Meet Wale
Posted by Des on May 11, 2008
DMV in the house? Dot, where you at?!
Glad to see the homey Wale getting some shine. Here are some recent interviews Wale did with XXL a few weeks ago (watch). Also, here’s his Rhapsody Rhap Session Q&A. Above is the video and keep reeding for more on the kid. A lot of people are buzzing about MTV’s 2008 Hottest MCs but I’m more concerned with the new school. Wale just might be the future. Yeah, I said it. “Mixtape About Nothing” - May 30.
Rhapsody: It was interesting that, initially, when your father would hear your songs on the radio, you’d deny it was you. How come?
Wale: It’s just weird talking to my parents about music. Nigerian culture ain’t really like that to be like, “Yo, so I’m a rapper now.” Let them find out organically. I’m ashamed to be a rapper actually. It’s corny. It’s such a connotation that goes with it. He’s unintelligent, uneducated, stupid, shallow and misogynistic. It’s like shameful to be a rapper now.
Coming into the game, how hard was it to get D.C. radio to play your records?
Radio is fickle. I don’t get the support that I should. I got my record deal not from BDS spins. I got my record deal from generating a buzz outside of D.C. Every label said, “Well, you don’t get that many spins even in your market.” I’d be back with the [program directors] at the stations asking them, “Why am I not getting spins if I’m selling out shows?” … It breaks my heart because it’s like I’m doing what I can do for our area, but it’s almost like listening to a Top 40 station sometimes. I’ve never had a record added on rotation. [“Nike Boots”] never got added. [It was] on a mixshow, maybe four times a day. One of the PDs said I should’ve made a snap record. It’s an integrity thing and that sh*t’s not my style. It’s just the way of the world. If “Roc Boys” was anyone else’s record other than Jay-Z’s, it wouldn’t have been as big as it was. And that’s probably my favorite song of last year. But if it was my first single from my first album, it wouldn’t have been able to hold up with all them T-Pain or T-Pain-assisted records because that’s what’s hot. The musicality of “Roc Boys” is not what’s poppin’ right now, but it’s Jay-Z, the greatest rapper of all time. People give Jay-Z that open ear. They won’t give no one like me or Skyzoo or Joell Ortiz or Joe Budden or Papoose the open ear. We have to conform.
Records like “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” don’t conform?
I’m at the cusp where commercial meets underground. If a Jay-Z came out now, and he was 23 years old, he wouldn’t be Jay-Z. As great as he was, it’s just a whole other game right now. It took me going on tour and getting the tastemakers like URB magazine and FADER … to get the ball rolling. It took Jay-Z telling everybody, “This guy is dope.” It took people like Bun B, [Allido Records Co-Owner] Rich Kleiman and Mark Ronson to be like, “This is the next guy.” It was a snowball effect. The percentage of people who are ahead of the curve in this entertainment business is less than 1 percent. Everybody is singing [Santogold’s] praises right now. There’s people who believed in Santogold and knew about her before even I did, and that was a year ago. Getting a record deal is almost like an artificial validation. Ain’t nothing really changed except I can go to Just Blaze and say we have a budget now. If Mark and them never picked me up, somebody else would’ve picked me up by now. When [Jay-Z] was like, “Your music is good,” I felt like I was knighted then.
