Nine times out of ten, there’s a PowerPoint presentation behind every performer’s public persona.  Stars are created, not born:  Hired strategic teams brainstorm everything from which events their clients will attend to canned responses to interview questions to the precise timing of a star’s image overhaul. 

That is to say, maybe Wale's been coached to his current attitude.  Then again, in January of this year, he Tweeted that he “hates doin interviews” in the middle of doing one.  Publicist?  What publicist?   

Granted, publicity days are not the fun part of a celebrity’s job- they’re akin to “Groundhog Day.”  But they are an essential part of the job.  Veteran movie stars who could stuff a studio’s pockets doing no interviews whatsoever still participate in press junkets.  Wale released a demo in 2005, and just released his first studio album, Attention Deficit, this month.  Already jaded?  Careful; there’s a stable of hungry rappers just as talented as you who would gladly spend the day lounging in a plush warehouse doing the interviews a major record label lined up for them. 

Wale’s underground buzz radiated from D.C. to the mainstream in the East, Midwest, and South a year or two ago.  Still, he seems to be relatively unknown here in L.A.  Considering his respect for the West Coast-  he titled a mixtape 100 Miles & Running and addresses Tupac in “Letter"- you'd think he'd be excited about the prospect of nurturing his reputation here.  LA Stereo.TV's interview with him, however, did nothing to improve upon the "grumpy with the media" rumors swirling about him. 

OK, maybe he’s just not a people person.  Some performers save that energy for the stage. Yet he was just as blasé at his boring, zero-momentum show November 6th at USC.  No, it wasn’t the Pauley Pavilion and he wasn’t opening for Jay Z; it was a back-lot benefit for Pete Carroll’s “A Better LA” charity and he was the headliner.  He repeatedly interrupted his set to ask what the small, yet enthusiastic, audience wanted to hear, but then would perform a different song. Like it or not, right now he’s a hipster rapper; like it or not, a hipster rapper’s fan base is college students.  Free advice- it’s wise to interact with them further than asking who’s from D.C. and what high school those couple people attended.

This is not a critique of his lyrical ability. Wale’s a fine rapper, though his verses do lack that sticky. Nor is it a call for Wale to pander to the media- see the fireworks display that was Public Enemy's relationship with it.  And maybe this is a lesson in the positive (the ostensible vulnerability in his Tweets) and negative consequences of the ever-growing accessibility of celebrities. But an artist in the entertainment industry ultimately must engage and entertain his audience, and that includes more than complaining his album is the “most undershipped record in history.”  Tupac popped off to the media constantly, but he also bubbled over with charisma.  Kanye West annoys the hell out of everybody and is utterly charmless, but he has the Midas touch as a producer.  Art in this country is a commodity, and “if they don’t cop, you gonna get dropped.”