got pulled over. He wasn't clockin' me, he didn't know how fast I was going, but I was speeding like fuck. [The cop] pulled me over and he was like, "You smokin' anything funny in here? You got like a little dime bag or something? Just tell me now." I just told him that I smoked more than the average dude and that I had an ounce in there. He made me get out and dump it out on the ground and step it out. The cops in Pittsburgh are nice. Plus it's a waste of time since I didn't have any baggies or a gun. I've been pulled over enough times in my city, they know who is dangerous and I'm not a dangerous dude. I've been pulled over more times than I'm proud of, enough to know what to do and what not to do. I don't advise anyone to drive with weed. My luck isn't everyone else's luck. So don't do that shit.
Complex: Are you pretty lenient when it comes to what people can and can not do in your car? Like, eating in it and driving it?
Wiz Khalifa: In my car now?! You can't eat in that shit, hell no. In the old truck, yeah, because that's what I bought it for: so we could all just hang out. My Challenger? No eating. If you're not me, you're not smoking in there. No blunts. No Black and Milds. My Mom can't smoke cigarettes in there...man, I'm pretty strict about that. Motherfuckas be eatin' cheese sauce and shit. Nah, you better wait 'til you get out. [Laughs.] Ain't nobody else driving that car for a minute. There's three people who I would let drive now. Two of them passed away and one of them is in jail right now. So nobody is touching that. [Laughs.]. I bought my car on May 4th and on a scale of 1 to 10, how in love am I with my car? 13.
Complex: Have you named it?
Wiz Khalifa: His name is Charlie.
Complex: Most people go with a girl...
Wiz Khalifa: It's a dude. He's too mean-looking. It's not a bitch. It could've been a bitch. Sometimes I want to be like, "That's my bitch", but it's not my bitch, it's my boy. He's mean as fuck, dudes in Camaros be trying to race me. I don't usually race. I just rev it up a little bit and they know their engines don't sound like that, so they stop. I'm about to put some pipes on it and new little stickers and shit. The old-school cursive Challenger writing. Get the racing stripe going over the top and—I love my car.[Laughs.] I try not to love it too much because I don't want nothin' to happen to it, but it's hard not to.
Complex: What's your dream car now?
Wiz Khalifa: I want a pickup truck. I think I want to buy Spitta's Viper truck off of him. I think he'll chuck it to me because he's getting all this new shit. New shit for him is like older, vintage shit. That truck right there is a new modern truck. He don't drive it anyway, it's just sitting in New Orleans. When I went down to visit him that's what I was driving.
Complex: Have you ever been in any accidents?
Wiz Khalifa: Please don't ask me that. Don't jinx me, yo. I'm scared of car accidents. [Laughs.] I'm fucking scared of car accidents, dog. Never. It's real. My dad was in a car accident and I've never seen my dad hurt. He was fucked up and that bugged me out.
Complex: Any beef with other drivers on the road?
Wiz Khalifa: Oh man! I just did some fucked-up shit the other day! [Laughs.] It was horrible! This dude wanted to kick my ass. He was on a motorcycle and I was high so I was like whatever. I had McDonald's and he was on a motorcycle behind me. I had been driving for like five minutes. I don't know what it was that made me let the bag go and it flew out the window with a half-full cup and I looked at it in the rear-view mirror and it hit dude in his face. He was trying to ride up on my side, screaming, "You fucking asshole!" He definitely had orange juice all over him. He tried to swerve out of the way, but he just went right into it. It was awful. I felt real bad, but I had to be tough. I was like, "Fuck you" or something like that. He was like, "You're an asshole. I'm gonna kill you!" He wanted to kill me! [Laughs.]
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