Olubowale Victor Akintimehin was born in Northwest, Washington DC to Nigerian parents of the Yoruba ethnic group on September 21, 1984. Known in America’s entertainment industry, as the ‘Prince of Hip-Hop’ or simply ‘Wale’.
Obviously a family of high achievers, Wale is a cousin to the actor, Gbenga Akinnagbe, who is best known as Chris Partlow on HBO’s ‘The Wire’.
Olubowale Akintimehin is 39 years old.
He grew up in Northwest, Washington, D.C., before moving with his family to Montgomery County, when he was 10.
He attended Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He graduated in 2002, going on to Robert Morris University and Virginia State University on football scholarships before getting transferred to Bowie State University and eventually dropping out.
Young Wale had an intense love for the game of football and the Washington Redskins which led to the rumor that he had a tattoo of tight end, Chris Cooley.
Wale’s first single, "Rhyme of the Century" was released in 2006 and got him a deal with a local label, Studio 43. He then released "Dig Dug (Shake It)" which inevitably became the most requested song by a local artist in D.C. radio history. The song which was a tribute to Ronald "Dig Dug" Dixon, who was a percussion player for the go-go band Northeast Groovers was later included in his first mixtape, "Paint a Picture".
In January 2007, Wale released the single, “Good Girls” which was produced by Gerard Thomas and Demario Bridges under TeamMusicGroup and on July 11, 2007, before his performance at the Highline Ballroom, in Manhattan, he released his third mixtape, ‘100 Miles & Running' featuring artists like; Mark Ronson, Daniel Merriweather, Amy Winehouse, and Lily Allen to free download on his Myspace page.
He featured on Mark Ronson’s remix of Lily Allen’s “Smile”, Performed "W. A. L. E. D. A. N. C. E. ", a remix of Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." from Wale's 100 Miles mixtape, at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada with Ronson and was a headliner on Ronson’s UK tour in the same year and in March 2008, decided to sign a joint venture deal with Mark Ronson’s Allido Records and Interscope, thereby rejecting the offer from Epic Records, Def Jam and Atlantic Records and joining Rhymefest and Daniel Merriweather on Allido Records.
Wale in an interview, said that the television show ‘Seinfeld’ due to its honest dialogue, inspired his fourth mixtape, ‘The Mixtape About Nothing’ which was produced by Best Kept Secret.
On June 19, 2009, Wale released his fifth mixtape, ‘Back to the Feature’, which was gotten as a spin off of the movie 'Back to the Future' and which was in reference to the fact that a long list of rappers joined Wale on the songs, including K’naan, Tamere Guess, Talib Kweli, Joell Ortiz, Beanie Sigel, Currency, J. Cole and Bun B with eleven of the tracks being produced by 9th Wonder. This mixtape was well received although Colin McGowan of Cokemachineglow commented that the tape represented neither “a step forward or back for the artist". The mixtape had singles like “Chillin”, featuring Lady Gaga, “Pretty Girls” featuring Gucci Mane and Weensey and “World Tour” featuring Jazmine Sullivan.
Under the Interscope label, Wale recorded a song with Chrisette Michele called "Shades", which discusses inter-black racism and featured on his label mate, DJ Greg Street's single "Dope Boys" which samples Hip Hop classic T.R.O.Y. alongside Lupe Fiasco and Kardinal Offishall, collaborated with Young Chris of rap duo Young Gunz on a mixtape amongst others.
On November 10, 2009 Wale’s debut album, ‘Attention Deficit’, was assigned a standardized score of 77 out of of 100 based on 21 reviews by Metacritic, and debuted at the number 21 spot on the Billboard 200, selling 28,000 copies in its first week featuring artists like Pharrell; Bun B; Chrisette Michele; K'Naan; Marsha Ambrosius; J. Cole; and Melanie Fiona.
Wale’s sixth Mixtape was “More About Nothing”, a follow-up to his mixtape, “About Nothing” was released on August 3, 2010 taking the internet by storm resulting in 100,000 plus downloads in 90 minutes. The mixtape featured artists like; Wiz Khalifa, Waka Flocka, Daniel Merriweather, UCB, Board Administration Artists' Tiara Thomas, Black Cobain, Fat Trel, and NBA Player and DC Native Kevin Durant. Inspired by Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Friday project, Wale re-released a track from one of his previous mixtapes for free-download on his own website every Thursday, calling this enterprise "Throwback Thursday".
On February 5, 2011, during the Super Bowl XLV festivities, Wale announced that he was now signed to Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group and this was soon followed by the release of his second album which contained 15 songs on September 28, 2011 titled “Ambition” which was produced at ZAC Recording in Atlanta, Georgia after the 32-city domestic tour titled The Ambition Tour which was booked by NUE Agency. To mark the end of this tour, he released the single "Lotus Flower Bomb", featuring Miguel on Twitter. Following radical promotions for this album, it debuted as number two on the Billboard 200, selling 162,600 copies in its first week holding a 69 out of a 100 score on Metacritic. He was featured on Maybach Music Group's second studio album Self Made II.
On December 24, 2012, Wale released the mixtape, ”Folarin” featuring artistes like Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Scarface, Nipsey Hussle, French Montana, Tiara Thomas, Lightshow, and Trinidad James among others and produced by Hit-Boy, Jake One, Cardo, Diplo, Beat Billionaire and Rico Love among others
Soon after the release of his second album, Wale announced on Twitter that he has already begun working on his third album which he said would focus more on his journey as a person and was going to be “soulful’. This was followed closely by his fourth album, “The Album About Nothing” With singles like "The Body" featuring American singer Jeremih, Jerry Seinfeld, J. Cole, Usher, and SZA among others. Shortly after its release, it was named #1 album in the United States.
Wale's fifth studio album, Shine was released on April 28th, 2017, selling 28,000 units in its first week and on May 16, 2018 it was announced that Wale had been signed to Warner Bros Records.
Wale’s song is the original theme music for the popular ESPN sports talk show, “First Take”, which features journalists/panelists; Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and moderator/host Molly Qerim.
He has been nominated for countless awards including;
In 2013, Wale came back to Nigeria for the first time in his life. He has been dating Chloe Jordan on and off for the past five years and they are repotedly expecting a first child together.
His net worth is not available.
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