An image of MMG emcee Wale can be seen on the front page of today's edition of The Washington Post alongside an in-depth interview. In the feature write-up, he discusses confronting his critics, engaging anonymous haters and defying the "digital mob" that is constantly relayed to him via his smartphone, to which he is essentially addicted. He shuts off the device only when he’s sleeping or in the booth.
"I wake up every morning to 'I love you, you’re the greatest' and 'I hate you and wish you would retire,'" he claims. "I’m looking for a little reality in there." If he didn’t have access to the thoughts of millions at any given moment, he feels he'd be "one of the most successful rappers alive."
He also touches on media-induced anxiety. "Out there doing press right now, I get anxiety," he says. "Not to sound crazy or nothing, but there’s mad white folks grabbing me. I just start getting uncomfortable. I try to hide it... When I was talking with the program director, I felt like it went well, but in the back of my mind I was like, 'I don’t think he likes me.'"
The feature covers quite a bit more about the D.C. emcee - read it in full here, and peep the front page spread in the gallery above.
Y'all ready for The Gifted? It drops on Tuesday.