Why Khaliq

Artists like Allan Kingdom and Finding Novyon have been working hard to put Minneapolis on the map, and the city has finally received some well-deserved attention this year. Another artist looking to keep Minnesota in the conversation is Why Khaliq.

Why Khaliq is gearing up for the release of his upcoming EP Under The Perspective Tree. He explains that the new material as a “short project detailing my perspectives about self destruction, temptation, self worth, and more.” Ahead of its official release on January 20, Why Khaliq shares his latest single “Knew The Half” as a part of his weekly #WhyWednesday series.

While Under The Perspective Tree is expected to reflect on several vulnerable aspects of life, “Knew The Half” digs deeper into personal relationships. Why Khaliq opens up about a misconnection on the track. He explains it further saying, “This record is a conflict between two [people] as they both perceive one another for a person they’re not, when they’re both just looking to know more than what the surface shows.” - Pigeons And Planes

Producer: Lelan Foley
Album: Under The Perspective Tree EP
WRITTEN BY BRENDAN V - Dj Booth

These “bigger” sites really need to wake up — talent is crawling up EVERY corner. After receiving a few emails yesterday, I stumbled upon St.Paul, Minnesota upstart WhyKhaliq.

His rare approach towards music is something that reminds me of a young Joey Bada$$ mixed with the grittiness of Mobb Deep. Today, the rising emcee makes his official DC debut with his latest record, titled “Quick Sand” — a track off his #WHYWednesday release series. now. Produced by JessListen.

Also, because I know you’ll fuckin’ dig Khaliq’s music, I’ve included a few other tracks that I figured you’d like. Enjoy. - Daily Chiefers

Unfortunately, this is why I think DC will never ultimately “make it.” Due to the lack of artist devotion to medium sized blogs, DC will never have the man power to keep up-and-coming talent on our side. And it’s honestly sad as fuck. The actual man-hours, love, and devotion we put into this site is indescribable, and all it takes is one major blog to ruin it all. Once the likes of FADER or Complex get to it, its all lost in the wind — but that’s okay, though. We actually do this for the love of music, and not for a dollar bill and a couple of followers.

And once again, it’s great music that brings you to our pages! Per usual, St. Paul native WhyKhaliq continues to kill shit! Coming off the success of his recently released single, “Quick Sand,” WhyKhaliq returns to our smokey pages with his incredibly dope single, titled “Knew The Half.” Press play and enjoy the vibes. You’re welcome. - Daily Chiefers

Discussing life with St. Paul artist Why Khaliq for his new EP Under The Perspective Tree.


There’s someone making music that we think you should know about. His name is Why Khaliq, and he’s from St. Paul, Minnesota. Tucked away in a small rentable space on the University of Minnesota campus, we sat down and discussed an assortment of things including his new EP, titled Under The Perspective Tree.

Who are you, what should people know about you?

“I’m Why Khaliq. I’m a real conceptional artist. I’m the type of artist that paints pictures, and you have to be the type of person with an intellectual side to listen to my music. At the same time, I’m still creative enough to make it entertaining. I just think people should know that if they listen to my music, there’s always an emotion that I’m trying to give.”

Who and what inspires you?

“A lot of the time while I was writing UTPT was when I first knew I was having my daughter. That definitely fueled it. And life inspires me. It sounds cliche to say that, but I get inspiration from shit that I go through and see. Or traveling. Even when I was making songs when I was catching the bus to work, and that was an hour and a half bus ride, I would just people watch. I would see life through a different lens. I’m like walking inspiration, whatever I catch and grab is just a part of me and my journey.”

Khaliq continues and discusses catching the bus to a high school he briefly attended, expressing the difficulty of affording a $5 a day lunch for an already expensive private institution, reiterating that experiences like this have been what inspires him throughout his life.

Tell us about the EP.

