DJ Khaled: The Brilliance Behind The Beard

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DJ Khaled with Snoop Dogg at Real 92.3's Birthday Bash at The Forum in February, 2016 (Gibson Dintersmith/Roman's Rap-Up).

DJ Khaled is arguably one of the biggest breakout sensations of the past year in the music industry. Ironically, it isn’t because of his music. DJ Khaled, well known for his hit “All I Do Is Win,” has made headlines due to his… well… ‘unique’ Snapchat stories. The rapper and record producer has coined pop culture phrase after phrase due to these stories that have spiked in popularity with the current, young generation of Snapchat users. More recently, Khaled has been in the studio with rap mega-sharks such as Future in the production of his new album EVOL. Besides producing, DJ Khaled has made a name for himself as a social media personality, making appearances with famous artists such as Snoop Dogg. “Another one,” “major key,” and “We da best” are a few of the phrases that have become part of the 2016 pop culture language due to DJ Khaled’s goofy stories and repetitive usage in order to inspire his followers. In most of the videos, DJ Khaled seems somewhat out of it, babbling on with half-winded sentences that seem to fall short of the dramatic inspiration that he tries to attain. His focus is on money and success, like most producing tycoons, but it is difficult to take the DJ seriously. Is his success stemming from a chuckled mockery that attracts followers or is there a motive behind the entertainment that truly makes DJ Khaled a major key?

Recently on the Ellen Degeneres Show, DJ Khaled sat down with Ellen to discuss his career. When she asked exactly what he does, he answered, “I’m a music mogul, I’m a producer, I’m DJ, I’m an executive, I’m a CEO, and I’m an artist.” DJ Khaled dressed in a brown jumpsuit and did not shy away from the bling, adorning tons of gold chains and rings that showed off his shiny success. The platinum-selling artist is never short of overflowing with things to say, some that seems practical and some that makes one tilt a head in slight confusion. Ellen represented that part of the community following the DJ Khaled, lighthearted asking the mogul, “Now Khaled, you talk about ‘they’ a lot. Who is ‘they?’” *Laughs from the audience* As a viewer, the expectation was for another long-winded Khaled response mixed with philosophical terms and low key motivation. Instead, he answered in a manner that pretty brilliantly matches why he is so successful: “Stay away from ‘they.’ ‘They’ is the people who told you you’d never have The Ellen Show. ‘They’ is that one person in the corner when you get a raise, that one person who says, ‘Man, I hate that person.’ ‘They’ are the people that don’t believe in you. We stay away from ‘they.’”

Mock him all you want. Mock his mantras, his party stories, his business, his ‘inspo’ speeches. DJ Khaled isn’t simply a good-time guy, and he sure isn’t stupid. As Ellen, one of the bright stars on television whose career is based on positive energy, declared she enjoys DJ Khaled because he focuses his energy on the bright side, too. He layers metaphor on top of metaphor during speeches, but at the end, the audience gets it. Snapchat is a beautiful tool for the entrepreneur because it allows him to shoot his ideas out to a wide audience repeatedly as he desires. His major key to success is the manipulation of social media bases to spread his positivity. Those who use the popular forms of communication to their advantage instead of allowing it to harm their reputation are who shoulder up in the industry. People might say he’s one donut short of a dozen. What DJ Khaled would probably say to that? Hey baker… another one.