Wiz Khalifa Biography

The American rapper known as Wiz Kahlifa was born Cameron Jibril Thomaz in 1987 in Minot, North Dakota. Young Cameron moved around frequently due to his parents military service obligations, living in various cities across the United States, Germany, and Japan. While spending his teenage years in Philadelphia, Thomaz began rapping and writing his own music, collaborating with local rising artists on their mixtapes. After a representative from Rostrum Records got wind of his talents, Cameron teamed up with him, adopting the moniker Wiz Khalifa.

Between 2005 and 2008, Wiz Khalifa released a series of mixtapes and a debut album, Show and Prove. The album earned Khalifa critical acclaim from such industry publications as Rolling Stone, which tapped the rising rap star as an “artist to watch” in the coming year. By 2007, Khalifa had signed to Warner Bros. Records, releasing a number of singles, including “Say Yeah” and “Better Off Alone,” both of which rose into the top forty on the mainstream charts.

By 2009, Wiz Khalifa had left Warner Bros. Records to sign with Atlantic Records, releasing his next album, Deal or No Deal, with the label in 2009. But it was the album Rolling Papers that became Wiz Khalifa’s biggest mainstream breakthrough, rising to the number one spot on the R&B/hip-hop charts and also the rap charts, and into the number two spot on the mainstream charts.

Since that time, Wiz Khalifa has released the additional albums: Rolling Papers (2011), O.N.I.F.C. (2012), and Blacc Hollywood (2014), all of which performed as well as Rolling Papers. Blacc Hollywood topped its success, rising to the number one spot on all three charts. Notable singles from Wiz Khalifa include: “Black and Yellow,” “Roll Up,” “On My Level,” “No Sleep,” “Young, Wild & Free,” “We Own It,” “We Dem Boyz,” and the smash-hit single “See You Again,” recorded with Charlie Puth and which appeared on the Furious 7 Soundtrack. The song rose to the number one spot on nearly every chart in the United States and also internationally, and earned Wiz Khalifa dozens of industry award nominations, including an American Music Award nomination for Collaboration of the Year, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, and Grammy Award nominations for Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and Best Song Written for a Visual Medium.

Wiz Khalifa continues to perform and record. His most recent album, Khalifa, was released in 2016 and rose into the top five on the R&B/hip-hop, rap, and mainstream charts in the United States.