Just striking it big on the scene as of last year, Wale has been a prominent underground artist since 2006. Originally from Washington DC he got his first influences from the go-go music that DC is known for. In 2007, he was signed to Allido Records by way of Interscope. Most popular in the DC area for years he got recent acclaim for his past mixtape, The Mixtape About Nothing, released in May 2008 and was inspired by the show Seinfield – even using samples from some of episodes and using the same naming conventions for the titles of the songs as Seinfield did for its episodes (The Opening Title Sequence, The Roots Song Wale is On, etc…) Wale is a slice of the progression of hip hop, creating a new way to appeal to hip hop heads like myself using an old school feel but a new school touch to everything he talks about. Wale is not an all-the-way political rapper but wrote a song called, Nigger, which touched on the Michael Richards stage incident and is currently working on a song with Chrisette Michelle which will talk about inter-black racism. Lately, Wale released on Twitter that his new album Attention: Deficit will be released some time this summer, but while you wait for his album he will have a mixtape released called Back to the Feature, which will be released on April 29th. His first single, Chillin, featuring Lady GaGa was just released in DC this past week. Get into Wale!
Check out Wale’s Official Website! (You can download The Mixtape About Nothing for free)
Follow Wale on Twitter!
Next on the Rise: Asher Roth
This is WHAT’S IN MY HEADPHONES…
