How DJ Khaled Built a Hip-Hop Empire Off of Relentless Positivity, Self-Promotion and Friends Like Drake and Jay-Z
DJ Khaled grew up around money. Literally — as a child being raised in New Orleans, the future producer-rapper watched his parents sell clothing out of their car at flea markets and stuff the profits in a pouch wrapped around their young son’s waist. Later, when they got their own store, it was the sound of the cash register that would ring in his ears.
Those early experiences with street-level entrepreneurial activity influenced the rest of his life, most dramatically after all of his family’s hard work to build up retail businesses was done in by what Khaled calls “a bad accountant” when he was 17.
Now 47, Khaled took those hard lessons to heart. Today, he’s an enormously accomplished artist and entrepreneur, known to most as an eminently quotable hype man (“We the best!” “Another one!” “Bless up!”) whose records feature guest appearances from friends such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Drake, Lil Wayne and other hip-hop royalty.
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Fellow mogul Jay-Z says, “Khaled shines a light of positive energy into every room he enters. His exuberance and sheer ambition are infectious. His support of artists, athletes and philanthropic initiatives inspires all to reach and believe in heights previously thought impossible.”
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Further evidence of Khaled’s outsized success can be found at his home base in an exclusive Miami Beach neighborhood. Khaled, his wife, Nicole Tuck, and their two young sons live in the massive modern construction that has 10 bedrooms, 10.5 bathrooms and two chef’s kitchens. There’s parking for six cars and multiple golf carts as well as a private dock. Also on the grounds: a second structure housing a recording studio and guest quarters (its pièce de résistance: a $20,000 Japanese toilet-bidet gifted by rap superstar Drake), a playground, a basketball court and a putting course. Neighbors include Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Timbaland and Post Malone manager Austin Rosen, and Shakira lives nearby.
Khaled’s unique career path as a trailblazing force in hip-hop has earned him Variety’s Music Mogul of the Year honors. Despite the fame and fortune, the memory of his parents’ work ethic and experience remains top of mind. That’s why, as Khaled explains, he still handles all of his business transactions personally — and that’s down to paying the bills incurred by that 15,000-square-foot house that he bought for $26 million in 2018 (Khaled got the keys on his final night as opener for the Jay-Z and Beyonce On the Run II tour).
“I don’t let nobody pay nothing for me,” Khaled says. “I pay the grass guy, the electric bill for the studio, everything. I don’t trust business managers. I got here by not letting somebody have access to my money, because there’s too many stories out there. One of my major keys of success is to take care of every single thing because it will inspire you to go get more. And if you do it in real time, you can almost prepare to pivot.”
Not that Khaled has been accused of failing to keep up with the times. He’s released 13 albums since 2006 — four of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — and seven Top 10 singles, including monster hits like “Wild Thoughts” (featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller), “I’m on One” (featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne), “I’m the One” (with Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne, Quavo and Chance the Rapper), “Popstar” (another Drake-assisted smash) and “All I Do Is Win” (featuring T-Pain, Ludacris, Rick Ross and Snoop Dogg), which has become a staple at sports arenas everywhere. He has built an empire around his We the Best brand, scores six-figure fees for use of his songs, and over the years has had branding or endorsement deals with Mentos, Champs Sports, Apple Music, and others. He has appeared in spots for Geico, Doritos and TurboTax, among others. Per iSpot.TV, commercials featuring DJ Khaled have had 63,537 airings in the past 30 or so days.
Khaled knows his business success story better than anyone. But his chart status and streaming-minutes counts are not what define him, he says — family does.
“It’s all for them,” says Khaled while perched on one of his many couches (by our count: seven in the ground-level living room alone), “every single thing — the house we’re living in, the cars we drive, the watches, the music … Jay-Z told me, ‘Wait till you have a kid — that’s when life really starts.’ And as soon as my kids were born, my life changed. Not just these blessings, but also my mentality. Money doesn’t define success. Money doesn’t define being a mogul. To me, true success is being happy.”
Khaled does have his own definition of the word “mogul”: “A person that broke down every barrier to get to live their dream, and accomplished their goal even when the door was closed on them and people said it’s not possible.”
The son of Palestinian immigrants, Khaled Mohamed Khaled grew up in New Orleans before moving to Miami in his teens. He idolized Michael Jordan, studying his career beyond the court — particularly as a businessman. “Like how Jay-Z conquered every category, I’ve been saying for years — ‘Be the best in all categories.’ I always wanted to put out a No. 1 album and a timeless anthem.” (Done and done.) “But I also knew: I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a hustler.”
