Wale Explains Dustup With Toronto Raptors Broadcast Team

After years of ingratiating itself with the hip-hop community, artists have been biting back at the NBA this week. Days after Lil' Wayne's rant against Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat, D.C. rapper Wale found himself at odds with the Toronto Raptors' broadcast team. Supposedly, the pair took umbridge to Wale's heckling of good friend Rudy Gay (a D.C. native).

Supposedly this fan is a well-known local rapper…Wall-ay.

Yeah, and Rudy Gay said ‘Hey, Wall-ay, I’m in Canada now, eh! Call me!

Call me after the game, because I just torched the Wizards for at least a dozen here in the quarter…Wall-ay is inspiring! I’m sure somebody on Twitter could tell me if they’ve ever heard of Wall-ay.

He’s not Drake, that’s for sure.

After overhearing their lack of rap awareness, Wale attempted to personally deliver his own public service announcement and took a trip upstairs to advise them to watch more First Take on weekday mornings.

Anything at this point makes me sound volatile 'cus when you're in the moment, you don't really think about that, but now I'm thinking, 'Okay, I'm around all these white people, and I'm a black dude with dreads and tattoos walking upstairs to confront somebody'…I could see why that would be [frowned upon]," he explained. "Was I going over there to say, 'Hello sir, my name is Wale, could you not talk bad about me?' No, but I was going over there to be like, 'Yo, my man, you gotta have a little respect, you're in my town. I know you're trying to do your job, and I ain't trying to disrespect you.' Whatever, but timing is everything, I could've waited. I can take that [criticism]."

You can understand Wale's grouchiness. It's bad enough that two announcers from foreign soil were criticizing his method of rooting for the nation's capital's home team. Emotions run higher when your squad has been kickin rocks beneath the Eastern Conference standings for much of your lifetime.

However, Wale shouldn't take the criticism of two announcers from the NBA's lone Canadian franchise or their decision to evoking Canadian rap royalty Drake as a diss so personally. Anyhow, it appears Wale has moved on and Lil Wayne sort of apologized to the Miami Heat, so it appears peace may be on the horizon for the NBA and hip-hop.