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Wiz Khalifa Shares Words of Wisdom at BMI’s “How I Wrote That Song” Pre-Grammy Panel

January 28, 2014
Shaina411
BMIBroadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), the global leader in music rights management, presented “How I Wrote That Song,” its annual pre-GRAMMY event, on January 25 at The House of Blues West Hollywood. The panel, sponsored by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, featured GRAMMY-nominated scribe Linda Perry, ACM and CMA award-winning wordsmith Dallas Davidson, GRAMMY-nominated MC Wiz Khalifa, GRAMMY-nominated producer Alex Da Kid and GRAMMY-nominated luminary Charlie Wilson.

The panel, moderated by Catherine Brewton, BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Atlanta, focused on the process of writing, producing and performing hit songs. Each panelist shared anecdotes on how their greatest hits came to be. It was a very candid chat and the audience also had opportunities to ask question. Check out a few of our favorite reflections from Wiz Khalifa.

Why do you do what you do?

Wiz Khalifa: You just do it. That shit is just inside of you and has been inside of you before . When you was a kid you didn’t even know why you were looking at the shit and imagining and being inspired by it. That’s what inspiration is, there’s no real definition to the shit. You just like it.

We hear you’re smoking less?

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Wiz Khalifa: Health purposes you gotta be healthy. You know touring a lot you gotta keep the wind up? You know if I’m gonna use pot for medicine then I’m not gonna hurt myself by putting tobacco and stuff like that in my body. I drink a lot of water and I workout and one man was asking what time I wake up. My kid wakes up at 6:30 every morning and he expects to see his dad, you feel me. So if I’m not home I’m up with the baby.

Can you speak about your work ethic?

Wiz Khalifa: I just had food poisoning last night. I don’t know what the fuck I ate. But I went to sleep and I had wake up. I took a nap and woke I up to try on my outfits for Clive and for the Grammys tomorrow, and I just started throwing up and shitting everywhere. I was supposed to go to the club but the club is fun so my main concern was making it here today. I was like man gotta make it here, so if I could stop throwing up and shitting I gotta make it here. So that’s my work ethic.

Can you speak about your songwriting process?

Wiz Khalifa: Every songwriter has those songs where when they write it, they’re like ah yeah this shit is me right here. Then you have other songs where you’re kind of just loose with it. When you’re doing personal then stuff you want to make it personal to you, but when you’re doing stuff for everybody, my advice would be to simplify it and say it in a way where everybody can understand it. Like if there’s a fucking Martian and he came from Mars he needs to understand your lyrics. It’s basic, still get the point across, though, but there’s so much beauty in simplicity.