That hustle has since become the stuff of legend. He began deejaying and organizing parties in his early teens, and worked at New Orleans’ Odyssey Records store, where he met Lil Wayne and the brothers who founded Cash Money Records, Bryan “Birdman” and Ronald “Slim” Williams, in the early ’90s. His DJ gigs paid more and more, leading to independently released mixtapes, which led to several major-label deals (most recently, in February, he left Sony’s Epic Records for Universal subsidiary Def Jam), agency contracts (he’s managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and has been with UTA for seven years) and dozens of high-wattage features from the biggest names in hip-hop. Anyone who doubts his bona fides and thinks he just gets on the records and yells isn’t familiar with the definition of a producer: the one who makes the record happen.
For a record company, Khaled is a heavy investment, not just because each A-list appearance commands a six-figure fee, but also due to the structure of his recording agreements. At this stage of his career, he’s seen virtually every imaginable deal — both as an artist and as an executive (he served as president of Def Jam South from 2009 to 2011) — and has in essence figured out the cheat code to maximizing music profits: Own your work.
“For the majority of my career, I’ve owned half my masters of everything I’ve done,” Khaled says. “So I always was smart with my business, and it’s paying off. It’s called leverage. Your masters mean nothing unless it’s a good master. ‘All I Do Is Win,’ that’s a good master. ‘Wild Thoughts,’ that’s a good master.’ Most of my records I produce; sometimes, I collaborate with others.”
Being the artist, the producer and a co-writer, he earns three ways: receiving payouts from streaming and sales as an artist, publishing royalties for his role as a writer, and producer points on the recording side. Still, Khaled adds of his features, “We share pieces together, even on the master side sometimes.” Does the issue of splits — how the royalties are divided — ever get contentious? “I don’t do that,” Khaled declares. “I’ve worked with artists where they wanna talk about their splits before the magic happens. That’s lame. It ain’t rocket science. We split it and that’s it. We show love.”
Tunji Balogun, CEO of Def Jam, calls Khaled an “ultra-reliable hitmaker” who fosters a “culture of winning” among those who work with him. “Being in the DJ Khaled business means you are part of that energy, you are supporting that effort, and you are drafting the connectivity and relationships that are so central to his success,” Balogun says.
In music, the way to win big is by “being consistent,” says Khaled. “On some of my early music deals, I got nothing, but I was so grateful for the opportunity. You know how people complain that they had bad deals and were getting fucked? I said the opposite: ‘Thank you. I learned from this opportunity.’ Somebody believed in me. I could have gotten a better deal, but I’ll get it next time. I was already telling myself, ‘I’m building for my family.’”
That has meant crediting his two sons — Asahd, 6, and Aalam, 3 — as executive producers on his albums, entitling them to royalties and rights for the rest of their lives. What was once called “mailbox money,” referring to the small but steady stream of checks sent to hit songwriters in the pre-digital age, Khaled dubs “forever money.” He explains of a record like 2010’s “All I Do Is Win”: “It’s not like it’s hot this year and it’s over, right? It’s a winner’s anthem for everybody. You hear it in Super Bowls, basketball games, marching bands, at the airport — it’s everywhere.”
In fact, he says “All I Do Is Win” receives multiple sync requests every day. And Khaled, as CEO of We the Best Music, personally vets each offer. “I show love,” he says of his approval process. “I clear anything for anyone, as long as it’s something used for love and nothing negative. It’s a blessing if a clearance comes through. Some of them are small, and some, like the big corporations and brands, can be a lot of money.” Companies that have used “All I Do Is Win” include Coca-Cola, QuickBooks and Walmart. To say that syncs alone have netted him millions is a conservative estimate.
That DJ Khaled has time in his insanely busy schedule to deal with such minute details of his career may seem surprising, but it’s a reflection of the influential role his parents have played in his life. As Khaled tells it, their start in retail would lead to opening a store, getting an apartment and later a small house. In essence, living the American dream. “As a kid, I remember these steps,” he says. “But it all got taken away when I was 17. They lost their stores, and we had to start all over.”
It was a tax probe that undid his parents’ finances. “My dad had a bad accountant,” Khaled says. “They came in, audited him and just took everything. My parents left Florida and went back to New Orleans to start over, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna stay here, with your blessing, because I feel like my love for music might take me to where I need to go, and to be able to take care of you.’ I manned up early because of my mother and father.”
Along with other accoutrements of his CEO position, Khaled has taken up golf with a disciplined passion. Being on the course daily (weather permitting) serves as his exercise and he’s spent months perfecting his stroke with a particular twist to his right ankle. “I lost eight pounds in the last two weeks,” he says, only to be reminded that, in previous interviews related to dieting, he has remarked, in essence: “I’m a winner so I don’t lose anything; I get rid of weight.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Khaled continues with a laugh. “Some people go to the gym or do yoga; for me, it’s golf. I’m moving my body; I’m walking; I’m sweating; the sun is hitting me; I’m vibrant.”
