We’re excited to introduce our very special guest Khalid, a Texas rising R&B singer. You may have heard of his hit song “Location” which has reached almost 50 million listens on Spotify. His rise to fame started when he was spotted on Kylie Jenner’s Snapchat story, and now he’s on nationwide tours and co-signed with superstars like Zayn Malik and Diddy.

Khalid talked to us about what it was like moving from place to place growing up, how he sees himself evolving as an artist, and how music is changing in our digital age. Below is an excerpt, play the podcast to hear more!

To get, you have to give

Chedo: What advice would you give to artists who are still waiting for their come up?

Khalid: To me, it’s all about vulnerability and tapping into that other part of yourself, and going “you know what, I have to put everything out there.” I had to be super genuine about my own personal feelings to myself. When I was writing voice notes and voice memos and putting them on Soundcloud, everything was super personal. They were all relationships that I had gone through. I feel like what had notched me over to the next step was accepting who I was as an individual and as an artist. To get everything I had to give everything.

Relationships are temporary

Chedo: What did you learn from moving around a lot?

Khalid: A lot of the relationships that we surround ourselves with aren’t infinite. A lot of the relationships that we put ourselves through are very temporary. Instead of looking at that as a bad thing, it really allowed me accept that as a good thing, because people come into your life for a reason. And you tell those reasons to other people, to help them out. So with all of the moving around, and losing a lot of friends along the way, I realized that those core friendships are going to stay around for as long as they want to. You can’t force anyone to stay in your life because it’s impossible.

Surround yourself with positivity

Chedo: What has doing music taught you about yourself, and how do you see yourself evolving as an artist?

Khalid: I’ve learned a lot about conveying emotions and doing that through music. I’ve learned a lot about my writing ability and my singing ability. I’ve learned a lot about pushing myself and learning a lot about who I surround myself with. Which is what I would say is the biggest thing. Because if you want positivity, you have to surround yourself with positivity. If you’re in a room with negative people then you’re going to become that negative vibe and pass out negative energy.

Expansion

Chedo: What do you think is different about music in our generation?

Khalid: I feel like it’s all about expansion. I feel like it’s so easy for us to listen to all of these different genres now because of all the different playlists that we have. You have Apple Music, Spotify, and all of that, so as teenagers we kind of get to pick and choose what we listen too. I feel like that’s what my music is. I pick and choose my influences and put them all into one and kind of express that.