Everybody loves to hate on Wale. It has become the cool thing to indulge in on the hip-hop internets for years now and the D.C. native is prone to emotional outbursts which are essentially softballs for his trolls, allowing them to hit moonshot home runs by means of their shade-filled diss tweets. From his ill-advised presence on generic Rick Ross/MMG trap records to his legendary threats to Complex over their ‘50 Best Albums Of 2013’ list (The Gifted was nowhere to be found), Wale has persevered through many trials and tribulations. But with his latest body of work The Album About Nothing, Wale has attempted to bring his music back to its essence. Building off his 2008 project The Mixtape About Nothing (the tape that gained him initial notoriety), Wale hit the studio with his spiritual advisor Jerry Seinfeld and created an album that provides introspective insights as well as commentary on the ills of present-day society. However, this honorable artistic endeavor doesn’t quite reach the ambition of its creator and, in consequence, the album falls short of its lofty goals.
When first digging into The Album About Nothing, on the surface there is an authentic level of quality that causes one to wonder if Wale is actually going to deliver on his ‘this is a return to form’ promise. The go-go (D.C. funk) inspired intro kicks things off appropriately and it leads into one of the standout tracks on the album “The Helium Balloon”, featuring fine production from DJ Dahi and Sonny Digital. From Wale’s lyrical performance to Seinfeld tying together the song thematically, this effort is perhaps the best representation of what Wale was going for on this project. Other tracks such as the J Cole-featured, racially relevant “The Pessimist” also prove to be compelling because when Wale finds himself in a genuine comfort zone, the results are hard to deny. The DMV representative has always been a dependable lyricist and his fluent DC accent powered flow works wonders when heard over proper production. But despite Wale’s talent and the encouraging subject matter, there are too many moments on The Album About Nothing which either seem forced or simply lack execution.
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