But beyond keeping in shape, Khaled’s devotion to the sport is meant to leave an impression on his kids: that in order to excel at something, you have to keep trying, whether that’s in basketball or in life. But even for someone who professes “all I do is win,” he tells his kids that it’s not the only thing. “That’s how I look at life: Show up and be great and you won already,” he says. “We want to bring home that trophy, but happiness, health, family — those are real wins. The accolades — or having a room full of awards — of course we want them, but it doesn’t define us.”
Yet for all the opulence now in his life, Khaled’s bank pales in comparison to those of peers like Drake. The Canadian superstar also released his first mixtape in 2006, and the two have shared milestone successes over the years. Seven Khaled songs feature his friend. To hear Khaled speak of Drake is its own brand of idol worship. In his phone, he has the rapper listed under at least four names: “Drake Top Secret,” “Drake New 2020,” “Pop Star” and “Drake Top Secret 5.”
The two first met through Lil Wayne, who’d signed both Drake and Nicki Minaj to his Young Money label. “I knew anyone coming out of Wayne’s studio was gonna be serious,” Khaled says, “but Drake stood out — his style, the way he was rapping and incorporating melodies, it just felt right. And when you got to know him, you knew he was special.”
In fact, during Drake’s early career, Khaled was actually the big shot. Khaled remembers Drake telling him about trying to reach him via MySpace many years earlier — a message that was never seen. “I don’t know how to work all that MySpace shit,” says Khaled with unintended humor, because his social media presence today is rarely matched — on Instagram, he boasts nearly 35 million followers and has posted almost 40,000 times. He’s at least partly responsible for the popularity of Snapchat.
Drake is also the father of a toddler, and the two have bonded over having kids. “Beautiful,” says Khaled about Drake’s family, adding that his friend’s 5-year-old son, Adonis, “plays basketball good too.” Of course, it helps to have an NBA regulation-sized court in your house, and Drake’s residence in Toronto — at 50,000 square feet — can certainly accommodate it.
“That house is unbelievable because you gotta remind yourself that it’s a house,” says Khaled. “You’ll be in the basketball court, and then you’ll be in the studio, and then it feels like you’re walking an hour to get to the indoor pool or the club. The marble and the lighting — it’s like a museum. You can get lost in there, for sure. But then, what I love about his house is it’s still homey. His kitchen has the biggest countertop in the world, and that’s where everybody always hangs out.”
One could say the same of the Khaled abode. Sure, it takes a full-time staff to manage it — three housekeepers, a nanny, two chefs and security — but, despite its size, it feels intimate. During COVID, Nicole created a preschool for their children and those of their neighbors. “When the schools were shut down and people were scared to bring their kids, we set up a home pod for everybody. We got permission from the city, and school was here.”
But what happens when the love you espouse for all meets a moment of hate? Khaled’s longtime friend and collaborator Kanye West’s comments about Jewish people come to mind. In October 2022, West announced he was going “death con 3” on “Jewish people,” writing on Twitter, “You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
“I wouldn’t let nobody on my project disrespect nobody like that,” says Khaled. “I pray for Kanye. Love is the only way. He knows that’s what I’m all about.”
During this three-hour interview, Khaled uses the word “God” at least 60 times, and a variation of “bless” more than 80. Last December, he even made the journey to Mecca, as the Quran stipulates every male Muslim must do once in his lifetime (naturally, he Instagrammed the experience).
“I’m a big boy, but when I walked into Mecca, I immediately felt like I weighed as much as a feather,” he recounts. “My body just felt so light and I started crying. Mike Tyson saw me crying and grabbed me and whispered in my ear, ‘The same thing happened to me my first time here.’”
Khaled says the experience brought back memories of his struggles. “I used to sleep in the back seat of a Honda Civic. I used to stay in $25 hotels. I come from the mud,” he says. “But what’s so beautiful about passion — if it’s music or writing stories or whatever it is — if you love it, you’re not even thinking about money. A few legends told me this, which I didn’t understand until later: ‘Never chase the money; the money will chase you.’ I was in my 20s, and I was like, ‘Yo, what you mean? I need that 500 bucks. I gotta pay for my apartment. I gotta go buy a new needle for my turntable.’
“But what they were saying was, you end up winning because you love it. And that’s literally what’s happening: I make hits, I put hits together and I find hits too. I know what a No. 1 record feels like, and my gut has been correct a lot of times.”
He quickly catches himself. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I wanna say I’m humble — but I’m also confident and aware of my greatness.”
Styling: Terrell Jones
