Think of this as the portrait of the artist about to blow up.
For the better part of the last year, the most important thing that came out of Washington, D.C. was the interminable run-up to the 2008 election. But for those with keen ears, the most exciting thing (all due respect to Barack Obama) has been an MC named Wale.
Lately, it's been 0-60 for the rapper (right). He’s gone from a budding artist spitting complex, fascinating rhymes on free mixtapes (check out his collaboration with DJ Nick Catchdubs 100 Miles & Running here) to touring with producer Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen) and getting signed to Interscope Records (via Ronson’s Allido imprint). He also did a guest rhyme on The Roots’ “Rising Up.”
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But before the deal Wale began working on a little passion project called The Mixtape About Nothing, inspired by –- you guessed it –- Seinfeld. No kidding. No homilies to champagne, rims and drug dealing or bragging about sexual conquests. (OK, maybe some.) Just deft, rapid wordplay about Jerry, Larry David, Kramer and George (“My Costanzas stand like phantoms”). Oh, and then there’s that guest spot by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
The Mixtape About Nothing, also produced by Catchdubs, is out Friday (download it for free here) and is likely just the beginning of the crazy awesomeness Wale has in store. If you want proof, check out the video for his take on Justice's “D.A.N.C.E.” after the jump.
To find out more, Listening Post chatted with Wale (pronounced “wah-lay”) awhile back about the importance of giving away music, working the Web, working with Pharrell Williams and making friends with Lindsay Lohan.
Wired.com Listening Post: So, how are you, and more importantly where are you?
Wale: I’m in New York. I guess this is kind of home now a little bit. I’m recording. I’m doing my mixtape and album simultaneously. I’m pretty much done with the mixtape though. Now I’m working on the album, but just the beginning stages.
Wired.com Listening Post: How would you describe your sound and your influences?
Wale: Basically, it is a combination of all the kinds of music I’ve listened to, just spearheaded by hip-hop. I’m influenced by all the types of music you could imagine.
Wired.com Listening Post: So tell me a little about The Mixtape About Nothing. Why a Seinfeld-themed tape?
Wale: I just feel like there’s a lot of things in that show that inspire me to write and talk about different issues. That’s my favorite sitcom. So a lot of things about the show, especially the dialogue between the characters, inspires me.
Wired.com Listening Post: Is the rumor true that you got Julia Louis-Dreyfus to do a drop on the tape?
Wale: Yeah, she’s on there. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, so you’ll have to hear it all the way through to catch it [Laughs].
Wired.com Listening Post: How long have you been working on it? It’s been getting hype for a while.
Wale: I took a break from it last month, the month that I got signed. Because now that I’m signed [to my label] some of the things I’m talking about are kind of insignificant. So, it’s kind of like the last piece of Wale before the major-label signing. But I did take a month off last month to get some things together and do some press.
Wired.com Listening Post: So are you going to be giving it away for free, like you did with 100 Miles & Running?
Wale: Yup. We going to do some hard copies, but mostly it’s going to be downloadable mixtape.
Wired.com Listening Post: So, tell me a little bit about how you see giving away free music and using the internet to help your career.
Wale: Basically, the internet is just the way now. It’s the end-all, be-all of self-promotion. It’s not like you got to burn CDs and pass them out or sell them. The internet is a tool that reaches billions and billions of people. It’s like a no-brainer to tie it in with self-promotion, or even label promotion. The Web is the new way to figure out who’s hot and what’s not. You can’t let TV dictate because it’s so polished, so political. It is what they want you to know. The internet is the raw.
Wired.com Listening Post: So, I heard you only have only spent something like $2,500 promoting yourself, getting to gigs and burning some CDs and such. How did you do it?
Wale: The first thing that’s important is to really have people believe in you. If you have that, you can do anything. After that, I could put my own money in it. But you do have to spend money to make money. Musically, you have to be open-minded to any [kind of promotion]. I know going on tour really helped too. Basically you can’t do it without the internet now, it’s not possible. And having someone like Jay-Z publicly say you’re a good artist, that really helps too.
