Earlier this week, we reported that DC rapper Wale would be headlining this year’s DC Black Pride Expo. Well, late yesterday evening, the organizers of DC Black Pride notified Metro Weekly that Wale had opted out of the event. According to the article from Metro Weekly, DC Black Pride is blaming homophobia for the rapper’s decision.
While DC Black Pride states everybody was clear on the deal and all parties were clearly notified that it was DC Black Gay Pride, a talent agent for Wale states that Wale was mislead and thought he was doing a local event for Washington, DC. The agent was quoted in the email saying, “”All of the facts of the event were not disclosed with the offer and therefore, he feels mislead and regretfully declines.”
And there you have it folks. Another one bites the dust. As I stated before in our last article about Wale, it’s a rarity to have a black male R&B or Rap star commit to a Gay Pride or Gay nightclub performance. Over the past 4 years we’ve worked with various promoters, we’ve seen the contracts and agreements signed between club owners and artist and we’ve also seen plenty of the artist back out. Some of those artist have included Ray-J, Sammy, Mullage, and others, just to name a few. There have been some rappers that have performed for the gays though including Travis Porter, Gorilla Zoe, DJ Unk, Mr. Cheeks, and a few more.
Whatever Wale’s excuse may be, I’m sure his featured artist on his very first single on his last album, Lady Gaga, would not be pleased with his actions if it was in fact based on homophobia.
Nevertheless, the show must go on. DC Black Pride has announced that in place of rapper Wale, R&B singer and another DC homegrown J Holiday will be performing at the DC Expo. J. Holiday is best known for his hit singles “Bed” and “Suffocate” which both were on his BACK OF MY LAC freshman album in 2007.
DC Black Pride is May 27-May 31. The Legacy Festival & Wellness expo is on Sunday, May 30th at the Washington Convention Center from 1pm-7pm. For more information log on to www.dcblackpride.org.
Check out this throwback video below back from 2007 when DJ Unk performed at DC Black Pride for Daryl Wilson Promotions.
I’m not surprised that Wale back out due to homophobia. I was surprised that he signed on. His ignorance is already on blast because he prefer white and racially ambiguous women over Black women, especially the dark-skinned. I stopped being a fan of his. He was an overrated rapper to begin with. He can take his misogynistic, homophobic ass back to Nigeria where he belongs.
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