Booking Wale

Wale Biography

The rapper known as Wale was born Olubowale Victor Akintimehin in 1984 in Washington, D.C.  Wale burst onto the music scene in 2006 with the local hit “Dig Dug (Shake It),” but long before that he grew up in various Maryland suburbs before attending Virginia State University on an athletic scholarship. But Wale had also spent his formative years harboring a passionate interest in music, particularly rap, and so in the mid 2000’s he began experimenting with his own recordings.

A local radio station began to give “Dig Dug (Shake It)” significant airplay, which garnered Wale the local award for “D.C. Metro Breakthrough Artist of the Year.” A series of mixtapes which followed for the next few years helped Wale establish a significant following, eventually culminating in a deal with Interscope Records in 2008. Later that year, Wale’s debut album, Attention Deficit, arrived, featuring the singles “World Tour,” “Pretty Girls,” and “Chillin.”

Since that time, Wale has released the albums: Self Made Vol. 1 (2011), Ambition (2011), Self Made Vol. 2 (2012), The Gifted (2013), and Self Made Vol. 3 (2013.) Additional singles from these albums include: “That Way” (featuring Rick Ross and Jeremih); “Chain Music,” “Bait,” “Lotus Flower Bomb” (featuring Miguel); “Focused” (featuring Kid Cudi); “Bag of Money” (featuring T-Pain and Meek Mill); “Bad” (featuring Rihanna); “LoveHate Thing” (featuring Sam Dew); and “Clappers” (featuring Juicy J and Nicki Minaj.) The songs “LoveHateThing” and “Lotus Flower Bomb” have garnered Wale BET Awards, and the latter also earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Song.

Wale has also been recognized with BET Hip Hop Awards and Soul Train Awards. His most recent album, The Album About Nothing, arrived in 2014.