April 14 marked the 15th anniversary of Wiz Khalifa‘s Kush & Orange Juice mixtape, a project he says “changed my life and career.”

“It was the mixtape that introduced me to the world,” Wiz tells Complex. “It introduced me to a lot of people, and I had put in a lot of work before that, but I didn’t really have my own identity. Kush and Orange Juice gave me my identity.”

With the sequel now available, his goal is to give a new generation of fans their own project to vibe to while restoring the feeling the original brought to its longtime fans.

“[Kush + Orange Juice 2 is] just to return the feeling. It’s to remind you and to recreate it for people who didn’t have the first one, because you could sit there and explain to them how freaking awesome it is, but they didn’t live to it, so they don’t understand that. So this is for somebody who wants to live to their own version of it,” he said.

Wiz also shared his advice for longevity in the game, as he’s been able to stay relevant for over a decade. 

“I think you really have to love what you do, and the love doesn’t come from just the success of it. You have to still love it when it’s not looking so good. I think that’s what makes it important,” he says. “And the highs are really high and the lows aren’t that low. It’s normal in life, but compared to the highs, it might feel a little dramatic. So you have to be able to function and you have to be able to see the vision and navigate. That’s what I see as going to make you really have longevity out there.”

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