“At first I didn’t like any of the beats. Lelan Foley produced the whole project. He’s from here but lives in Chicago. He sent me a package of 7 beats, and I used them all except for one. The first beat that I used was “Knew The Half”, and I didn’t like the other ones. Then me and Tezzy (manager) was riding home one day getting blazed and I was like, these beats are kinda tight. Then I remember playing it for my girl, and she was like nah, this shit’s wack. She was like, it sounds like a play, and I was like, that’s what I need. So that’s how the production came along and then I just started working on the songs. The first name I came up with was Under The Perspective Tree. And then after that, everything clicked for me and I knew what I wanted.”

Our conversation progressed and Khaliq described the meaning of the cover art. He explained that the man hanging from the noose above substances represents the mental slavery that occurs when someone is battling their vices, whether that be drugs, alcohol, etc.

Describe Under The Perspective Tree in one word.

“I got two words. One would be theatrical. Just because to me, I’m really proud of how everything sits and how it comes. Or I would say emotion, because it came from pure emotion of the inspiration of my daughter. I remember writing verses when she was born, cuz we had to stay in there two days, and I was writing off the pure inspiration of that.”

What do you want people to do while listening to UTPT?

“If I could, I wish people could take like 20 minutes away from their life, and just sit back and listen to it. I feel like if you’re driving and talking, you won’t catch it. You’re gonna miss some vital metaphors and vital skits, it’s like a movie. You gotta be ready to listen.”

What would Daily Chiefers be without some weed questions though??

If you’re album was a weed strain what would it be? And how do you want people to get high while listening to UTPT?

“That’s a good question. It’d be some OG. And everything. Whatever gets you high. Take a dab, then smoke a joint, then roll a blunt, then smoke a bowl, you know what I’m saying, then a vape. You gotta do it all. Just get baked and then listen to it. I just want people to listen to it.”

Chill dude, right? Now that you’ve learned more about Why Khaliq, sit back, and press play on his new 7-track EP Under The Perspective Tree. - Daily Chiefers

Why Khaliq and producer Lelan Foley dropped the excellent Under the Perspective Tree EP earlier this year, establishing Khaliq’s knack for cohesion and conceptual lyrics. Though Foley’s beat here has more bass than any of UTPT’s tracks, there’s still room for Khaliq to be his poetic self. Here’s hoping these two continue collaborating for years to come.

Dirty Showers
https://soundcloud.com/whykhaliq/dirty-showers-master

- Michael Madden - City Pages

Why Khaliq’s patient approach to his music is refreshing in an era of hurried YouTube and SoundCloud uploads. Though the St. Paul MC consistently releases new music, none of it seems rushed, and more and more Twin Cities listeners are catching on to his movement.

Khaliq tells City Pages that the release party for his soulful and jazzy EP from January, Under the Perspective Tree, sold out Amsterdam Bar & Hall, whereas his previous release party last year only brought out 20 or so fans. “I’ve seen my music progress and more people start to gravitate toward it,” he says.

Last year’s The OtherSide: The Six5 was one of local music’s best full-lengths of 2015, leading to boosted anticipation for UTPT, which was entirely produced by beatmaker Lelan Foley. The EP scored an impressive 7.8 out of 10 from Pitchfork, and was later named a personal favorite of 2016 by senior editor Jayson Greene.

While his lyricism is deeply intelligent, Khaliq, 22, is hesitant about the notion that he’s a “conscious rapper.” At the same time, he also makes little to no use of mainstream fads. Understandably, Khaliq doesn’t feel his style of rap is easily categorized.


“I don’t really say it’s ‘underground,’” he says. “That’s all politics.”

Khaliq humbly says he makes his music free because he feels it’s not yet good enough to sell. Based on the strength of new songs like “Makeda,” “Long Sunday,” and “TILTWA,” we’re guessing he’ll feel comfortable monetizing soon.

- Michael Madden - City Pages

Each Wednesday, Minnesota rapper Why Khaliq treats his following to a new song for a segment he calls #WhyWednesday. For the last month he has made this bit a little more intriguing by releasing songs with no titles, letting the tracks speak for themselves. “Each release I'm consistent with the same cover art except I change the photo with each release—allowing the audience to create their own titles,” Khaliq explains to us. “Once I'm done with the campaign I will go back and rename the records with their actual titles.”