Wired.com Listening Post: Well, yeah. So do you think people like Jay-Z and Kanye West throwing support behind you came from them hearing the buzz on the Web?
Wale: It’s probably a mixture of both the internet and industry buzz. I mean the industry is a little bit slower than the internet. But internet buzz definitely leads to industry buzz.
Wired.com Listening Post: How did you hook up with Mark Ronson, and how did that lead to the Interscope deal?
Wale: My manager had given a CD to him [at some point]. So, he was basically rummaging through CDs and found mine by accident and he loved the song. It was like divine intervention. The next thing somebody told me he’d been playing my song [on his radio show]. So my manager and I reached out, I came to New York to record with him, and then he brought me on tour.
The thing is, I had a couple deals on the table before I met Mark to sign straight to a label. I just felt that Mark is somebody that I wanted to learn as much as I could learn from before signing a deal. He’s somebody who could mold my stuff as a musician. I never had any issues with interviews or being an artist, but as far as learning things from another musician, Mark is the one I wanted to learn from.
Wired.com Listening Post: Will he be producing tracks on your debut or will he be exec producing?
Wale: He’s more executive producing, but I’m sure we’ll do a song or two together.
Wired.com Listening Post: Any producers you really want to work on this record? Or that you already know you’re working with?
Wale: I’m working with Pharrell, Just Blaze, my people from back home The Best Kept Secret, and DJ Premier.
Wired.com Listening Post: Any artists you’d really like to work with? I mean you’ve already got the Roots track, which is really good by the way.
Wale: I hope people like that track. Everybody I’ve come in contact with says they love it. But I mean, Black Thought [frontman of the Roots] is my favorite rapper. Him and Jay-Z. But it’s not easy to get Jay-Z in a studio right now. Previously, I would’ve said Black Thought and Jay-Z, but now I’ve already gotten [that chance] with Black Thought. Maybe also, Andre 3000.
Wired.com Listening Post: Any artists you already have lined up for your debut?
Wale: That’s kind of something you can’t really say, because things change. Certain tracks don’t make the album or whatever. So, I really can’t say 100 percent. But I have a pretty long list of artists that I consider friends now. You know what I’m saying? Like Jay-Z, Pharrell, Kanye, Black Thought, ?uestlove, Bun B, Pusha T, Rhymefest. Those are people that I consider my friends.
Wired.com Listening Post: Tell me about your sneaker collection.
Wale: Yeah. I’m at like 325 pairs right now, give or take. But I’ve given away about 200 pairs of sneakers. I’m not as big of a collector as I used to be, because I think the game just got weird. Everybody likes to collect now, so it’s kind of corny. But I got the essentials.
Wired.com Listening Post: What are the essentials?
Wale: Jordan 3s, all three colors. Jordan 4s, Jordan 5s and Jordan 11s.
Wired.com Listening Post: I’d throw in Jordan 8s, but that’s my favorite pair.
Wale: Ha!
Wired.com Listening Post: How did you get involved with the Darfur Now College Tour? Is that issue important to you?
Wale: It definitely is. The tour, though, happened on a whim. My manager explained the cause and I was in; it wasn’t even a money thing. You know, I get 10 show offers a week and a lot of the time I can’t do it because I’m busy or the money looks crazy. But in this case I was like, “Let’s do it!”
Wired.com Listening Post: Rock the Bells is after that. Anyone you want to get up on stage with?
Wale: I’m just going to plunge. There’s just so many great MCs, I’m just going to enjoy it. De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Method Man, Redman.
Wired.com Listening Post: So, I’m curious because I was on your MySpace page today. Not too long ago you were rapping about Lindsay Lohan [Eds Note: In “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” (above right)] and now it seems she’s something of a fan. How on Earth?
Wale: It’s an artistic thing. People respect good music; that was just artistic expression. You get a pass for saying a lot of outlandish things if its decent. But, yeah we’re cool. That pic is from the backstage at the Kanye show in LA.
Wired.com Listening Post: So does this mean she’ll get a Wale verse for her new record?
Wale: Yeah, you never know. I might write a song for her. We’ve been talking about it. You never know.
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