Inside DJ Khaled’s Relentlessly Joyous World

At home, on the golf course, and into a new phase with the most inspiring man in music

BY JEFF IHAZA

Photographs by Devin Christopher

Lately, DJ Khaled has been listening to a lot of Jay-Z. Namely The Blueprint, the 2001 opus that helped solidify Hov as a commercial juggernaut in hip-hop. On an August afternoon in Miami, in the living room of the more-than-12,000-square-foot South Beach mansion he’s affectionately dubbed “the Resort,” Khaled cues up “Heart of the City.” He says it’s the type of energy that he wants from his upcoming 14th studio album, Til Next Time. The kind of music people play “to motivate themselves, to sing or rap along to,” he says. “Anthems.”

Khaled, 47, has made a life out of motivation. In the rap community, he’s been a reliable source of hits rooted in the rags-to-riches ethos of the genre. All he does is win, as he emphatically told us in 2010, and his hustler’s intuition has laid the foundation for a decades-long career working alongside some of the biggest names in music, from Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Drake, Justin Bieber, and Rihanna. Khaled’s relentless positivity is by now a part of the DNA of popular culture. When you hear him chant his name — stretching the syllables in the word “DJ” to their phonetic limit — you know it’s going to be a banger.

Despite being something of an architectural marvel, Khaled’s house manages to still feel cozy. Across the room, there are kids’ toys for his sons Asahd, six, and Aalam, three, within view, and the family cat, Coco, shuffles pensively around the back hallway. Photos of the family occupy space on pretty much every surface. It’s like being at your uncle’s house if your uncle had a handful of certified platinum records under his belt.

At home, Khaled makes sure to get dressed up for the occasion of our interview, wearing a Loewe button-down shirt and black trousers, along with a pair of J Balvin Air Jordan 3’s. He and the Colombian star collaborated on a single from Balvin’s upcoming album called “Dientes,” featuring R&B legend Usher. “He’s the biggest hype man in the world,” Balvin says of Khaled, before jokingly adding, “And the way he dances is amazing, too.”

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