Wale performs onstage during the 2016 Billboard Hot 100 Festival. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Billboard)
Hometown hero Wale dissed a conservative pundit in a new single, and then came back for more when Tomi Lahren tried to fire her own shot.
It started with the release of the D.C. rapper’s new track, “Smile,” featuring Phil Ade.
The diss comes at the 1:10 mark, when Wale raps, “Maybe I should meet Tammy Lauren / I’ll Lauryn Hill her / Train her, she miseducated anyway / Prolly hate the color of my face.”
He’s referring to Tomi Lahren, a commentator at The Blaze who spends most of her time complaining about how Beyonce and Colin Kaepernick are the “real racists.” The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah called her the “least woke, most awake” person he had ever seen before lending her his platform last month.
When Lahren responds to the song with a “well, actually” on Twitter, Wale makes it clear that he mispronounced her name on purpose.
Ok Tammy https://t.co/TmO2ztMKNe
— Wale (@Wale) January 4, 2017
The responses to his tweet get the joke, even if Lahren didn’t.
But Lahren’s not ready to give up just yet. First, she calls him “Whale.” (Full disclosure: I used to think this was how to say his name before I learned it’s pronounced Wah-lay)
Then, when she tries to clarify that, yes, she totally knows what a diss track is so everyone should just stop making fun of her already, Wale gives her one more “Tammy” for the road—which he later deletes.
Issa Tammy.. still https://t.co/OEsf9g7f4J
— Wale (@Wale) January 5, 2017
That’s fine, Wale—one Tammy seems more than enough.
Rachel Kurzius