Wale has been in the game for a while now and his story has many twists and turns. He has hopped around between record labels and management teams. His career can be broken down into the various business arrangements he was entangled in at given stages. In his new hour-and-fourty-minute interview on Joe Budden‘s “Pull Up” series, they chronicle these stages to arrive at Wale’s current situation and state of mind. Towards the end of their chat, Budden asks, “In 2020, is there anybody you need to make it right with?” Without hesitating, Wale responds that he feels there’s a crucial conversation to be had between him and Jay-Z. 

“HOV,” Wale says. “That’s my idol. That’s my Michael Jordan. I just feel there’s one conversation we gotta have, but it ain’t nothing bad though. We just gotta have one conversation. I mean like, there was a time when I could reach Obama easier than I could reach Jay-Z. Jay-Z took me on my first world tour. He took me on my first major domestic tour. I learned a lot from him. This is a conversation we probably should have soon. Things I wanna tell him.”

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“Just a real solid convo,” the DMV rapper adds. “Like where I’m at now as a grown man. You know, I left Roc Nation as a child.” Wale signed to the Roc, Jay-Z’s management company, in 2009 and left in 2014, when he was 29 years old. Budden wondered whether both Wale and Roc Nation were children, in a metaphorical sense, at the time: “you in your infancy stage as an artist and Roc Nation in its infancy stage as a growing business.” 

Earlier in the interview, Budden got frustrated with Wale for not giving in-depth and honest answers to his questions, specifically one about his hit “On Chill”. 

Joe Budden is not one to hold his tongue when something isn’t sitting well with him. While he was interviewing Wale on the latest episode of “Pull Up”, he didn’t hesitate to call out his guest when he was giving unsatisfactory answers. 

Around the 15-minute mark of the video below, Budden asked Wale to speak about how he felt when his recent single, “On Chill”, became a commercial success. Wale, without much enthusiasm, started discussing how the numbers reflecting its positive reception left him with a “good feeling.” Budden thought the DMV rapper wasn’t diving deep enough to offer an honest response. “Oh my Jesus man,” Budden exasperatedly interrupts. “I hate when you n****s make this difficult. Coming off of the album, before the fucking album that’s doing great right now, when there were rumors that maybe Wale had lost a step – that maybe Wale’s pen was not as sharp as it once was, that maybe Wale wasn’t as valuable as he once was – and then you caught another hit. So, when I ask you how it feels, I’m not looking for this shallow laid-back bullshit that you’ve given everyone else.”

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This occurred within the first 20 minutes of the interview and tension is palpable for the remaining hour and 20 minutes. There are several moments when Wale appears to be frustrated with Budden’s tone and prying. Wale explains that his hesitation to speak on certain matters stems from past experiences of his words being twisted and held against him. At one point, Wale says, “Go ahead. Add to the list of n****s that get the toxic moments from Wale and I just come off the wrong way for everybody, every time.”