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[MUSIC PLAYING]
ELLIOTT WILSON: Talk up a little bit about the Ross
relationship.
Because people would even think it's funny when you did
the second album everybody was fearful what does it mean now?
Is Wale going to make records over Rick-Ross-sounding
tracks, yadda, yadda, yadda?
And then now, even with this third album it seems like he
trusted you enough also to let you do your vision, right?
WALE: Even less, even less
ELLIOTT WILSON: Less involvement, right?
WALE: Even less, like Ross good.
I'm a loyal ***'.
He can kick his feet up.
We're going to get some money regardless.
We're going to get money, me going to get money.
You know what I'm saying?
Rock, yeah.
We're going to get money.
I'm going to help put the other ***'s
*** out of the camp.
He's going to write like--
by the time he's 42, 43 or a real OG ***, he's going to
be able to be like, Wale, let's go and do it.
And he's going to help break these artists
and *** like that.
We got a lot of *** coming, a lot.
I trust Ross.
He trusts me.
And Ross knows I'm crazy.
I'm crazy, like,.
I didn't even talk to that ***' when I
was making my project.
He was texting me, like, haha, you're not picking up the
phone because I was on some ***.
ELLIOTT WILSON: You must be making some hits
WALE: I was on some ***.
I was just like, I'm not talking to none of y'all.
I'm going to make this ***.
I'm going to concentrate.
And he trusts me.
And when I put it out, he stands behind it.
You know what I'm saying?
Ross is one of the most stand-up *** that I've ever
met in my life.
And I'd been in the industry for three years before I even
met that ***.
ELLIOTT WILSON: And so that's why it worked for you go to
MMG after disappointments at Interscope?
Because he was just a stand up--
WALE: No man, I'm going to be quiet because [INAUDIBLE]
enjoyed IE.
We love you Interscope.
ELLIOTT WILSON: It's CRWN, it's CRWN man.
Have a drink brother.
[LAUGHTER]
WALE: Elliott put the [INAUDIBLE]
in my drink, trying to get me to spill my guts.
[GLASSES CLINK]
ELLIOTT WILSON: I got my Jordans on.
Man, I never wore Jordans in my life.
WALE: I just feel like at that point in my life I just feel
like Interscope's focus wasn't on music for where I come
from, music for y'all.
It was a day--
I'm on my storytelling Bill Cosby ***, right?
ELLIOTT WILSON: All right,
storytelling's what we're about.
We like stories.
WALE: So it was a day, right?
I want to say it was me and Lil' G. When they don't got
nothing else for you to do at a label a lot of times they
put you on the road and make you go to different radio
stations and talk and ***, and smile and *** shuck
and jive and ***.
Right?
So I went to 92Q.
This was a long time ago.
I went to 92Q and I heard some *** that
changed my *** life.
Because I'm young at this point.
I don't know nothing about the game.
I'm just a ***' from DC.
I'm just trying to figure it all out.
So we go to 92Q and me and G is over there.
And I hear the radio rep-- they would send you with a
radio rep to make sure you don't have a Wale moment, Like
a little mother-*** guidance-counselor-type ***
that follows you around.
So I heard him talking.
I was eavesdropping.
I heard him talking to the *** on the radio.
He was like, something, something, something,
something, we got to make sure Wale's black again.
I said, what?
So after it was over-- after the shucking and jiving--
we went back to the car and I told him you know, actually I
heard you when you said you wanted to Wale-- but he's
like, no, no, no.
This is just an urban station and the urban market doesn't
know about you.
I said, my ***, I'm probably the blackest rapper in the
game right now.
And I come from the blackest city that exists.
So why?
And that's when I realized there's two different sides to
the labels.
They got this side and this side.
When I first signed they were doing this when they should
have been doing this.
But I didn't know because I'm just a
regular old one of these.
ELLIOTT WILSON: You're like Lady Gaga,
let's go to the Z100.
WALE: Exactly, but I'm thinking like, oh now this is
creative because I'm working with Fader and I'm learning
the world with Mark Ronson.
But they was trying to capitalize solely on the Mark
Ronson connect and not worried about the message in it, the
look, or the ideas that I have for black America as a whole.
So when I figured that out I was like, OK, I get why it
don't work.
Peace out, no hands drop.
They wanted to figure it out all of a sudden.
I was like, I'm cool.
Ross was like, you know what?
All these things you just learned apply them and you do
your own ***.
And you can come out in your own way and do your own ***.
So I dropped Ambition, gold.
And now we're on some new black soul *** because--
ELLIOTT WILSON: Actually, I wanted to ask you about new
black soul.
