Wale Go-Going Global

D.C.'s Ambassador of Rap takes his roots with him

Reported and produced by Aylin Zafar

The South has Lil Wayne and OutKast, the Bay Area claims E-40 and Mac Dre, and New York boasts hip hop giants Jay-Z and Nas. Hip hop artists come from all over the country-- but what about our nation's capital?

Hip hop might not be the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of Washington D.C., but the city has long enjoyed a rich and vibrant music scene. However, it's hard to recall the name of even one D.C. hip hop artist who's made it big. Wale is going to change all that.
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Wale Folarin, a 23-year-old hip hop artist, is a native of the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region, affectionately referred to as the “DMV” by many residents. The area has long enjoyed a thriving music scene around a genre so protected by its community that it has never been able to break out of its D.C. bubble into the mainstream. The music is called go-go.

A subgenre of funk, go-go incorporates soul and R&B set against a live band of instruments, heavy on the drums, timbales, and horns. It's "the music with the most energy" says Wale, calling it "swing music on steroids."

Except for a brief surge in popularity in the 80s thanks to the "Godfather of Go-Go" Chuck Brown, the music has never been made it onto the mainstream musical radar. Very much an interactive experience, go-go is best heard live and is distributed as such, making it far from radio-friendly. Those outside the Washington area criticize it for its long songs, poor sound quality, and endless shoutouts to D.C. neighborhoods.

"Hip hop is very regional," Wale explains. "It's about representing where you come from and your environment and painting a picture."

While not a go-go artist, Wale infuses his music with his hometown sound, bringing a fresh, new sound to hip hop in a more accessible way than his predecessors.

"I'm trying my best to bring it together, slowly but surely, just don't force it down people's throats, little by little," he says.

He kind of spoon-feeds go-go to the masses, assuming the role of "Ambassador of the Capital," as he asserts on one of his early mixtapes.

Whether D.C. residents support him taking on such a role is another question. New Jersey rapper A.P from the rap group All Bets Down shed some light on how local support operates. He says that maintaining legitimacy within one's community amidst growing fame is simply a matter of paying homage to one's roots.

"As long as you're acknowledging where you're from, right then and there you're making them feel included," A.P. says. "You shouldn't get any backlash from anybody around...they're going to show you a lot of maximum love as long as you show that love back."

But success breeds criticism. "He gets so much hate right now, it's crazy," says Tre, lead singer of the legendary go-go band UCB. He says that success outside the city is always accompanied by a backlash from within the community. "People are always envious, like why aren't they in that position or 'who is he' or 'he is supposed to represent this and this' but he is. They don't have a broad perspective of the world or hip hop, a lot of them don't really understand hip hop...they're go-go heads."

Tre attributes the failure of the region's musical expansion to D.C. artists' unwillingness to compromise their musical tastes to make their music more relatable nationally. He says that the District's music scene "kind of traps people, you get so much notoriety and fame here when you are in a band, and any small success kind of tricks you or makes you feel like you've really done something or made it somewhere."

Wale, however, is not looking to settle. Nearly every article featuring Wale cites him as a "breath of fresh air" in hip hop, bringing forth a new sound that crosses genres. Wale's go-go influences are reflected through the use of percussion and bass that suggest a tinge of funk in his songs; but it is his artistic delivery, witty nuances of popular culture, and metaphor-laden lyrics that are allowing him to push through the barriers around the DMV. Tre adds, "We were meant to take what we do here in D.C. and try to make it so that other people understand it."

The hunger to be heard beyond the city's borders and to gain international recognition has pushed Wale to produce music at a rapid pace. Thanks to the internet, Wale's proven how far one can go without an actual record deal--his online mixtapes have charmed music bloggers both stateside and overseas.

However, while Wale has attracted an unprecedented amount of attention to the D.C. music scene, some are skeptical about his use of go-go as an "angle."

Muhammed Hill, born and raised in D.C., says he isn't necessarily a fan of Wale's music and his choice of go-go beats. But he acknowledges the MC has the power to put D.C. on the map.

"We need somebody to come out of here, we don't have an actual face...people show our city in their videos and they show the Capitol, they show the monuments...there's other stuff going on here," Muhammed says.

If there's anything that Wale does differently than those artists, it's that he looks beyond the monuments to the soul of the city: its community. He collaborates and tours with locals like UCB, bands he grew up with. Now as an equal, not just a fan, he gives them a chance at fame, too.

And for that, Muhammed gives him props. "A lot of people didn't pull enough D.C. people in to put us on the map. But him? Every chance he gets he's shouting out D.C....Maryland, PG County, Largo. He could be taking care of his own situation, [getting it] off the ground first, but instead he's like, "Well, I'm going to this place, let me carry y'all in."

Amidst signing with Interscope, working with mega-producer Mark Ronson on his major debut album set for early next year and touring non-stop, Wale has been able to stay true to his roots. While one night may find him performing at one of New York's hottest nightclubs, you can find him performing at a local billiards hall with UCB the next. Wale says he comes home to keep himself grounded and forge a relationship with other artists. So, maybe, go-go and D.C. hip hop will finally have a face and voice of their own.

Production assistance from Ryan Arrendell.