Catching Up With... Wale

Paste caught up with Wale this summer about his steady rise as an artist, his dabbling in genres outside of hip-hop and his imminent transition from the world of free mixtapes to major-label releases as he readied himself for the release of debut full-length, Attention Deficit, which arrived, at long last, yesterday.

Wale: Yeah, it was great to be home. I’ve been, like, really, really overworked recently—like just doing way too much. You know what I'm saying? It’s always good to go home and see your family and stuff. 

Paste: Yeah, for sure. You always identify with the D.C. area in your songs, and now that your star is kind of rising, do you feel like people back home still feel the connection?

Wale: Oh, there’s definitely a connection. We just did like three shows in two days out there, so the connection is definitely still there. 

Paste: Great. So, let's talk a little bit about some of the sampling you’ve done [on your mixtapes]. You and some other up-and-coming rappers have been sampling from indie-rock artists--you’ve got Drake, Mickey Factz, Charles Hamilton and Kid Cudi sampling and remixing artists like Peter Bjorn and John, Lykke Li and Band of Horses. You’ve done so yourself with Justice and Peter Bjorn and John, too. Why do you think this is happening? Do you think you're part of a new movement in hip-hop?

Wale: I don’t look at it that deep. I just think that--I just like what I like. It’s not strategic at all. You know, I just like what I like. If it catches my ear, if it’s sounds familiar, or it sounds like something I could get in the pocket to, then [I'll] mess with it. It’s not really any of my concern who makes it or who am I sampling or anything like that. 

Paste: But specifically, how did you get interested Peter Bjorn and John and Justice?

Wale: I mean, like I said, it’s just one of them things where I heard it, and I just was like, “Yo, can you loop this? Can you flip it?” And they reached out to me to do the record at one point.  And it was just supposed to be a regular remix, but I don’t know what happened to it. So I just said, “Let me do two verses to it and make it a song.” 

Paste: So will you ever do something on one of their albums, or was it really more of a one-time thing?

Wale: It’s just like wherever the music go. It’s like if they reach out again and say, "Let's do it," I’m always open to doing that. I enjoyed doing the record and whatever. I’m not one of those people that’s in a box. I just do whatever sounds or feels right, you know?

Paste: Yeah. Also, you and your friend Kid Cudi have gone the extra step of actually heading into the studio with some indie artists--you, specifically, with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio. How did that move come about, and why did it make sense to you?

Wale: How did what come about, TV on the Radio? 

Paste: Yeah.

Wale: The A&R--it was his vision. Luke Wood, one of the people from Interscope--it was his vision, you know, to put this together. And I heard a lot of they stuff and I got it immediately and I just thought--I agreed it would be a great look. 

Paste: So what was it like working with him? How do you think his vision meshed with your hip-hop sound?

Wale: I mean it’s just open. It’s just one of those things, like I said, it just feels good. It feels good. I didn’t really look into it that deep, like you know...I looked at him like a regular--like another producer. He’s a genius, but I didn’t want to overthink it and try to do anything too out of the box. We just let the music speak for itself. What he was doing was sort of what I wanted to do, and he was wit it, so we just made it happen like that. 

Paste: Cool. Do you think that working with Mark Ronson over the past few years has influenced your taste in music? Has it been a significant that you’ve been working with a DJ rather than a big hip-hop mogul?

Wale: Nah, I think just going on tour with him and being able to hear the Sam Sparros, and the Justices, and the Daniel Merriweathers of the world, you know, enabled me to be more experimental with what I’m doing and the direction I’m going in. If something catches my ear or my attention, even if it’s not directly related to my genre—like an R&B or soul or neo-soul—then I can still mess with it if it sounds hot. He blurred the lines of genres, so it’s just music now. 

Paste: Do you think that this might change or expand now that you’ve signed a co-management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation? How do you think it’ll be now that you’re working in combination with both those labels? 

Wale: Um, I mean, that’s a good question. I don’t think it’s going to change much--like they don't really change my vision or how I see my project, you know? I just follow the music. I just kind of just go in the studio, play what I want to play, and listen to other things and just come up with different like ideas based around the music, not based around the producer or who I’m with. I just kind of do the same way every time. 

Paste: Yeah, cool. So, one of my favorite songs of yours is an older one off Paint A Picture [mixtape], “Am I Dreaming.” You’re lyrics showed a lot of self-awareness about being a beginner, and you critiqued no-name rappers for imitating celebrities and kind of inflating their own egos. Is it hard to maintain that same kind of reality check when you’re being compared to a young Jay-Z and are about to drop this hyped album?

Wale: Nah, I mean, I don’t really focus too much on the good. I don’t bask in like the smell of success. I don’t like just sit there when I get a compliment. Like I let the GQ thing go like 15 seconds after I read it. I appreciated it and acknowledged them for saying such a nice thing, but I let it go quickly. You never want to believe your own hype or take yourself too seriously. As soon as you start smelling yourself, the honesty and the integrity behind the music diminishes. 

