By Prasanna Tati
Khaled Mohamed Khaled, popularly known as “DJ Khaled”, is a record label executive, DJ, record producer, and CEO of We The Best Music Group residing in Miami, Florida. For about two months now, DJ Khaled has been featured across various social media platforms for his Snapchat stories, short videos that may be posted for Snapchat app users to view repeatedly for up to 24 hours, which feature his self-devised major keys to success. He records himself following his “keys to success” every day, so that viewers may follow him all day long and observe his lifestyle.
A few of his popular keys to success include:
“Walk with me on the pathway to more success.”Here DJ Khaled often shows his feet as we walks and greets the lion in his garden with a big hearty, “LIONNNN!”
“Chef Dee, what’s cooking?”Chef Dee looks at DJ Khaled unimpressed and disaffected as she identifies the dishes on the kitchen counter. When it comes to food, DJ Khaled believes in eating it in large amounts and well, because “sustenance is another key to success”.
“They don’t want you to win.”Very often, DJ Khaled refers to “they”, a negative entity whose sole purpose is to drive you to failure. He stresses the importance of ignoring such negativity and instead, pursuing a positive outlook towards “winning no matter what”. A very comical incident where “they” were involved was when DJ Khaled got lost on a jet ski ride and had to find his way back even though “they” didn’t want him to.
“Another one.”This is arguably the most popular quote of DJ Khaled’s on social media as it is a meme of many forms that is used to insinuate a double meaning to the phrase itself. DJ Khaled himself repeats the phrase excitedly for unclear reasons, and also uses it as the opening line to his songs.
“Bless up.”DJ Khaled, a Muslim by birth, is constantly thanking a higher power above for all of the luxuries he is “blessed” with.
So who exactly is DJ Khaled and why is he so wealthy and popular? DJ Khaled was born to Palestinian immigrants in New Orleans, Louisiana where he grew up immersed in reggae, rap, and soul. Eventually, he began to work at a record store in the area and met Lil Wayne and Birdman. He then became a very popular DJ and radio personality and called himself Arab Attack. However, he discontinued this nickname In order to avoid disrespect towards those affected by 9/11.
DJ Khaled collaborated with many artists such as T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Drake, Snoop Dogg, Birdman, Dre, and Akon to release eight successive, award winning albums. He was nominated for multiple BET awards and even a Grammy. In fact, his most famous song “All I Do is Win” featuring Ludacris made it to the number 1 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100. President Obama even walked out to it at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
What makes DJ Khaled even more successful, is that he cashes in on all of the opportunities available. Witnessing the surge in popularity of his personality, he decided to materialize his efforts by opening up a store called wethebeststore.com that features apparel labeled with his popular aphorisms. Ironically, in recent weeks, DJ Khaled lost $80,000 in less than 30 seconds after posting his credit card on Snapchat. Whether or not you want to “ride the wave of success” with DJ Khaled is up to you, but millions of people are already hailing him a mentor and readily incorporating his maxims into their “new year, new me” personalities.
