The Grammy-nominated rapper Wale sold out Charleston Music Hall in Charleston, South Caroline on Monday night while on tour to promote his thus far untitled upcoming 8th studio album. On every blue moon. the tour, he is also celebrating the 15th anniversary of his debut album, Attention Deficit. If you’re a Wale fan, it’s hard to fathom that so much time has passed since we first heard “Chillin” featuring the one and only, Lady Gaga! Not many artists can say their very first album featured stars as prominent as Pharrell, Gucci Mane, and J. Cole. Tonight, Wale performed over 20 of his most admired songs from his impressive 65-single catalog and fans still wanted more!
The opener, SwaVay, another Grammy-nominated rapper, graduated from high school in Charleston and is now living and recording music in Atlanta, Georgia. Notably, SwaVay, was featured on the Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack on DJ Khalil's "Elevate". He boasts 129,000 monthly Spotify listeners, and performed his original songs as well as covers to get the crowd excited for Wale's highly anticipated show!
1,200 fans were ecstatic to catch Wale in the flesh and 50 of them were lucky enough to be part of an exclusive meet-and-greet event before the show that included photos, signed merchandise, and a Q&A with the rapper. Wale opened the show with a fan-favorite, "Bad," and everyone went crazy! The Def Jam artist has dropped three new singles to promote his forthcoming album and they are proving to be some of his best lyrical pieces of work to date. "Ghetto Speak", "Mission Statement (with T-Minus)", and "What's The Play (with Chaz French)" are available on all streaming platforms.
Wale has an impressive catalog and has won both BET Awards and a Soul Train Award over the course of his career. He was featured on the uber-popular club anthem, “No Hands” by Waka Flocka Flame, with Roscoe Dash, in 2010, which peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song later became one of the best-selling rap songs of all-time and was certified Diamond in 2023. He closed the show with the hit single and had everyone reliving the days of nightclub bottle service and MySpace profile song updates after a wild night out.
every blue moon. the tour starring WALE is stopping in 32 major cities through November but fans on social media couldn’t help but notice that Wale’s hometown wasn’t on that list when the tour was announced. Born and raised in the Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland areas, it was shocking to see the DMV, which gave Wale his start, left off the long-anticipated tour posters. So his original fans asked, how could Wale forget where he came from?
He didn't and could never. Indeed, building up the hype paid off for the talented rapper. Nike announced a collaboration with Wale on the "DMV (Cherry Blossom) Air Foamposite One" shoe and the very next day he announced his presale for the hometown show, which sold out immediately! I guess you can say the DMV gave the man his flowers and his stop in Charleston solidified that love and respect.
