Khalil -From Foster Care to Signed to Justin Bieber in Hollywood

“This is kinda the reality that I was in,” Khalil says. “I’m trying to just paint the best picture I can.” Dressed in a red Chanel sweatshirt and sitting on the MyComeUp HQ balcony, the R&B singer recounts his rise to pop music’s peak.

Having released music on major labels spanning Def Jam, Slip-n-Slide, and Interscope at the age of twenty-three, it’s easy to assume Khalil had his path paved for him. Yet before his first record deal, at thirteen, a number of challenges seemed destined to block that path.

Born Khalil Amir Sharieff, the singer spent many of his formative years in foster care. With a mother who suffered from bipolar and an absent father, Khalil felt he didn’t belong. “I was kinda the outcast of the family,” he recalls.

A single phone call from his aunt, at nine years old, seemed to change his fortunes. She wanted Khalil to return home to his mother—a prospect that was, at the time, unfathomable. “This was almost the first time I even remember seeing my mum,” the singer says, “it was like, ‘woah.’ I always had visions of what she might look like.”

Khalil’s prospects, however, didn’t change immediately after being reunited with his family. Returning home to a mother who worked two jobs and had no time for him, Khalil had no choice but to take care of his younger brother and chores around the house. “I was forced to believe this was what I was supposed to be doing,” he says.

The saving grace of that period, Khalil recalls, were two items: his radio and his tape recorder. “I used to play Sacramento 1035 and I would record songs,” he says. Young Khalil would then wonder around the house, whenever he could, singing along to whatever he’d recorded that day. He describes this as an introduction “the craft” he would later perfect. 

That introduction led him to sign for Def Jam at thirteen. Putting out two singles under the mentorship of music executive L.A. Reid, Khalil’s life seemed to transform in a whirlwind of stardom and big money deals. “Everything was moving so fast, you know, I was thirteen years old at the time,” he remembers.

In the next few years the singer toured the length and breadth of the country, even joining Usher as they did the same in Canada. Khalil would then, some time later, link up with Justin Bieber in Miami, sign a new record deal, and collaborate with him. 

With many of Khalil’s friends just starting their careers, Khalil can now boast ten years in the game.   Such experience has afforded the singer more creative input into his music. With that, he relishes the opportunity to speak about his past, and hopes to give inspiration to people who come from similar backgrounds. “I can really take the wheel,” he says, “and use it for a positive.”

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