DJ Khaled FaceTimed Apple Music’s Zane Lowe for an interview while jet skiing and wearing his signature “We The Best” face mask because why not?
But the 44-year-old megaproducer wouldn’t describe their conversation as an interview, per se. “This is definitely the first interview I ever did, or I would call this a celebration, on a FaceTime, on a jet ski…. Yes, yes we are definitely celebrating!” He’s currently preparing for the release of his 12th album Khaled Khaled, an eponymous autobiographical body of work as his real name is Khaled Mohamed Khaled.
In typical DJ Khaled fashion, he didn’t just pack one major key, but two majors keys when he dropped a couplet of Drake-assisted singles “POPSTAR” and “GREECE” last Friday (July 17). Despite pausing album mode because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s resuming his work and ready to start swinging with some “knockout” hits.
“I’m going to break out Khaled Khaled more through the process, through the rollout. You know what I mean? And this was a way to come with two keys. My first and last name is the same. That’s true. Two keys there, too. I got two kids,” he told Lowe with the waves casually crashing behind him. “And when I was talking to Drake, you know what I mean? I was like, ‘I want to hit him with a knockout.’ That’s what I asked him. I said, ‘I want to hit him with a knockout.'”
But their evolution of hits together, from “I’m On One” with Rick Ross and Lil Wayne in 2011 to “No New Friends” (also with Ross and Wayne) and “For Free” both in 2013, wasn’t the only thing bringing them together this time around (“He’d always been the same to me, meaning as in he does what he wants to do, he do it how he want to do it, and it’s going to be big,” he said of the Canadian rapper). The Toronto birthplace of Khaled’s second son Alealam rebirthed that popstar sensation for the DJ.
“When ‘POPSTAR’ was created, I went to Toronto and my son was born,” he recalled earlier this year. “My son was born and I flew straight in Toronto right after my son was born in the same date. You know what I mean? It was something special to me, you know what I mean? To be the pop star. We been the pop stars. We been the pop stars. I mean, we pack all the arenas, pack all the stadiums, and the people. We represent the culture to the highest level.”
But he’s got one more star he’s had his eyes set on for another hit: Megan Thee Stallion. “I mean f— it, this is the Zane Lowe show right… I’ll be honest with you… you know, me and Megan, we got one. Ya, we cooked something up.”
Watch and listen to Khaled’s epic interview from the water below.