American Rapper Wale 100% Nigerian. Wale, whose real name is “Olubowale Victor Akintimehin” has always shown a connection with his Nigerian roots though he was born and had been living in America all his life.
The rapper sat with OkayAfrica to discuss him being a Nigerian and making music with Nigerian artistes.
The rapper sat with OkayAfrica to discuss on him being a Nigerian and making music with Nigerian artistes.
In the Interview, Wale shared that he has always been experimental with ‘afrobeats’, and also been in tune with what’s happening in Nigeria.
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He went further to say that he looks at himself as a black man in America because he’s Nigerian first. “‘Cause that’s my blood, I’m 100% Nigerian,” Wale says.
When asked which Nigerian artists have influenced him, Wale mentioned Afrobeat Legend Fela Kuti and Iconic Juju music maestro, King Sunny Ade. And that he always used to dance to Shina Peters when he was young. “My parents would always play it in the house when we were kids,” Wale recalled
In the interview, the Maybach Music Group artiste also recalled making a lot of songs with Nigerian music duopoly, Davido and Wizkid, saying:
“I’ve known him [Davido] for a long time. I think I met him in DC several years ago. We just always stayed in contact with each other. Obviously, Davido is in a different city every two days, maybe another country every two days. We always stay in touch. Any time we’re close, we always link up.
We were in the studio and just going through beats. We got a lot of other songs too that haven’t even came out yet.
Wizkid and I have been working together for maybe over six or seven years now. We have probably put out eight or nine songs together. That was easy. We were in the studio with Eric Bellinger one day, and we just cooked it up.”
He also revealed he looks up to YBNL boss, Olamide, saying,
“He’s one of the fastest workers and one of the most dynamic writers I know in any genre. He’s very, very talented.”
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