Thanks to Nick DePaula at Sole Collector magazine for this great interview. I wanted to be lil’ Penny in like seventh and eighth grade, too. Finally Nike is starting to retro shoes from when Nike Basketball was at it’s peak. Back when Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd, and Anfernee Hardaway, plus many more, all had signature shoes by Nike. I have also had my eyes on the Nike 1/2 Pennys since I first saw them last summer. The 1/2 Pennys will be released in March 2009.
Here is the interview:
Wale has recently been making the concert rounds, and as always, he’s making sure he keeps on top of his sneaker game while going from venue to venue. Just recently, he broke out a fresh pair of the upcoming Nike 1/2 Cent, giving fans a first look at the Air Penny hybrid being worn with his familiar “medium-large cuffed” jeans, as he likes to say. The D.C.-born rapper’s career is quickly picking up steam this year after signing to Interscope Records, and sneakers and sports have been a part of his life ever since he can remember.
The 24-year-old grew up with all of the ’90s greats on his TV daily, like a prime-era MJ, silky smooth Scottie Pippen and deadly Reggie Miller, but it’s Penny Hardaway that he’s still most attached to, whether it’s through his game-changing point guard skills or his classic sneakers that remain icons today. Wale, once a scholarship football athlete who spent his high school years selling kicks at Downtown Locker Room, still remembers he and his AAU boys fighting over Penny’s jersey number during hoops season. Read along for his thoughts on Penny as I caught up with Wale last month, coincidentally as he was headed to a photoshoot for his hit “Nike Boots” song.
Nick DePaula: Do you remember when you first saw Penny Hardaway play?
Wale: That was my brother’s favorite player, and my earliest memory of Penny was around the time
that Shaq started spazzin’ and breakin’ a rim every week and that was around the time that I figured out who Penny was and started to learn more about him. [laughs] I remember I wanted to go get a Michael Jordan #45 jersey, and my brother wanted to get the Penny jersey. I would wear my Jordan jersey once a week for about a year, but he would wear the Penny joint like every day!
You said you collected all four of ’em. Do you have a favorite Penny shoe?
It was the Penny II, but there are so many now. The Penny Foams and the Penny 1’s went hard too. I also really liked the Flight One. They weren’t really Penny’s signature shoe, but everyone called them Penny’s ’cause they had the 1 in the back.
What do you remember about the Penny commercials?
Oh man, the Chris Rock joints! That’s also something that’s just important to pop culture. Chris Rock wasn’t the mega superstar back then that he is today, and the commercials were just a lot better back then. I feel like a lot of things were better back then, I mean, LeBron’s commercials are cool and all, but everything back then was better, and it was just fun to be a kid with things like NBA on NBC and the whole vibe was better then. Just as a kid, to see Li’l Penny as this little version of one of my favorite basketball players just worked for whatever they were selling.
What was the frenzy around the release of the first Foamposite like growing up in DC?
The Foamposite has always been a big deal. I was in the eighth grade when Foamposite first came out, and we would all be looking at our Eastbay magazine and we were all like, “Damn! $180!? I don’t know if I can get them joints.” [laughs] But back then, my man Marcus would always get all of the sneakers like I’m getting them now, and everyone was trying to get those joints. It was just a monumental situation, because nobody had ever seen something cost that much or even a shoe that looked anything like that. It just looked completely different.
What do you think about the new Foamposite Boot that Nike is releasing?
I love the boot! I think it’s a no-brainer. It just seems smart to do it and it’s the full package. It’s gonna be the boot for this winter, definitely. I was a little skeptical at first about the blue colorway, but once I saw it in person I was just like, “Woooow.” They really pulled it off and did a good job with that boot. It’s the best of both worlds, and the bubble just seals the deal ’cause we like to rock boot cut jeans in the winter with our Nike Boots with a medium-large cuff. Not too big, but just a medium-large cuff, and it looks perfect with the bubble showing from the sneaker.
What do you think of the new ½ Cent? Have you seen it?
Oh, have I! I’ve been having dreams about that sneaker since I first seen that joint! When I seen it, I was instructed not to talk about it cause I saw it so way in advance, but now that I know the word is out I’ve been trying to explain to people that it’s almost impossible to even believe that a sneaker like that is coming out. I feel like that’s a shoe that’s gonna get people re-interested in sneakers again. We went through this whole disgusting little Dunk phase where everyone was trying to be a Dunk-head, and there’s always the Jordan-heads too, but real sneakerheads are into other stuff and a lot of OG sneakers like Gatorade Total Uptempos or the older colorways of the AM 90s and AM 95s, and I think the Pennys take the cake as far as sneakers go. The Tim Duncan Total Foamposite and all of the Pennys are some of the best sneakers that Nike has ever come out with. Now, to mix all the Penny sneakers into one is just a no-brainer.
Do you have a favorite Penny moment or memory?
I just love Penny in general. He just represents so much to me, and first of all, he would’ve been one of the greatest players that ever came out. He’s 6’7” playing point guard! Magic was a point-forward, but Penny was a point-guard and 6’7” and he just brought a new swag to the game. He made the No. 1 big too. Where I’m from, we used to play AAU ball, and getting to wear No. 1 was always a big deal and he started that whole thing!
To find out more about Wale, be sure to check out WaleMusic.com!
