October, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 61FROM TOP: GETTY; FLORIDA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
like, ‘OK, if you think that sucks, I’ll make
another one to show you how much I suck.
Which I obviously don’t.’ ”
Khalid scored a manager and fi nagled a
connection to the producer Syk Sense, who
has credits on songs by Drake and Travis
Scott, and who invited Khalid to come work
with him in an Atlanta studio. Khalid’s
“Location” – a catchy, slow-stirred ode to
moving past the digital world toward an
IRL hookup – grew out of those sessions,
which later moved to El Paso. Today, the
song is a hit, certifi ed double-platinum, but
when Khalid fi rst recorded it, his primary
ambition was making sure he posted it to
SoundCloud in time for high school prom,
“because I wanted to win prom king”, he
explains. To his delight, it worked: “I wanted
to kind of beat the odds, where everyone
thought it was gonna be a football player.”
But his relationship to his newfound
public adoration is complicated. He says
he feels a powerful debt to his fans – that
he cried at an El Paso mall when, run
ragged by work and jet lag, he had to
end a CD signing early, even though
people were still waiting in line. That
sense of obligation isn’t without lim-
its, though. As we’re leaving LACMA,
a young couple stop him for a picture,
asking if he is indeed Khalid and, in the
process, pronouncing his name incorrec y
(For the record, it’s “kuh-leed.”) He is gra-
cious nonetheless, gently correcting the
couple and posing separately with each of
them, but when we’re in his car, he says,
“You’re not a real fan if you don’t know
how to say my name.” He thinks about this,
then shrugs. “It’s not that deep. It’s what we
signed up for. We knew people were gonna
not genuinely give a fuck about us and ask
for photos anyway. So just take it. It might
make their day, and that’s what I want to
do – help people.”
American Teen is mostly about romantic
ups and downs, but the album title is also
political – a way to combat outmoded ste-
reotypes about who is and who isn’t prop-
erly American. “I’m an African-American
man with an Afro, who isn’t your typical
athlete – who wasn’t as masculine as other
guys,” Khalid says. “And now people are
looking at me like, this is ‘The America
Teen... .’ Especially with the election,
hav ing Tr ump as president, it’s about
pushing for ‘OK, I can be black, you
can be white, you can be Muslim,
let’s all be woke to the issues, let’s all
appreciate each other.’ ” (Khalid was
raised Christian, but doesn’t identify
as being overwhelmingly religious.)
Khalid says he wants other misfi ts and
outsiders to take solace in his example, in
terms of both artistic and material suc-
cess. He tells me he sees his pre-owned
BMW as a steppingstone to another, fan-
cier, “we-made-it car”, and, down the line,to a “we-made-it house – but I want to buy
it in El Paso, because I want kids to drive
by and say, ‘That’s Khalid’s house.’ It’ll in-
spire them. That’s how dreamers are born.”W
e head north, into
the Valley, where Kha-
lid is due at a re hearsal
space. In a few days
he’ll head out on a two-
month headlining club tour, and he
needs to practice with his live band
and two backup dancers. En route to
a dance studio to learn choreography,
we pick up two of his old friends: Eric,
whom he knows from Carthage, and
Jerry, whom he knows from El Paso.
e fl ew them out, and they’ve never met
each other, which K halid says is par t of the
fun: “It’s like a social experiment.”
Eric and Jerry will help out on the tour
in ways that haven’t quite been defi ned –
“We’ll do, like, the merch table and stuff ,”
Jerry says. They’re pals-turned-employees,
which might get awkward, but Khalid
seems comfortable with his place atop the
command structure – as Eric and Jerry
cram into the BMW’s tiny back seat, I
off er to move my passenger seat forward.
“They’re OK,” Khalid says, answering for
them. Later he sends Jerry to buy him bot-
tled water from Starbucks and, after that,
to go feed his parking meter.
The dance studio is on a busy boule-
vard. Khalid shakes hands with Tanisha,
the choreographer, and stands between
his dancers. Songs from American Teen
bl re, and he moves with an easygoing
slinkiness. “Do three of these sways,
then give me life on the fourth,” Tani-
sha instructs him. “OK, I got life for
you,” Khalid replies, improvising a
quick little double-kick. “You’re giv-
ing me young James Brown!” she
says, delighted.
Back in the BMW, Khalid cues up
an unreleased song with the working title
“Coast v1”. “I did this last week,” he says. It’s
built around a sparse banjo riff , and Kha-
lid says he wrote the song with Father John
Misty in mind. “If I were to have an idol in
terms of songwriting, it would probably be
him.” The lyrics relate to what Khalid was
talking about in front of the Brauner can-
vas earlier. The fi rst verse begins with a
metaphorical suicide – “I killed a man the
other day/It was the man I knew the most”- and goes into an escape fantasy: “I left my
pain behind/I’m on my way.”
The song is gorgeous and sad, and the
lyrics make it clear that, despite sudden
success, Khalid still has some demons to
tussle with. “I want a one-way ticket to
Cabo,” he sings, “so I can start over, alone on
the coast.” I tell him the track sounds great.
He thanks me, then grins. “Who knows?”
he says. “I might never put it out.”
POP’S YOUTH
MOV EMENTKhalid isn’t the only teenager
shaping the sound of Top 40 right
now. Here are four othersLil Yachty
AGE 19
BACKSTORY The
rapper scored a Top
Five LP thanks to a
happily naive spin
on Southern hip-
hop referred to as
“bubblegum trap.”
GROWING PAINS
“I don’t want to be 20
he says. “I dread my teenage
years being over.”Shawn Mendes
E 19
BACKSTORY Mendes
has gone from hock-
ey-loving Canadian
kid to Vine star
to chart-topper,
thanks to a gift for
singer-songwriter
ntimacy (John Mayer
a mentor).
THE NATURAL “I was one of
those kids who was just...always
on YouTube, so it was easy for me
to do it. It’s not work, it’s just fun.”Noah Cy rus
AGE 17
BACKSTORY Miley’s
little sis is fi nishing
up her debut, NC-17,
which blends coun-
try, pop and R&B.
NO-HATE ZONE
“Miley always says,
‘Don’t ever look
yourself up or read yo
comments, ’cause you’re gonna
see stuff that you don’t want to
see.’”XXXTentacion
AGE 19
CKSTORY Jahseh
wayne Onfroy’s grim,
confessional and low-fi
hip-hop has already
garnered 400 million
SoundCloud plays as
well as a U.S. Top 40
single, “Look At Me” –
ite a feat for a kid who
a key collaborator in a
Florida juvenile detention centre.
NO ID “I don’t say my age. I feel
like the younger you are, niggas
feel like they have something
over you. I don’t let anyone ‘lil
bro’ me.” JON DOLAN