Wale (Rapper) 7th Grade Yearbook Picture (Photo via Shabooty.com)

Growing up, a couple of my BFFs were homies with Wale. One was on our high school football team with him. But I didn’t have the epiphany that Interscope’s beloved Wale was actually Victor Akintimehin, who I went to high school, (and guess what) middle school with (as seen above), until I started Google-imaging him. These are photos I took from my yearbooks. They’re exclusive to my schoolmates and I (and this blog).
Anyways, I know Wale and I used to ball together at the outdoor basketball courts in HS. In our high school though, too bad we were surrounded by a bunch of shmoes, so picking out the ‘winners’ in the bunch was harder than spelling Akintimehin. The fact that something good came from our bore of a suburban HS was a shock (not counting myself, of course). Oh, I do remember him being a wild/hyper dude. That prolly helps as a rapper.

In an interview with TheSmokingSection he states:

TSS: You one of the few dudes out right now reppin’ the burgeoning DMV scene. What was your hood like in Maryland?

Wale: Well, I grew up in DC and in Maryland, but it’s basically like DC like pretty much from the 80s to the early 90s, it was Murder capital at that time and drug trafficking was crazy at that point. So growing up, we seen all that. I could remember two times when we got robbed and it was just like the poor stealing from the poor and that whole thing. And then we moved to Maryland, we moved to these projects in Maryland, and it was still bad. They paint a picture of Maryland like it’s a suburban DC, but there’s certain cracks and holes in Maryland that go unnoticed and that’s where we went. My mother didn’t know much she listenin’ to the news and she think it’s all good and it ended up being worse there. Once we got our thing together, ya know, we moved to a better part of PG County. So for the last three or four years, we’ve been there.

I ain’t hating, but he forgot to mention that from say, 7th-12th grade, he was in Montgomery County (Mo Co). I agree PG County is extra fucked up, and is more suspect than D.C. (just visit the University of Maryland, then walk off campus), but Mo Co is not that thorough. It’s one of the richest counties in the county and the cops don’t even let you enjoy yourself at a local bar without stalking you in the parking lot. But I guess that does make it safe, eh? Anyways, our high school, Quince Orchard HS was pretty milquetoast. We did go to HS with a bunch of assholes, and douches, and cokeheads, but it def. wasn’t some hard-ass neighborhood. I had more street cred. from my rough “Shady Side” (Shady Grove), elementary school days. My boy Wale did look hella cute in that white turtle neck, though - no brokeback. And for the record, I won’t skate off scot-free - if ya dug up some old school pictures of me, I’d prolly look dorky. But, I keeps it real.

Peep Wale’s Latest Video:

Wale “Nike Boots” Video (Directed by Chris Robinson)

JImmy Iovine… where the f is my deal?

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