Credit: Spotify

Wale was once signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation through a management deal. The rapper and label parted ways after his album The Gifted dropped in 2013 due to financial reasons that were costing him thousands of dollars every night.

During an interview in 2021, the DMV rapper revealed that when he was on the road with J Cole on the What Dreams May Come Tour, he was actually losing money with each performance.

“What happened was, I was in the Hov cycle for a long time,” he said on Drink Champs. “There was a time that I was on tour with J Cole. At the time, I was opening for him. They said it was a co-headlining tour, but whatever, I was opening for him, and it was an elaborate stage and this that and the third.”

The financial issues suddenly hit home: “Somebody in my circle told me, ‘You’re losing five grand every time you get on stage. Not only are you not breaking even, you’re losing money.’ Me, at that point in my life, I forget what city we was in but I was on the bus and I got an offer to do a tour with two other artists. And I wanted to go with Cole because that’s my brother and we just did the Hov tour.”

After finding out he was losing cash, Wale took matters into his own hands to better his situation. “So, we was on the road, and I remembered I heard I was losing … I heard that from someone who was close to the joint,” he said. “The shows is sold out and again, I’m a young n*gga, I couldn’t make sense of it and this was when The Gifted was out and it went number two or number one on Billboard.”

He continued, “I couldn’t understand it. I could literally be hosting clubs and making this a night. I just had a meltdown, for real, and I remember whatever city I was in, there were three days left and I just quit the tour. I just quit.”

The Gifted debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with features from Nicki Minaj, Meek Mill, Rihanna, Wiz Khalifa and others, and has since been certified gold by the RIAA. His next album, 2015’s The Album About Nothing, also reached number one.

Roc Nation works with artists through both management deals and artists’ signings to the label, which Wale couldn’t understand. He was inexperienced in the industry at the time and credits that moment as a change for the better.

“If I was touring by myself, I could be bussin’ it crazy every night,” he said. “So I kinda just had a meltdown and I didn’t know who to call, my lawyer or my accountant. The next day, called somebody there and they gave me this option or that option. But it’s been all love ever since but I wasn’t privy to this fuckin’ music industry shit. I just knew, this many people in the room, we can make something happen.”

Clarifying his respect for Jay-Z, he said, “Jay’s still my idol, still my favorite rapper. I still got all the love for all of them. I was just a little bit early in this shit though.”