Catching up with Wale.
Wale dropped his awesomely-named sixth studio album, Wow… That’s Crazy, on Friday and headed out on the traditional press run. On HOT 97’s “Ebro In The Morning,” he touched on some the biggest topics in hip hop since the last time he passed through the station.
Wale and the HOT 97 crew contributed to the protracted conversation around the “Top 50” lists that continue to proliferate. What started out as “Top 50 Rappers Of All-Time” lists over a month ago has splintered into regional rankings. The persistent trend has left artists angered by their placements and others irritated by the futility the whole practice. However, Wale appears unfazed by it all. When asked by Ebro about how his stats have been turning out, Wale responded, “I don’t care bout no… I’m on every list that matters… If I’m not on your list, you forgot or you’re stupid.” The possibility people having forgotten to include his name was considered because Wale even confessed to accidentally omitting Drake when asked to list the top 5 rappers from his era. He also explained that he’s too far into his career and has experienced too much success to be stressed over any list.
The interview then transitioned to discussing Mac Miller‘s passing. After Mac died last September, people started to notice that he was homies with pretty much everyone in the industry. Many had Mac stories to share and they now all have stories about how the news his death hit them. Wale recalled being the studio when J. Cole called him to tell him Mac died and immediately hanging up the phone to process the information. Wale was supposed to go to Mac’s crib two days before and later had strong regrets that the plans fell through. He also mentioned how one his last text messages to Mac was intended to fer words encouragement when Swimming dropped, fearing Mac would feel that his project was overshadowed by Astroworld (which dropped on the same day). “I texted him I was like, ‘Bro, I hope you’re seeing all this love out here,’ because he was a guy who was in his head like I be in my head and sometimes you gotta hear that…”
Watch the full interview below.