#TrueStory: @Wale at Toads Place: The Story of an IPod

I was just talking to my friend Christian who was at the Wale/ K'Naan concert tonight at Toads Place in New Haven, CT (I couldn’t make it) and of course he had a great story for me! Here we go!

This story takes place at Toad’s Place, where tonight I saw Wale and K'naan in concert. They were great. And they were personable–talking with the crowd, enjoying the music, all of that.

Wale came out first. I’m really liking Wale lately. (He’s coming to SCSU on April 29th.) He’s very lyrical, he has a great musical personality, and I like his beats. Now I can add to that list the fact that he’s a great performer. He did a bunch of songs, got everyone really involved, and the room loved it.

I wanted his autograph.

On my older iPod, I had musicians I had seen in concert autograph the back of it (Common, Asher Roth, and KRS-ONE). Now that I had a newer iPod, I wanted to start the tradition all over again with Wale.

I got his attention between songs by holding up my iPod, which was playing a track from one of his old mixtapes. He recognized the mixtape cover, came up to me with the iPod in my hand, pointed to it, and said “That’s a good song.”

“Can you sign this?” I asked.

“In a minute. I promise I will sign it.”

HOW NICE OF HIM.

So a few songs later, he wraps up. The entire front row holds up things for him to sign–Nike boots, hats, Washington jerseys, the works. He works his way down the line, going away from me, signing whatever he can get his hands on.

Then he goes the other way. My iPod-bearing hand gets lost in the sea of shirts and shoes and album covers, and he skips over me. He’s now at the other end of the stage.

I scream.

“WALE!!!”

No response. He’s talking to someone.

He turns around and starts heading off the stage.

I WANTED THIS DAMN AUTOGRAPH.

At this point, I should mention that I’m as close to the stage as possible; I was leaning over it to scream his name.

But he didn’t answer.

So I took matters into my own hands, and I did something daring.

I took my iPod and slid it across the stage.

It hits his foot. He looks down, picks it up, and looks around cluelessly.

“THAT’S FOR YOU TO SIGN! SIGN IT! SIGN IT!”

He doesn’t hear me. And he walks off stage with it.

…with my iPod.

…Wale.

…WITH MY iPOD.

So now I’m freaking out. It’s not like I can just stop by Wale’s house in the morning and pick it up. He’s a busy man.

But hell, how can he forget? This just happened.

So I wait.

And I wait.

20 minutes go by. No Wale. No Wale’s assistant. No iPod. Slowly, it’s becoming less and less likely that he’s gonna come out and hand it to me.

I get a security guard’s attention, and I tell him:

“WALE HAS MY iPOD, AND I NEED IT BACK. HE TOOK IT TO SIGN IT, AND I DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS.”

“Alright. Find me after the show, and I’ll get it for you.”

“Okay, thank you.”

I am PISSED.

K'naan comes out, and he was amazing as well. Such an energetic performer, and you can tell he really enjoys what he does.

Unfortunately, I am not in the right mental or emotional state to properly enjoy his performance. If any footage from the show makes it on TV, you’re gonna see a grumpy man with a gold chain and a red plaid shirt in the front row, with a frown on his face and folded arms.

I wanted my damn iPod.

K'naan does more and more songs. The crowd is going insane. I am also going insane, in quite a different way than one would infer from my description of this show.

So now he’s performed about 6 songs. And in between songs, he talks to the audience.

“You know, a lot of people know I sing and shit…”

Angry.

“But not a lot of people know that I can really rap…that I can spit some bars of fire.”

Still angry.

“And you know who started me off?”

Who? Pshh. WALE?

“My man Wale!”

“He put me on a song a few years back that y'all might remember…”

GET HIM OUT HERE.

“So I’m gonna bring my man Wale back on stage, and we gon’ do this thing.”

Wale comes back on stage.

Nothing in his hands.

I am FUMING.

Suddenly, he makes eye contact with me.

Comes up to my part of the stage.

Reaches into his pocket, pulls out my iPod, and hands it to me.

I feel victory.

“YOU’RE THE MAN”, I say.

He daps me and starts freestyling for the crowd.

But then I realize:

HE DIDN’T SIGN THE DAMN THING!

Just as I think that, a kid next to me says “Dude, turn it around! Look!”

I turn it around, and I see this:

Wale is a G lol.. Till we meet at Southern later this month!

This has been a #TrueStory. Thanks Christian for the story! I told you Nigerians have a sense of humor! LOL