WALE: And I wanted to do it the whole time.
I just didn't understand the game enough.
A lot of *** be rushing into that deal.
You don't know nothing about this ***.
This *** crazy for real.
ELLIOTT WILSON: How did new black soul-- like, that's a
phrase you've come up to sort of describe most of the sound
on the album like, is that somebody that
just naturally developed?
WALE: New black soul is--
ELLIOTT WILSON: And is it only optimized by songs like
LoveHate Thing or you feel like overall it is?
WALE: No, you know what?
Nope, because you look at LoveHate Thing, Sunshine,
Heaven's Afternoon.
Like, I could just shout it out when I do it.
Number one, that's soul.
That's '90s every hip hop.
C-N-N, mother-*** Reasonable Doubt, you know
what I'm saying?
Like, that's Shawn C and LV, You know, Shawn C worked on
Reasonable Doubt.
That's the soul.
That was the soul of the young urban American in the late
'90s, mid '90s.
LoveHate Thing, '70s soul, Sunshine, '70s soul, Heaven's
Afternoon, '90s soul, Golden Salvation,
that's early 2000 soul.
Vanity, mother-*** '80s soul, Gullible, '70s soul,
it's all through this joint.
It's all through it.
ELLIOTT WILSON: I wanted you to keep going.
WALE: I remember talking to Jay.
He always told me a lot of the albums that he came out with,
had an idea in his mind and it ended up
becoming something else.
| ain't never said this before and I don't want to give you
rap *** any ideas because I'm going to come
back to this idea.
But this was supposed to be an all album of '90s soul.
That's what I got stored.
ELLIOTT WILSON: Yeah, you told me.
You was like, Mint Condition.
You was like, I'm doing Mint Condition.
WALE: But it just became like soul in all genres.
I told Neo, I said, yo, Neo, I need a hook that feels like
Michael Jackson Bad era.
Not Thriller, not Motown '70s and all that ***.
I need Bad era.
I want to feel like I'm in a [INAUDIBLE] with a john.
You know what I'm saying?
[LAUGHTER]
ELLIOTT WILSON: With that move?
WALE: So he gave me that on Tired of Dreaming.
It sounds like he referenced it from Michael Jackson.
And that's what new black soul is.
I took all eras of soul and all elements of soul and put
them on one project.
ELLIOTT WILSON: What's the meaning
behind the song Gullible?
WALE: ***, you know, the sad thing about it is-- and I'm
going to probably give some sick person
an idea right now--
but whatever y'all say it is, it is, whatever.
Somebody in this joint could be like, yo--
five *** in here could have an agreement and be like,
Elliott Wilson is an alien.
I saw him land in the back.
And then it's soul, its soul.
Meaning it'll be picked up by blogs.
It'll get picked up by other things.
And it's so unfortunate because a *** like me, I'm
so into this ***.
I do it for the people so much that *** will use
that against you.
*** will use that.
All right, I can say this happened to
Wale and put it out.
Media take that and pick it up.
Some journalists wait for confirmation.
I know you've been one of the people that--
no matter how juicy a story is-- you'll wait til you get a
real confirmed joint.
But a lot of people just whatever, anything.
You know what I'm saying?
So I wanted to poke fun on the idea, how America is just so
consumed with the juicy story and all that.
I had a song called Center of Attention on my first album.
It was a bonus cut.
And it's kind of like a spawn of that record right there.
ELLIOTT WILSON: An extension to that?
On LoveHate Thing you said that you thought people could
relate because it's about how when you begin to shine comes
a lot of passive-aggressive hate, especially from those
closest to you.
How do you deal with that?
WALE: ***, I mean, I feel like
everybody's dealt with that.
Everybody's in here's dealt with the hate that comes
within your circle.
And it's almost like a understandable hate.
Like, how could I be mad if I've been friends with a
rapper for eight years?
Or we went to school together and I made it this far?
And they're working wherever.
You know, their life is how it is.
I can't even be mad at you because I
would probably be mad.
I know I'd be mad.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's like, I know you still frock with me.
I know you still *** with me.
But it's hard to see me winning like this.
I know it is.
It is.
When you get to that point, you got to close your eyes and
imagine, realize your most intense dream.
Whether it's owning a salon, making it to the NFL, making
it, whatever, whatever.
You know your best friends' dreams.
You know it.
Whatever it is, you know your best friends' dreams.
Imagine making it to your joint, winning at your joint,
and your best friend's still trying to figure out what
they're doing in life.
That comes with it.
That's something that nobody talks about,
nobody talks about.
It's very rare that you become rich and then you make
everybody around you rich.
