Wale is opening up about the new direction he's taking for his upcoming album.
On Monday, August 18, the DMV legend and his manager, Kazz Laidlaw, sat down with journalist Keith Nelson, Jr. during a new PLLRS conversation in Brooklyn, N.Y. During the conversation, Wale reflected on his lengthy music career while Laidlaw added his perspective from the management side. At one point, Wale was asked about the status of his eighth studio album. The Grammy-nominated MC said that he's spent the past four years working on the project, which will introduce a new genre he and Laidlaw call "Diaspora Folk."
“If you ask ten people who’ve heard it, they’re going to give you 10 different responses. It’s honest. It’s a roller coaster," Wale said. “We’re pretty global on this [album]. We got moments. I wouldn’t call anything Afrobeats. This is more of a hybrid of hip-hop and sounds from Africa.”
“Diaspora Folk is the genre tag we’re using," Laidlaw explained. "Rap music is one of the last folk genres in the industry as far as singer-songwriters who dramatize their experiences in music. Wale is someone who’s always created with a global lens. It’s reflected in this album.”
The album sounds like it'll be something we've never heard from Wale. Over the past two years, the 40-year-old artist has served up various singles, including his most recent hits "Blanco," "Where To Start" and "What's The Play." He also dropped off several freestyles from "Welcome To The Stage" to his most recent "Yukon" freestyle. He also made headlines recently after he appeared on Culture Jam's "Damage Control" with Pusha T. Laidlaw explained that Wale got on the song after he was one of the first rappers to rock Anthony Edwards’s AE1 sneaker.
“Last year, after the AE’s, I think we caused a little bit of a storm for them," Laidlaw said. "Ant was super appreciative of it, so he and his A&R approached me at the beginning of the year, like, ‘We have to get him on this album.’”
Wale's upcoming album does not have a release date yet. Look out for the album coming soon.