Washington, D.C., has always had a strange relationship with the national music scene. Ever since Marvin Gaye dipped to Detroit, the city of magnificent intentions has produced an eclectic smattering of mainstream artists who are often from the area but not of the urrea. Olubowale Folarin, or Wale for short, might be the first to truly represent the city.
Born to Nigerian immigrants, Wale (pronounced Wah-Lay), 23, grew up moving around the city and the surrounding Maryland suburbs. Though he recently relocated to New York to record, he remains, quite simply, so D.C. The MC is rarely pictured without his trademark Washington Nationals cap and performs with local go-go veterans UCB, now his touring band. He even penned “Nike Boots,” a street single referencing the city’s unofficial footwear of choice—Goadome ACGs. But for all his hometown pride, he stresses individuality over any obligation to put his ’hood on the map.
“I feel like people who put that pressure on themselves are a bit pretentious,” he says. “I’m just representing my area as I know it.” Perhaps this flexible localism is what caught the ear of superproducer Mark Ronson, who signed Wale to his Allido label last year.
“Mark is just basically one of the driving forces,” Wale says, “driving me to be more creative.” He’s a particularly adaptable artist, as at ease rocking over instrumentals cribbed from French house duo Justice as he is in the go-go. For his Allido/Interscope debut, he’s already recorded with Just Blaze and scheduled sessions with Pharrell, but he promises not to stray from his roots, regardless of outside influences.
“The first thing you want to do is be comfortable with who you are,” he says. “The world wasn’t necessarily ready for Atlanta when OutKast came, they weren’t necessarily ready for the West Coast when The Chronic came.” Now the world will just have to adapt to D.C. and Wale.
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