Wale Reveals Battle With Drugs and Depression
With his new album,The Album About Nothing, which features a heavy dose of Jerry Seinfeld, available today (March 31), Wale has a lot to be happy about.
But in a recent interview with Billboard.com, the Maybach Music Group MC reveals going through tough times while making the album, including bouts with drugs, alcohol and depression.
"My confidence was shot, so I'd be taking whatever to keep me in a good mood, to get me in the right mood for an interview," Wale revealed to the website. "I'm not going into the details as to what I was taking, but there's definitely something for that. Just like there's a f*****g app for everything, there's a damn pill for everything. Or something you can pour in your glass. I was depressed not being where I wanna be in my career when I've put the work in. I wasn't sleeping. I was drinking all day and I didn't have anyone to go to. I couldn't fight it. Those are some of the demons I talk about on the album."
The Washington, D.C., rhyme spitter actually opens up about the storm of bad events that led him to that dark place on "Matrimony," a cut off his new LP.
"The girl I was with, we tried for a long time to have a child. And when she finally did [get pregnant], she miscarried at 10 or 11 weeks," Wale said. "I was visualizing my child's face. We gave it a name and everything. All of that went away. And a couple of months before that, one of my closest friends died in a car accident, a cousin that was there for me through blood, sweat and tears. So I go through all that and I go online and some white kid is saying, 'You dumb n****r, you'll never be as good as J. Cole.' You put all that together…"
Through it all, Wale persevered and put the pain he felt on the album, a project that's already drawing solid reviews.
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(Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for GQ)
