With St.Paul, Minnesota emerging with a variety of talent Khaliq adds his distinctive flow and delivery to the cities forefront, with aggression and relatable perspectives to connect with fans and listeners. Growing up in a Low-Class family Khaliq's Lyricism is driven by an unstable lifestyle and finding the truth. Khaliq often goes from Narrative perspectives, Third person perspectives, to even extroverted & introverted attitudes motivating people through life's obstacles with music that creates a relatable experience to fans, connecting with them through real life events.

I am here with Why Khaliq fresh off his set at Prof Outdoors 3. With #whywednesday becoming a weekly event and gaining more steam lately can you explain to everyone what it is an where this idea came from?

It's just my way of like keeping in touch with my fans so they know every time I'm releasing music or doing something it's gonna be on Wednesday. So they don't [ever] have to wonder when [am I] going to release it, it's coming on Wednesday. It just keeps them coming back.

So right now on SoundCloud you have been [secretly] releasing an EP if you can call it that. Do you plan on releasing this as an EP or just keeping it out there as singles for the fans?

It ain't nothing right now. It's not going to be an album you know what I'm saying. It's just a lot of music I have been working on. It is just the progression of my music, just trying to stay in their face [but] not trying to work on no project or album til it's ready.

Before the #Wednesday there was another hashtag. Can you tell people about #freeliving and where that came from?

FREEliving is movement that I started when I first started doing music back in 2010 and [the FREE part] is an acronym. [FREE] means Fans R Entirely Everything and its stands for just living life to the fullest and never being confined to the rules this society tell us to live by. [Just] chasing your dreams and follow your heart [wherever] God puts you. It is still my movement [but] it's in the background right now, FREEliving entertainment. So [the movement] isn't something [I am branded by] and lately I am just focusing on #whywednesday.

You are originally from the St. Paul area, going to [Highland High School]. This area boasts some of the giants in lyricism. Guys like Eyedea, I Self Devine and deM atlaS. Have any of these guys personally influenced your music?

Yeah just because they are from around the [Twin Cities] so it influenced me to keep going hard. Seeing them all succeed and get bigger helps me realize that we can all do it from the same place. That is definitely how they inspire me for real.

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One thing that for me sets Minneapolis apart is that the bigger names are also independent names. Has that influenced you to remain independent and keep doing your thing as opposed to [going the major label route]?

I am focused on being independent. I think I understand the times we live in [and the technology available]. It is so easy to get in front of people with the internet and the shows we do that is [is basically] the same part as the development stage that a label would put you through [just] on your own. I am a pioneer of do-it-yourself. I do everything myself [record, mix and master]. I don't produce the beats [but] I'm learning. I do a lot of the behind the scenes stuff [because] I want to stay independent and have creative control.

You touched on this a little with your No Title tracks being released, do you have anything in the works [in the near future]?

I am not even gonna say I have anything cause I don't have nothing planned. If it happens it happens. If I just come up with something out of the blue I will. Until then I will just keep my fans going with WhyWednesday. [WhyWednesday] could last 30 weeks or it could stop today, it's just, you know, I want them to keep paying attention.

Well if it does stop today this last track you dropped, Track 8 with Greg Grease was a very powerful song and it performed it here live. Can you tell [the fans and those who haven't heard it] what the influence behind it was and what this last year living in St. Paul has meant to you?

I had that song for a minute and I wrote it right after Philandro Castille died. It was the first time we had that feeling in our city. You could feel the oppression; you could feel the sadness and you could feel the [anger] in the city. It just rubbed off on the people and it was just one of those things like I have to be here and this was the first thing that came to mind was rapping about what my city has been going through.

I really appreciate you sitting down to talk with me here at Prof Outdoors 3.

Thank you very much.

Connect with Why Khaliq
Facebook.com/Whykhaliq
Twitter.com/WhyKhaliq