On the eve of his latest album release – The Album About Nothing, in stores Tuesday, March 31 – Wale got very real with Billboard.
Although, he’s typically the talkative, passionate guy in the room, some heavy things were going on within. In the interview he talks depression, drug use and his passion of acceptance.
Read excerpts below:
What are you talking about on this album that hits closest to home when it comes to your life?
The music industry. You can say I’m sensitive, but music is why I live. Other people have kids or a strong woman in their lives; all I have is my music. I constantly work my ass off and I’m not in these magazines — all I can go by is the people and what they say. People ask, “Why do you check social-media comments?” But what else do I have, bro? I don’t get no major articles. Nobody talks about Wale like that. So what do you do when you’re busting your ass and taking pills to stay up and be able to provide the right energy, and you’re not seeing the proper response?
What kind of pills?
My confidence was shot, so I’d be taking whatever to keep me in a good mood, to get me in the right mood for an interview. I’m not going into the details as to what I was taking, but there’s definitely something for that. Just like there’s a fuckin’ app for everything, there’s a damn pill for everything. Or something you can pour in your glass. I was depressed not being where I wanna be in my career when I’ve put the work in. I wasn’t sleeping. I was drinking all day and I didn’t have anyone to go to. I couldn’t fight it. Those are some of the demons I talk about on the album.
What else have you been through?
Getting dropped from a label is only fun to people who can’t feel it. [Wale was released by Interscope Records in 2010.] Everybody was laughing at Trinidad James when he got dropped. Damn, what if you just lost your job today? What if your friend got shot at and crashed his car and wasn’t picking up the phone? I was in tears when Ross got shot at [in 2013]. He doesn’t even know that. I was scared. I was thinking the worst. He wasn’t picking up the phone. But I was seeing all these people laugh at him on social media. That’s my friend! Someone said [on Twitter], “I wish it had been you” when A$AP Yams died. What did I do to you? Is a retweet or laugh that important to you? I’m sensitive, okay? God gave me the ability to feel twice as much so I can write, twice as much maybe.
What did you get from your time from hanging with Kanye West in Paris a few weeks ago?
How organized his shit is. He’s very organized and people listen. He has a staff that will listen to him. I have a staff whose mind tends to wander or they’ll act like I’m working for them. Even when Kim [Kardashian] is in there, things are centered around the breadwinner and creator. And he has the same thing as me, where he tries to make sure he’s not offending anybody. That’s something I recognized. He’ll say something and then follow it up with, “You know, I wasn’t trying to…” And the person will say, “It’s all good!’ I’m like that too. I want to make sure I don’t offend anyone. In this industry, you can be so offensive to somebody and not even know it, like, “Bruh, I could’ve sworn that I kissed every baby in here.”
Read the full article HERE
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