So what happens when that don't happen?
I'm going to tell you what happens.
You lose friends.
You make enemies.
People start growing this disdain for you that just
won't go away.
Until they reach where you're at.
It's real out here.
ELLIOTT WILSON: I want to talk about Rotation because on the
surface it could seem like, oh, here's another record
about weed.
But to me the hidden message is that you almost smoke
sometimes to just zone out to deal with the stress of
everything that comes with the drama in your life and
everything.
WALE: I'm high right now Elliott, if you're asking me.
[LAUGHTER]
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
ELLIOTT WILSON: You're not really high right now?
WALE: A little bit, a little bit.
ELLIOTT WILSON: But is that almost therapeutic?
Is that really sort of paying homage to that?
That helps you deal with the stress?
WALE: This is real.
It's just this music industry--
I was made, I was born--
I believe in my heart-- to make music in it.
I don't know if I was born to be in though.
Because it's not really my thing.
I know there's a fixed fight going on right now with this
rap, with all these record sales and all that.
I know that.
I'm ain't really supposed to have no crate.
You know what I'm saying?
I get it.
I deal with it though.
I take it in stride.
You know what I'm saying?
But I'm a loose cannon as far as reacting and ***.
I know that now.
Everybody knows that.
You're not even cool for making fun of it no more.
Because it's like, you already know Wale's a wild ***.
So I got to mellow myself out sometimes.
I really do.
Even right now I'm thinking about 100 things.
Man, I got an album coming out in two days.
I'm thinking about Letterman.
I'm thinking about the show tonight.
I'm thinking about so much other things.
I'm just trying to mellow out.
And that's what Rotation's about.
ELLIOTT WILSON: And we talked about you DMX-ing the game.
You're putting out another album after
this with Jerry Seinfeld.
It's coming full circle.
WALE: Album About Nothing.
ELLIOTT WILSON: Album About Nothing, how crazy is that,
that it comes full circle?
That now you actually know Jerry Seinfeld and have
conversations with him?
WALE: I think the fans--
more than anything--
deserve it.
Because it's deeper than what people really realize.
The first album, Mix Tape About Nothing was when I had
just signed with Interscope.
And that was-- a lot of people don't know--
the album that made Jimmy make me a priority.
I didn't know it at the time, but that's what
made him, like OK.
You know, this is Mark Ronson.
ELLIOTT WILSON: Oh, because he's like, that mix tape?
WALE: That mix tape, yeah.
So More About Nothing was when I lost my deal.
ELLIOTT WILSON: I was there for that.
WALE: More About Nothing was when I had no
deal when I made it.
ELLIOTT WILSON: Biggest traffic deal
on Rap Radar, still.
WALE: That was the mix tape to make them want to sign me
again, everybody.
So More About Nothing, what happens when you put
me in a good spot?
There's only one thing that I could do with that, is get
that number one spot, with that More About Nothing, or
the Album About Nothing, that's all.
That joint solidified my deal then got me a deal.
What's going to happen when I already got a deal when I'm
making one?
And to actually have Jerry Seinfeld at my disposal?
The number one spot.
ELLIOTT WILSON: How do you get that?
And then what's it like?
Does that take time to develop?
WALE: Everything that I'm giving to you all right now I
gave to him as far as talking wise.
People are either going to *** with Wale or they're not.
And the people that *** with me, I pray to God that they
*** with me twice as hard for every *** that don't.
ELLIOTT WILSON: Why don't some people *** with you?
Well some people give you the props you deserve?
WALE: I'm real.
I'm real.
I'm real.
Thank you cosign, whoever said that.
I'm not really into that.
It's too much work for me to be fake.
It's like, I sweat.
I don't want to work out. ***, I'm going to tell you.
I don't want to think about what I'm going to say.
Who want a life like that?
You got to think about what you're going to say?
So it's just real.
I'm not going to do none of that.
And a lot of *** don't like that, especially in
the game where in some instances the faker you are
the more successful you are.
This ***, it's transparent.
And if you really open your eyes and look at what's going
on in our culture, that fake *** goes a long way.
And when you try to be real, you try to be honest and try
to be yourself you get shunned a lot, but whatever, I'm good.
ELLIOTT WILSON: Do you think those qualities is what helped
you become the person out of the District to be the one to
open these doors?
WALE: It's still real, though.
It's still real.
We're appreciating reality less and less as the years go
on, especially in hip hop.
They accept anything.
I'm just real.
You know?
I'm not trying to fit into a specific category to be liked.
It's just, I give you my heart, I give you my feelings.
I give you what's on my mind.
And if you accept it, God bless.
If not--