Wiz Khalifa Freestyle Rewind – Reacts to 2010 Freshman Freestyle

April 24, 2025 2

Wiz Khalifa‘s freestyle run over the last year has been remarkable. Since November of 2023, he’s dropped 14 freestyles. These days, that’s more than most rappers do in their entire careers. The Pittsburgh, Pa. MC kicked off his freestyle series as a reminder that he still had it in him after he took a much-needed break from the internet around that time. “I had just completely disconnected from social media for about two months and kinda just used myself as inspiration,” he tells XXL. “As a fan of myself, I was like, ‘I would love if I did that.'” And so he did.

The momentum he’s built off the releases set him up nicely for the arrival of his highly anticipated Kush + Orange Juice 2 album, which dropped April 18. It’s been 15 years since the first installment of Kush & Orange Juice came out in 2010, the same year Wiz was an XXL Freshman. To mark the anniversary of both, XXL invited Wiz back for a special freestyle session and to revisit those bars from the past. What we didn’t expect? That he’d deliver verses straight from his freshly dropped track, “Top Golf.” Not quite the throwback we had in mind—but hey, it’s Wiz. We still got mad love for him.

During his reaction to his 2010 XXL Freshman freestyle, Wiz cracks a few jokes on himself for going shirtless and flaunting little arms. “The shirt off? Who the hell did I think I was,” he says with a laugh. “Super scrawny. Just little, dog. No shoulders, no lats. No triceps poking. Just little arm, just a little, not scary arm. But the bars were insane.”

The 37-year-old Taylor Gang leader recalls writing the verse for his Freshman freestyle in the studio a few days before the shoot with the late Nipsey Hussle, who was in the same class as Wiz, and Curren$y, who was a Freshman the year prior. “I was really happy and grateful for XXL for taking me to the next point in my career,” Wiz adds. The feeling is mutual.