The TSSCREW Put Me On This Exclusive Wale Interview With My Girl Chanda.
‘Stronger’ Freestyle
“I love this one where I’m talkin’ about my football and all that. That brought me to talk about my football past and I never really mentioned it and I feel like it hit every point so well, youknamean.”
“The Kramer”
“Because of the artistic aspect of it how like it’s like drawing a perfect circle, you know what I’m sayin’, manually. You just look at it like ‘Shit, I just did that.’ It is impossible to draw a perfect circle, but if you did one, you look at it like, ‘Oh shit!’”
“The Artistic Integrity”
“Same goes for ‘Artistic Integrity’ just the way it came together. I really wish, like, ten million people could hear that mixtape, know what I’m sayin’, and then just kinda reflect on it. I feel like I did a real good job of just putting things together and conveying a message.”
“Warming Up Cane”
“Because I’m telling a story about Crack City—D.C.—where Crack really became popular over a classic Hip-Hop beat.”
“I Think They Crazy”
“That’s a real sleeper. The flow is just so conversational and it was like the first time of me really, really stepping outside of my real flow and coming up with something different. I ain’t really hear anyone else rap on that beat.”
TSS: What are you looking forward to on the Rock The Bells tour?
Wale: Just to feel good about hip-hop again and being around some of the greatest that ever did it so it’s just me soakin’ up whatever I can from being around those dudes.
TSS: You one of the few dudes out right now reppin’ the burgeoning DMV scene. What was your hood like in Maryland?
Wale: Well, I grew up in DC and in Maryland, but it’s basically like DC like pretty much from the 80s to the early 90s, it was Murder capital at that time and drug trafficking was crazy at that point. So growing up, we seen all that. I could remember two times when we got robbed and it was just like the poor stealing from the poor and that whole thing. And then we moved to Maryland—we moved to these projects in Maryland—and it was still bad. They paint a picture of Maryland like it’s a suburban DC, but there’s certain cracks and holes in Maryland that go unnoticed and that’s where we went. My mother didn’t know much—she listenin’ to the news and she think it’s all good and it ended up being worse there. Once we got our thing together, ya know, we moved to a better part—PG County. So for the last three or four years, we’ve been there.
TSS: I read you got some football scholarships in high school. What position did you play?
Wale: I played tailback.
TSS: What was your 40 time?
Wale: See, my 40 time—I ran a 4.5 but I was more about quickness. I was more quick than fast. Like, I wasn’t the fastest running back in the world but quick—I could get in and out real quick.
TSS: So what running back would you say your style was like?
Wale: Uh, Barry Sanders definitely because you know Barry used to get caught a lot. Like, I would get like 40,50, 60-yard sprints but I’d always get caught because I wasn’t the fastest. Like I said, I could get in and out quick.
TSS: What’s your favorite pair of kicks, period?
Wale: Favorite pair of sneakers is Foamposite Maxs—the Tim Duncan joints and maybe the Jordan XI Concords.
TSS: You selling any XIs? I need some.
Wale: I’m giving a lot away because I got like 3 pairs of a lot of shoes and a lot of Dunks like Cinco De Mayos, Stussys, De Las—stuff like that. I’m just giving those away because I got a lot of ‘em. The game ain’t the same no more.
TSS: Why do you like Seinfeld?
Wale: Everybody asks me that question. It’s crazy because if I were to done a Martin mixtape or In Living Colour, nobody would ask that question. I don’t live my life in a box—I don’t live my life with boundaries. Whatever I like I like, knowhatimsayin’ and I can’t really explain it. But I think in black culture, we feel like we have to like certain things, we have to do certain things. Lupe didn’t know that Tribe verse and people were upset as if he had to know it like he has to like Tribe Called Quest. I love Tribe, but I can’t be mad at the person that you think likes Tribe that doesn’t. As artists, we should not live our lives in boxes. Like, if I’m not a big fan of so and so, then everybody’s gonna be like, “Oh, you’re not a Hip-Hop head.” There shouldn’t be any prerequisites as to why anyone likes anything. I like Seinfeld because it’s funny. What I find comical is the same thing Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld find comical.
TSS: What’s your favorite episode?
Wale: I can never pick one—I choose the entire body of work. I’ve watched every episode at least 10 times. I can’t say this is the funny one or that’s the funny one. They all tie in together—like an outfit.
TSS: Were you happy with the finale?
Wale: Ummm, that’s one thing I wish could’ve ended differently but that’s the genius about it. The show never does what you want it to do.
TSS: How did you want it to end?
Wale: I don’t know. I didn’t really want it to end in a jail cell but you know, whatever, right? I think the dialogue ended the way it started off kinda.
TSS: In your rhymes, you reference a lot of obscure shit. Did you read a lot, watch a lot growing up?
Wale: Ummm, I just watched a lot of stuff—I was a nosy kid. A little bit of that, a little bit of that, a little bit of street shit, a little bit of Saved By The Bell, a little bit of comic books, a little bit of porno, knowhatimsayin’.
TSS: So that Interscope contract is sign, sealed, and delivered. Besides Interscope, what other deals did you have on the table?
Wale: We had Warner, we had Atlantic, we had J Records, we had Def Jam when Jay was there but, you know, I kinda held off ‘cause it was kinda unsure where he was gonna go. But, you know, we had everybody. The only people that we didn’t have was Universal. I guess they were busy making “I’m so crispy” records and they weren’t really tryna see our vision. But I’m very, very happy. If I could have another chance to do it, I would sign with Interscope every single time.
Props To The TSS Crew, D, & Of Course My Man WALE!!!
-Young Hype
*beep*
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