D.C. rapper Wale kicked off this week’s interview with The Breakfast Club by speaking on the recent controversy involving Complex magazine. While speaking on the incident, which involved the Maybach Music Group emcee threatening Complex staff, Wale revealed that he’s not in the music industry for the money and therefore takes more issue with not being included on roundups like Complex’s “50 Best Albums Of 2013” list.
He also questioned why he wasn’t nominated for a Grammy award for The Gifted when a Kendrick Lamar song that appeared on the NBA 2K14 soundtrack and was a good kid, m.A.A.d city bonus track did receive a nomination.
“I don’t care about the money, Joe. I like the sport, yo,” Wale said. “I played sports my whole life. So, I like the competitive nature. You know what I’m saying? I like the sport of rhyming. I want to have quadruple entendres on certain records. And everybody to be rewinding ‘em. And it be in the locker room or at the lunch table talking about ‘You heard what he said?’ That’s what I care about…It’s just a combination of things, but I’m in a place now where it’s like I’m at bat trying again to do it.”
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Wale also spoke on meeting his grandfather for the first time while in Nigeria filming Revolt TV’s Wale: I Am From documentary. While speaking on Nigeria, the D.C. spitter also addressed those who feel he’d be more successful if he was more vocal about his Nigerian roots.
“So, I met my grandfather for the first time. So, it was really intense,” he said. “And I don’t really show that side of myself. I like to keep my personal life away. Y’all get my emotional, but y’all don’t really get the—y’all don’t know who I’m dating…I use my real, Nigerian name. That’s the first red flag of embracing it. You know what I’m saying? My first album I sampled a famous African record. Did a video for it. I’ve worked with Wizkid. I’ve worked with [Olamide]. I’ve worked with a lot of these people. Just because they not on the U.S. radar—I don’t know if I need to go Lil Wayne on niggas and put the tattoo of a Nigerian scripture, Nigerian Yoruba scriptures on the side of my face so they can be like ‘Yeah.’ I don’t know if I gotta come in wearing an agbada or something like that. But I do my best…That’s like Drake walking around with a yamaka.”
Towards the end of Wale’s interview with The Breakfast Club, he revealed that friend and fellow rapper J. Cole is “more of a jerk” than he is and accepted the fact that he’ll never be considered a media darling.
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“People love Cole and Cole’s a jerk, yo,” Wale said. “That’s one of my best friends though, but Cole is a jerk too. He’s a jerk. He’s more of a jerk than me. He’s just quiet. He’s quiet. He’s light-skinned. I’m like black ass, D.C. loud…Let’s just let it be known now that I’m not gonna be a media darling. I’m not gon’ be Janelle Monae. You know what I’m saying? Janelle Monae talented as fuck. We can do the same amount of numbers, but she can get Good Morning America. A Saturday Night Live. She can get to sit on Letterman or something like that. We can do the same amount, but I ain’t getting none of that. So, I’ve accepted it.”
This week’s interview comes one month after a recorded phone call between Wale and Complex magazine’s Insanul Ahmed was released online. During the roughly three-minute long conversation, Wale threatened to visit the publication’s office and “start knocking niggas the fuck out.”
“Fuck you, dog. You know it’s disrespect. I swear to God I’ll come to that office and start knocking niggas the fuck out,” the rapper said. “Y’all wanna see some ghetto ignorant shit? That’s what y’all promote. That’s the only thing y’all promote from niggas.”
