Wiz Khalifa opens up after finding out his fifth great grandfather was enslaved

Wiz Khalifa recently sat down with Henry Louis Gates Jr. for an episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, where he was confronted with some heavy truths about his ancestry. During their discussion, the rapper learned that his fifth great grandfather, Howard Williamson, had been enslaved in Alabama during the 1870s. Gates also revealed that Williamson lived right next door to the family who claimed ownership over him.

“I think I’m wired to feel a little angry,” Wiz said while reflecting on the man who enslaved his ancestor. “Just the idea of someone owning my family is insane. That’s wild to even think about. It definitely makes me feel a certain way.”

“It’s disturbing seeing him reduced to a nameless entry on a chart,” he added. “Knowing how much value was placed on that so called property, when it was really a human life. Not an object, not property, but a person. No name, just a color, an age and a gender.”

Wiz later described the moment as a major “reality check.”

Wiz Khalifa Romania Arrest

After Williamson was freed, he went on to register to vote, despite the serious risks Black voters faced in the years following the Civil War. Speaking on that moment, Wiz said, “I feel all of them around me, even if I don’t know exactly who they are. Now I can actually say their name, and that makes it mean even more.”

Later in the episode, Wiz also discovered that his grandfather, Willie Wimbush Jr., relocated from the South to Pittsburgh during the Great Migration. “It feels good to learn this,” he said while reflecting on his grandfather’s journey. “Just understanding it and feeling Papa Bush’s drive through his story. That’s what really came through to me.”

Wiz Khalifa’s appearance on Finding Your Roots arrives just weeks after reports surfaced that he could face up to nine months in prison in Romania over alleged drug possession. During his performance at the Beach Please! Festival in Continesti, he was accused of smoking on stage, which reportedly led to a 3,000 leu fine and the possibility of additional jail time.