This Wednesday, he shares the fifth track from this new No Title series, originally named “Makeda.” On his newest single, he teams up with Wisconsin rapper Ra'Shaun for a bit of a Midwest connection. The track opens up with Khaliq rhyming over the laid-back beat provided by Been Reza​. While Ra'Shaun uses his melodic tone to perfect a catchy chorus before laying down a verse of his own.

Listen to "Track 5 (Makeda) below, and if you're in the Minneapolis area don't miss out on Why Khaliq's next performance at Prof Outdoors 3.

- Adrienne Black - Pigeons & Planes

Why Khaliq, a young upstart from St. Paul, is turning out some of the Twin Cities’ most forward-thinking rap music, and he does so by circling way back. His new seven-song EP takes the visual and musical signifiers of late-'90s and early-'00s conscious rap and injects into them welcome doses of immediacy and personal detail, and at least a half-dozen new flows.

The rap scene in Minneapolis and St. Paul has splintered in curious ways. From the late '90s through the end of the Bush years, the Twin Cities were known nationally for the Rhymesayers roster above all else. Atmosphere, Brother Ali, and Eyedea typified the Cities' dominant styles: self-deprecating, socially conscious, abstract. This music was sometimes cordoned off as "backpack rap," but as early as Lucy Ford it had morphed into something weirder. In any event, this aesthetic mostly trickled down to the local scenes and the promoters who curated it.

But as two of the three aforementioned acts moved into middle age (and after Eyedea tragically died in 2010), it left a stylistic vacuum that artists from all corners rushed to fill. Some of the new decade's most exciting work has been tailored for the live setting: Grrrl Party springs to mind, as does wag music, a glitchy, stuttering type of party rap that indulges all its best and weirdest impulses. The Stand4rd earned national attention with ghost-infested R&B; Mike the Martyr is bringing back Starburys from the discount bin at Foot Locker; Finding Novyon is rapping about beloved cartoon characters. And Why Khaliq, a young upstart from St. Paul, is turning out some of the Cities' most forward-thinking music, and he's doing it by circling way, way back.

Under the Perspective Tree, his new seven-song EP, takes the visual and musical signifiers of late-'90s and early-'00s conscious rap and injects into them welcome doses of immediacy and personal detail, and at least a half-dozen new flows. Start with the cover. A black man has been hanged from a tree, from which also dangles red lingerie over scattered Hennessy bottles, piles of cash, and gold chains. Slave hymnals bookend the opening song itself. But it hones in immediately: It's 3 a.m., I'm in my baby mama's mama's house. And that's what Khaliq does time and time again over the course of the record—zoom in when you expect the sweeping argument.

Producer Lelan Foley can be largely credited for how loose and improvisational Perspective Tree feels. The EP leans heavily on jazz piano and pavement-hard drum programming, arranged in such a way that each part of a song feels as if it shifts into the next of its own accord. On “Knew the Half,” Foley brings in the type of rolling hi-hats that are more often found in contemporary trap music, but lays them under one of the tape's warmest melodies to hypnotic effect.

Khaliq is a precise rapper and a personal, colorful writer. To stay on “Knew the Half”: he drags your focus in and out of the drum pattern, letting his syllables fall consistently but switching where he places the emphasis in each bar. Later in that song, and in a handful of others (“For You,” “Nonchalant Interlude”), Khaliq deploys a captivating singing voice, which breaks up the sound and structure of the project. Why Khaliq is the type of rapper superbly suited for his time: one who understands how to use the past to move forward. It would be a shock if the next year or so doesn't afford him a chance to latch on to the present. - Pitchfork

Each Wednesday, Minnesota rapper Why Khaliq treats his following to a new song for a segment he calls #WhyWednesday. For the last month he has made this bit a little more intriguing by releasing songs with no titles, letting the tracks speak for themselves. “Each release I'm consistent with the same cover art except I change the photo with each release—allowing the audience to create their own titles,” Khaliq explains to us. “Once I'm done with the campaign I will go back and rename the records with their actual titles.”

