“I was at KOD and he saw me, and was like “Bro who you with? I was like, I’m chilling by myself. He remembers a run-in with Rick Ross at the strip club King of Diamonds. I want my feature to advance the track, not to beat anyone.’’ This makes him a rare bird in rap. Even now, he’s less focused on his career trajectory than how best to serve the material. But the way he sees it, the work of getting here at all-becoming a rap veteran in an industry designed to chew musicians up and spit them out-is the important stuff. Oftentimes Wale’s albums feel uneven I wonder what work he could do if he had one producer working with him on a central vision. We can laugh at it now because we both mature, but it hurt me, bro.’’ Y’all talked some shit on me, and even you, that affected me. So when I was coming up, I had a chip on my shoulder. “Trolls fucked my whole shit up,” he says. I’m human too.’’ Inevitably, firing back offered little respite. “Someone on the internet can say something about me without knowing who I am and it can affect me. “Nobody cares what a millionaire is going through, or what we have to say,” he says passionately. Wale doesn’t get into Twitter wars to the same extent these days, but he’s not embarrassed by the impulse. Wale promptly laid into me-*You get no girls. And thanks in part to the deep relatability of those projects, I thought I should let him know. It was, to me at least, a sharp step back from Ambition, his solid debut with MMG, and an even further step from the hunger and strong songwriting on display on his seminal project The Mixtape about Nothing. I was severely disappointed by his 2013 release The Gifted, an album that delivered bars about Tom Ford colognes and dinner with the Washington Wizards with a calculated blandness. MMG should be embarrassed that you dropped that. No one should even listen to the new one. I know this firsthand: nearly a decade ago, as a high school senior quick to share any take that came to mind, I tweeted right at the guy: Your last record was ass bro. Much like KD, over the years Wale has become infamous for engaging with his haters and trolls on social media-he seems to spend as much, if not more, with them than his actual fans. People saw themselves in Wale: the Nigerian rapper with an encyclopedic knowledge of every Jordan sneaker and unrequited love for his dream girl. Cole or Chance the Rapper, he appealed to fans with his everyman sensibilities, relating insights and anxieties that most rappers, especially at the time, were too proud to discuss so plainly. Wale was a “ Blog Era” upstart, with his Seinfeld-themed The Mixtape About Nothing impressing fans with its earnestness (“The Kramer’’ is still one of his best songs) and shrewd pop culture references. It’s been a longish road from there to here. “Dearly Beloved’’ samples a killer Jamie Foxx performance to tell a layered love story-and at not even two minutes, Wale delivers arguably the best track on the album with direct songwriting and the sensitivity that made him Wale a star in the first place. “Poke It Out’’ feels like an obvious summer smash, trading on a clever Q-Tip flip and Wale’s chemistry with longtime friend and peer J. His ear for beats has gotten better since that first tape, too. And while Wale isn’t above a trite bar, the songwriting overall is tighter and more disciplined, especially on his hooks. But this time around, every sonic and lyrical choice feels much more intentional, more carefully considered. And even if he hasn’t been able to see me tweeting about it-more on that later-the album is easily his best effort since the Obama administration.įolarin II (which is named after one of his monikers and serves as a sequel to his fan-favorite 2012 mixtape Folarin) takes the same approach that Wale has fashioned into his formula, seamlessly bridging go-go music, trap, and African music together. A couple of weeks ago he released his seventh studio album, Folarin II, to high critical acclaim. We’re in his trailer at Rolling Loud New York, where he’s just finished performing with Rick Ross in a lively set for a packed crowd. Offer to scuffle notwithstanding, the 37 year-old DC rapper is in good spirits. I don’t entirely blame him: I’ve just told him that he’s had me blocked on Twitter since 2014. I’ll probably win-I got the hands,’’ a Wale deadpans. “We should probably fight outside right now, then.
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