Wale… When news broke that Wale inked a deal to join Rick Ross’ Maybach Music imprint my first thought was, “man, I remember when Wale came out repping the Roots crew and Mark Ronson.” Now, I’ve long grown out of my “you’re a sellout” and “underground til I die” days, but Wale signing to Rick Ross, that’s was definitely a move I would not have predicted while jamming to 100 Miles and Runnin’ a few years back and it seems 100 miles from where Wale was when I was first handed a Dan Weisman business card with the emcee’s face on it. My feelings came more from thoughts of what the music would sound like, and where Wale would take his material. I like Wale’s music because of his content, because he is a alternative to the kind of music Rick Ross makes. Now, please don’t read that as ‘I don’t listen to Rick Ross.’ That’s not the case, sometimes I want to hear “Hustlin'”, and sometimes I want the opposite. Wale is that the other stack of CD’s, that other option. So, my concern was that one more of the dying breed of that “underground” aesthetic or whatever you want to call it, was being eaten up by the machine. I think that’s a thought probably shared by many Wale fans. Well, Wale addressed the issue recently, and it is our quote of the day.
“But I hope the fans understand that the album’s not going to sound like a hundred Lex Luger beats and Wale. It’s going to sound the way Attention Deficit meant to sound. It’s still going to have the great syntax. I still want to work with K’Naan. But you know how hard it was to get such and such in the studio before? Such and such ain’t no problem now. No problem. But this time now, I’m at the point where I realize I don’t need such and such. I could do my whole album with any producer. I’m so in a zone right now. When I signed with Warner and they heard my new songs, even they were surprised. They were like, ‘I didn’t know Wale was like that.’” – Wale to Complex Magazine