This Wednesday, he shares the fifth track from this new No Title series, originally named “Makeda.” On his newest single, he teams up with Wisconsin rapper Ra'Shaun for a bit of a Midwest connection. The track opens up with Khaliq rhyming over the laid-back beat provided by Been Reza​. While Ra'Shaun uses his melodic tone to perfect a catchy chorus before laying down a verse of his own.

Listen to "Track 5 (Makeda) below, and if you're in the Minneapolis area don't miss out on Why Khaliq's next performance at Prof Outdoors 3. - Pigeons and Planes

You don’t hope for this kind of prescience. When talking about The Mustard Seed, a short film set to music from a forthcoming album by the same name, the emerging St. Paul rapper Why Khaliq notes one of the key production challenges: the shoot took place in Nebraska, meaning that a combination of tight shots and carefully chosen locations would have to stand in for Minnesota. But as the horrific violence of this past month reminds us, the images of a Black man pinned against a wall, a policeman’s gun pressed into his spine, could be pulled from cable news feeds on any given afternoon, or could be playing out in real time on any corner from coast to coast.

And yet Why Khaliq is hopeful. Raised in various parts of St. Paul—he warmly recalls the West side of his youth and its heavy Latin influence, citing it as an early mind-opening experience—Khaliq’s life so far has been a study in resolve. “I was primarily known for playing basketball,” he says of his time in school. “I was afraid of telling people I rapped and hearing ‘Dude, you’re good at basketball, why do you wanna rap?’ So I didn’t really get into actually recording until my senior year of high school.”

Speaking of school: Khaliq spent his freshman year at a prestigious private school, one that left him with a bit of culture shock. “I was coming from the inner city,” he says. “I was coming from a different atmosphere. So when I got there I felt like I had to act like somebody I wasn’t. And I wasn’t comfortable with that.” When his aunt died, Khaliq’s mother took in her three children; Khaliq told her she should forego the steep tuition payments and use to money to feed and clothe his cousins. So he switched to a public school in St. Paul, where he starred at both guard positions and coasted on raw talent.

That natural ability buoyed Khaliq during the transition, but fostered some troubling habits (“I would miss practice,” he says, bitterly). A fractured foot caused him to miss the AAU season during his junior year, and as a senior he worried that he might have overestimated his abilities. “It humbled me, but it made me work harder,” he says. “Once I made the transition from being an athlete to being a musician, I said I’m never gonna let someone work harder than me.”

As a musician, Khaliq has developed rapidly. The OtherSide: The Six5 was released in 2015 and was anchored by rough-edged rapper’s rapping; Under the Perspective Tree, which followed less than a year later, rounded out the melodic side of his approach. On The Mustard Seed, Khaliq goes beyond marrying the two styles. Through alchemy or sheer will, his new work is both stylistically daring and remarkably personal, where songs are grounded in life’s gravest details while retaining their shape and formal rigor.

And as for the title: when Khaliq began making the record, he was a new father of a baby girl. He had quit his job waiting tables at the Olive Garden when some coworkers, having attended the Perspective Tree release show in St. Paul, urged him to dedicate more time to music. A second job dispensing pharmaceuticals to rehab patients disappeared when his parenting duties conflicted with a class necessary for the job’s medical certifications. Around the same time, Khaliq’s uncle passed away. “When he died, they found a mustard seed in his back pocket,” he says. “My family had made a post in a Facebook group relating that back to the Bible. I’m not religious or nothing like that, but it was just basically saying that if you have the faith of the mustard seed, you can move mountains.”

A short film encompassing several songs and a broader narrative was part of Khaliq’s plan as far back as the OtherSide days, but he struggled to find a team that could execute it. Tadele Gebremedhin and Brent Scott Maze, who join Khaliq as co-directors, turn parts of the Mustard Seed album into a coherent story that echoes the real-life Khaliq’s journey to the present. The reward isn’t fame or fortune, but the opportunity to explore talent and ambition freely and fearlessly. It’s the sort of challenge Khaliq has relished from the time he fractured that foot: “I’ve done shows with zero people in there just to get the name out there. You have to want it. People can tell when an artist has it.” - Paul Thompson