Wale on why he left the management
Over the years, Maybach Music Group rapper Wale has found himself moving from one label to another. The D.C. rapper has released material through Interscope, Atlantic and Warner Music Group. He has also been under a management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation until in 2013 when he parted ways with the company.
All those years, the rapper hasn’t shared the reasons why he left Roc Nation until recently when he sat for an interview with N.O.R.E and DJ EFN at the Drink Champs show. “What happened was, I was in the Hov cycle for a long time,” the Folarin II rapper explains at around the 60-minute mark. “There was a time that I was on tour with J. Cole. At the time, I was opening for him. They said it was a co-headlining tour, but whatever, I was opening for him, and it was an elaborate stage and this that and the third.”
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He added, “and somebody in my circle told me, ‘You’re losing 5 grand every time you get on stage. Not only are you’re not breaking even, you’re losing money.’ Me, at that point in my life, I forget what city we was in but I was on the bus and I got an offer to do a tour with two other artists. And I wanted to go with Cole because that’s my brother and we just did the Hov tour.”
“So, we was on the road, and I remembered I heard I was losing … I heard that from someone who was close to the joint. The shows is sold out and again, I’m a young n-gga, I couldn’t make sense of it and this was when The Gifted was out and it went No. 2 or No. 1 on Billboard. I couldn’t understand it.”
“I could literally be hosting clubs and making this a night. I just had a meltdown for real and I remember whatever city I was in, there were three days left and I just quit the tour. I just quit.”
Watch the full Drink Champs interview below:
