On an August afternoon in Miami, in the living room of the more-than-12,000-square-foot South Beach mansion he's affectionately dubbed "the Resort", Khaled cues up 'Heart of the City'. He says it's the type of energy that he wants from his upcoming 14th studio album, Til Next Time. The kind of music people play "to motivate themselves, to sing or rap along to," he says. "Anthems." Khaled, 48, has made a life out of motivation.
In the rap community, he's been a reliable source of hits rooted in the rags-to-riches ethos of the genre. All he does is win, as he emphatically told us in 2010, and his hustler's intuition has laid the foundation for a decades-long career working alongside some of the biggest names in music, from Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Drake, Justin Bieber, and Rihanna, Khaled's relentless positivity is by now part of the DNA of popular culture. When you hear him chant his name - stretching the syllables in the word "DJ" to their phonetic limit - you know it's going to be a banger.
Despite being something of an architectural marvel, Khaled's house manages to still feel cosy. Across the room, there are kids toys for his sons Asahd, seven, and Aalam, three, within view, and the family cat, Coco, shuffles pensively around the back hallway. Photos of the family occupy space on pretty much every surface. It's like being at your uncle's house if your uncle had a handful of certified platinum records under his belt.
At home, Khaled makes sure to get dressed up for the occasion of our interview, wearing a Loewe button-down shirt and black trousers, along with a pair of J Balvin Air Jordan 3's. He and the Colombian star recently collaborated on a single called 'Dientes', featuring R&B legend Usher. "He's the biggest hype man in the world," Balvin says of Khaled, before jokingly adding, "And the way he dances is amazing, too." Khaled wears a pristinely lined haircut.
This story is from the February/March 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February/March 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Declan McKenna Breaks Free
The singer-songwriter discusses the more chilled vibe that defines his third album, the pressure on artists to engage with social media, and how he's becoming the artist he always wanted to be
BIG BOI & J.I.D
Two of the sharpest lyricists in Atlanta meet up at Stankonia Studios the birthplace of too many classic verses to count to trade industry stories and favourite bars, and talk about how they want to see hip-hop keep evolving
SNOOP DOGG & LATTO
Two uniquely charismatic rappers, from two different generations, sit down and go deep on their come-up, their studio secrets, the importance of fighting hate with love, and that time Pharrell got too high and left Snoop alone to produce Stevie Wonder
DJ KHALED CAN'T STOP WINNING
LATELY, DJ KHALED has been listening to a lot of Jay-Z. Namely The Blueprint, the 2001 opus that helped solidify Hov as a commercial juggernaut in hip-hop.
THE WORLD BELONGS TO 21 SAVAGE
He became your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper while overcoming all manner of turbulence. We ride along as Savage heads to Europe and starts a new chapter in one of hip-hop’s most unique stories
BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY
Yard Act are back with a new sound for their second album, Where's My Utopia? Here, they discuss the record's more personal focus, and how the fantasy of making it big measures up to living through it
TO CAPTURE A FIRE
Actor Kingsley Ben-Adir on playing Jamaica's most famous son, reggae icon Bob Marley - a role he embodies with the full support of the Marley family-in forthcoming biopic, One Love
IT MUST BE LOVE
On their fifth album, TANGK, rock band IDLES lean further into experimentation and softer textures while focusing on a central theme: love. At his home in Bristol, frontman Joe Talbot explains how making an album of love songs helped him to heal, while the band's guitarist and producer Mark Bowen explains the key to their writing partnership
DUA LIPA IS GIVING US EVERYTHING
After a whirlwind couple of years, the wildly ambitious pop star is embracing freedom and fun both in her life and on her upcoming album. As she kicks off a new era, she lets us into her dreams, her anxieties, and what she wants to stand for
The greatest show on earth!
The inaugural Rolling Stone UK Awards, in collaboration with Rémy Martin, were presented at Camden's legendary Roundhouse in November. The stars came out to play, and with Munya Chawawa as host-for one night only - we rocked the world a little bit harder...
