Wale The Gifted
Wale is in the midst of accomplishing something no other rapper from Washington, DC has done before, be successful. See there’s a rule here in DC, I was born in DC and have lived and around the city my entire life and that is that our own homegrown Go-Go music, centered on percussions and a conga set up unique to Go-Go music alone, rules above all. If you want to be a well known rapper here you have a better chance of it happening being in a Go-Go band than actually being a traditional rapper. Even when it comes to rap music the climate here has always lent itself more too southern and west coast rappers than East Coast rappers. There’s a reason one of Wale’s favorite topics is the “haters in his home who don’t support him”. If you ask most people late twenties and up you will probably see Scarface and Devin The Dude and Bun B ranked as the favorite rappers.
Enter Wale whose style lends itself to the very East Coast rap style the majority of his own city does not openly embrace. As my younger brother who is 21, and a Wale fan himself, said “Dudes my age don’t care about a double entendre. Most of them don’t even know what that is.” His first album Attention Deficit wasn’t well received, commercially speaking, but his follow up Ambition which saw him switch to a more southern, trap style beat selection was much more successful. Even though commercially Ambition was more successful and gave Wale more mainstream recognition he’s still managed to be plagued by the criticism of being a “pseudo intellectual who tries too hard”. Through two commercial albums and countless mixtapes it’s still hard for many to get a grasp on just who Wale is other than a guy who is real easy to make mad on Twitter.
Wale’s third album The Gifted seeks to answer all those questions. The album starts off with, what else, a short skit about haters that leads into the intro “The Curse of The Gifted”. If you’ve heard Wale promoting this album he’s been using the phrase “new black soul” to describe the theme musically of the album. One thing Wale has always taken advantage of is the use of Go-Go music, and live instruments in his music and from the intro through the first half of the album it works well. The second single “Love/Hate Thing” being a standout among them and showcasing Wale’s biggest strength which has always been his vulnerability expressed through his lyrics. “I lost a lot of friends and they ain’t even dead/When I was on my way up why you ain’t see the stairs/Lord father if I opted to follow them/My heart would tear for my dreams let me know that you hear”. “Sunshine” and “Heaven’s Afternoon” which actually has Meek Mill using his inside voice find Wale once again flowing effortlessly over the music and still delivering lyrically. “Golden Salvation” (Jesus Piece), another standout on the album, finds Wale tapping into another talent of his which is concept songs from another person’s first person perspective. “Bricks” ft. Yo Gotti and Lyfe Jennings is a song where the titles may be misleading but definitely worth both the listen and the message Wale gets across though “Vanity” is a definite miss and should have been scrapped. “Gullible” being another standout of the first half of the album with Wale spitting “But not before I gave birth to several episodes/Our generation is cursed we got too many clones/We just believe and gonna repeat what we was told/ And all the bullets are prodigal to the gullible”
The lead single “Bad” and it’s remix ft. Rihanna are both very well done songs but an instance of a weakness of Wale’s. Certain times he simply tries too hard and throwing in punch lines about prevent defenses just seem out of place. Though Wale has made a clear effort to not be pegged as a niche Go-Go rapper, the music at its core is party music and when Wale does go all in 100% with the Go-Go sound it’s ironically resulted in some of his most well received songs both locally and commercially. “Clappers”, which borrows from legendary band EU’s classic Go-Go song “Da Butt”, ft. Nicki Minaj and Juicy J is no exception and will be certain to be in heavy DJ rotation this summer. “Rotation” brings along Wiz Khalifa and 2 Chainz for what I’ll just say is a very uplifting song while Ne-Yo brings a nice hook to “Tired of Dreaming” with an unfortunate guest verse from Rick Ross that could have been replaced. “Simple Man” despite having a few standout lines like “To each his own but each of them is known to steal or rob you/So jails are overpopulated but know there’s seats in college” overall is a bit underwhelming. The Just Blazed produced “88” delivers in a big way with Wale going to his well known sports book bag of punch lines out the gate with “I ain’t JR Rider but these wolves coming for my spot”. The final song on the album “Black Heroes” with the second verse being one of it not the best verse on the entire album.
So what do you get from Wale’s The Gifted? You seemingly get an artist both lyrically and musically expressing a feeling of always having been caught between two worlds. A portion of the album sees Wale expressing that even though he himself was more focused on school, he was still close enough to the wrong side of things to have a clear understanding of the danger that running the streets of D.C. carries for a young man. He also shows that while he can make the stereotypical song about women and parties he’d much rather touch on something with substance and trying to find that balance to finally be accepted both home in D.C. but universally for his abilities on the mic. This is the album that just may be able to build on the momentum he has coming off the Ambition album and garner Wale that respect he craves. Well as long as he can stop cussing out people on Twitter.
-B.P.
*Standout Tracks
-Sunshine
-Golden Salvation (Jesus Piece)
-Black Heroes/Outro About Nothing
Official Tracklist
1. The Curse of the Gifted
2. LoveHate Thing (Ft. Sam Dew)
3. Sunshine
4. Heavin In the Afternoon
5. Golden Salvation (Jesus Piece)
6. Vanity
7. Gullible
8. Bricks
9. Clappers
10. Bad (Remix)
11. Tired of Dreaming
12. Rotation
13. Simple Man
14. 88
15. Black Heroes
16. Bad (Ft. Tiara Thomas)
Deffered Potential 