Paste: For sure. And also, you’ve got several mixtapes under your belt and have established yourself with a certain audience, particularly people who are on the internet a lot and are looking into new things. Is it ever exhausting to feel like you need to re-introduce yourself on your debut album?

Wale: Yeah, I’m one of the first artists to kind of have to test that out because I’ve been laying the foundation now for so many years, you know, and that’s enabled me to go tour 40 cities without the album out, but now it’s like a lot of--millions of other people don’t know who I am, so I have to try to not insult the intelligence of my previous fans, but also introduce myself to the new ones. So it’s kind of like a battle I’m faced with with this album. 

Paste: Speaking of the album, could you tell us a little bit about what we should expect from Attention Deficit--sonically, lyrically?

Wale: I just feel like every day is different than the next. Like no matter who you go with or where you go--you can go with the same people and see the same people, wear the same thing, eat the same thing for breakfast, but you’ll have a different outcome, no matter what. And the album is gonna ask for you to feel different. And it’s not gonna appease your emotions everyday. If it’s sunny, you’re down--5, 6, 7 might really touch you. Or if you're happy, you feelin’ good--1, 8, 9, 10 might really touch your soul like in a way that music doesn’t really do anymore. And that--people are very stingy with their attention spans these days. And this is kind of the answer to that, hopefully. The kind of like, look: This is worth paying attention to for 14, 13, songs. So, enjoy, indulge and you know? Like the attention span of younger people--it’s not even being challenged because the music is so disposable now, so I tried to make music that was about real issues…I’m just trying to make music that touches people’s souls, like you know, and just making you feel like somebody understands what you’re going through without seeming too preachy. This is an album that was designed for real people, people who are content with their situation or their life and they’re not trying to pretend to be anything else. 

Paste: Nice. On the album, it’s mostly all Wale, all the time, whereas you‘re just coming from a very collaborative mixtape. Was it difficult for you to decide who wanted to guest on it? I know you’ve got Bun B and K’Naan.

Wale: Not really, I just knew I didn’t want that many features. I just really wanted to show off my songsmanship and my lyricism on my own without any help. I don’t want any questions. I don’t want it to be a question of who has the best album of the year or which of the younger, up-and-coming artists is making great music. Like everybody has something to prove and I want to prove mine like kind of alone. I came into this game without any major co-signs and just a lot of hard work, and for the most part, the majority of my city stands up for me, so it’s only right that I stand on my own for this album and not rely on heavy features. 

Paste: Yeah. And you’re known for often touring with the UCB go-go band [also from D.C.] and having this really lively presence. I heard you once said you wanted your live shows to be as epic as Daft Punk and Justice concerts. Do you think that hip-hop concerts are sometimes subpar and are you trying to change the dynamic of a hip-hop concert?

Wale: Absolutely they’re subpar. Nobody has to try anymore because people are buying tickets to see artists sit up on stage and not say anything. So nobody really has to try. So, you know with my whole Attention: Deficit album and, you know, movement, it’s adding that back into game, too. Artists need to care about they fans and care about leaving a lasting impression on they fans, and that’s what I try to do every time I come on stage. 

Paste: Do you think a live band is a big part of that?

Wale: Yes, definitely. A live band really helps a lot.

Paste: So, over the past few years, you seem to have had this love-hate relationship with blogs. You rap about them a lot, and they’re arguably your biggest source of positive exposure, but at the same time, you’ve said that they’ve raised the bar to an unattainable level. Do you think once you have a full-fledged album out you’ll be past that? Or do you think it will always be this double-edged sword?

Wale: I mean, it’s always going to be a double-edged sword. I mean, when you expose like--like when you don’t expose yourself or you don’t make yourself accessible, they say you're antisocial. But when you do, they reel you in so they can behead you. So it’s just one or the other--whatever you’re comfortable with. 

Paste: Back to some of those indie artists--I noticed a lot of your peers in indie rock and indie pop, they’re facing a similar thing with the obsessing online with Twitter and MySpace and blogs. Do you feel like that’s a way you're connected to artists who might be outside of your genre, but are part of that same social-media era?

Wale: I mean it’s just the wave of the future. Things are different now. You kind of have to. You’ve got to be your own biggest fan. We gotta make sure the word is out. That’s what my goal is, at least, when I use social networking. Maybe the radio ain’t supporting the record as much as you think, but you’ve got 60,000 people following you on Twitter. You gotta make sure they know. It's definitely [something] that a lot of artists need to use, especially indie. They don’t got a machine behind them. 

Paste: Speaking of Twitter, you tweet often with little jokes. I mean, sometimes it is more serious or informative than that, but a lot of the time, you're very light-hearted. Plus you have these moments on your mixtapes when you riff and ramble, or do hilarious skits. Do you think that humor is something that’s essential to good hip-hop?

Wale: I mean, I don’t think there’s enough of it. I think hip-hop’s become a tough-guy contest. It’s too much like tough guys in hip-hop. I’m not really afraid to let my sense of humor show, so it’s just a little bit of that that I try to add to Twitter or my music. So, I think it’s important.