Sue Me
by Wale

Album: Wow... That's Crazy (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Wale grapples with his presence as an African-American in the entertainment environment. On the chorus he proclaims his support for anything that's black culture, whether or not he's a fan. It's a reference to what Issa Rae, creator and star of HBO's Insecure, said at the 2017 Emmy Awards:

    Sue me, I'm rootin' for everybody that black
    That's everybody from sports to college class to rap, I'm back


    When an interviewer asked Issa Rae on the Emmy Awards red carpet who she was rooting for, despite her own show's snub, she responded: "I'm rooting for everybody black. I am!"
  • The '90s R&B singer Kelly Price, best known for her 1998 Top 20 hit "A Friend Of Mine," joins Wale on the song. In the 2010s, Price contributed to several rap cuts, including three songs on Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album.
  • Wale and Price performed the song on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on February 11, 2020, during which the D.C. rapper paid tribute to the late Kobe Bryant and Bryant's daughter Gianna.
  • Wale teamed with director Kerby Jean-Raymond and Boy Erased actor Lucas Hedges for the song's music video. The clip is a poignant and thought-provoking take on racism and privilege that ends with a Facebook live snippet of an Ohio inmate in FCI Elkton Federal prison fearful of the coronavirus outbreak.

    Two hours after the visual premiered, medically vulnerable prisoners were transferred out after the American Civil Liberties Union petitioned the facility. Wale told Forbes how proud he was to make the kind of impact that changes lives.

    "Kerby said I've been aiming too low. I have talked about accolades and goals cause I from playing sports. But for something major to happen and for the ACLU to hit me up about that, that's heavy. And maybe I was aiming too low cause obviously this is ten times bigger than an accolade."

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