Students at a Washington, D.C.-area high school got to see ambition personified yesterday, when hometown emcee Wale stopped by for a visit. WTOP reports that the Maybach Music emcee surprised 400 students in the auditorium of Central High School with a live performance. The kids were told they would get a reward for their good deeds — which ranged from perfect attendance to good grades — but no one suspected they would be treated to a concert. Wale’s sophomore album, Ambition, was released the same day.
“These are the highlights of my life. This wasn’t even possible when I was in high school; we had no rappers. The thought of anybody walking through that door, it’d be like, okay, what, a quarterback for the Redskins? Gus Frerotte?” Wale told reporters. “It's probably the best day of my life. When you leave high school, you kind of realize that you haven’t really put your all into anything. You have to live enough of your life to know what it’s like to put your all into everything, and this is the first thing that I’ve ever put my all into.”
Wale hopes the message of his album rubs off on the students. He wants to instill in them “the desire to want more, the desire to be good at what you do.” Fans will have to stay tuned to see if his ambition translates into album sales for his latest effort. Album single “That Way” currently occupies the #4 spot on Billboards R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list.

(Photo: Scott Gries/PictureGroup)