Wiz Khalifa Discusses Pittsburgh’s Growing Hip Hop Culture x Makes Country Music Comparisons

Post by Alex Stone, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:45 am Speak Up0

Wiz Khalifa recently spoke about the hip hop scene in the Steel City and reminisced that there’s no place quite like his hometown. The rapper’s number one debut single ‘Black and Yellow’ is credited with bringing attention to Pittsburgh’s untapped hip hop talent and setting the stage for new acts like Mac Miller.

According to Khalifa, the recent attention that has been paid to Pittsburgh has opened doors for new talent but future acts will still need the encouragement of the hip hop community if they are to make it beyond the local level. “With the music, it’s a whole new avenue we done opened up for kids and for people to look up to. It’s a reality now out there, so it’s really important for us to just embrace ‘em and motivate ‘em and push ‘em forward,” Khalifa told MTV News.

The rapper explained that living in The ‘Burgh was a unique experience understood only by the city’s residents. “You really won’t get it if you’re not from there. Just growing up in Pittsburgh and knowing different neighborhoods, having family there and just loving it, it’s like no other place,” said Wiz who has born in North Dakota and lived in Germany, England and Japan due to his parent’s military obligations.

The rapper compared the long standing role in the hip hop world of Philadelphia with his own hometown and explained that it took Pittsburgh a little longer to come into its own because of its distance from East Coast hotspots such as New York and New Jersey. “We always had love for Philly. It was harder for Philly to embrace us because we’re a little bit slower to them or to more East Coast towns. Philly is more East Coast than Pittsburgh. It’s closer to New Jersey and New York, so the vibe is way more fast-paced. Pittsburgh, it’s just laid-back … Midwest almost on some country stuff,” Khalifa explained.

The city has attracted some of the hip hop world’s biggest hitters in the past including RZA who once lived in Pittsburgh, Death Row Records’ Sam Sneed who set up shop in the mid-1990s as well as Dr. Dre’s production affiliate Mel Man. But the recent emergence of homegrown talent is something new for the town.