It came off as awkward and cynically motivated on songs that might’ve otherwise been enjoyable. And there are no obvious attempts at radio bait - both of its singles, “The Body” and “The Matrimony,” are slow-paced affairs not likely to inspire positive or negative hot takes.īut his time as a purveyor of build-a-banger journeyman rap leaves a bad taste in the mouth - not because he wanted to make bangers, but because he wasn’t at all suited to making them. The title seemingly indicates a desire to return to the more thoughtful roots that fueled his first mixtape, as does the use of Seinfeld samples (and actual patter from Jerry himself) as interstitials. This poses a huge question: What in the actual fuck is Wale trying to do? With The Album About Nothing, we’re not as close to the answer as he might like us to be. Put simply, the dude responsible for one of the most nuanced explorations of racial politics in recent memory (“ The Kramer”) seems completely at odds with the guy dropping lazy sex jams like “Lotus Flower Bomb” and Lex Luger ripoffs such as “600 Benz.” But there he is, and he’s amassed more success than his early supporters probably would’ve predicted. And after that, with 2013’s The Gifted, he attempted to have his cake and eat it too, with a bipolar mix of serviceable club bangers (“Clappers,” Rotation”) and luscious soul-soundtracked reflections of a more personal nature (“Heaven’s Afternoon,” “Gullible”). Most rappers don’t get to try both of those approaches. Wale also did this, with Ambition, his slick-sounding 2011 comeback as part of Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group crew. We’ve also seen rapper’s-rapper critical darlings succeed in the mainstream by changing nearly everything that brought them initial flurries of praise. The weak sales of 2009’s Attention Deficit were a punchline/cautionary tale for some time after and made people forget the quality of his true debut, The Mixtape About Nothing.
Dozens of mixtape circuit darlings climb the ladder of acclaim and fan buzz to a shot at major-label success, and plenty fail in spectacular fashion, as Wale did. Few rappers have had as bizarre a career trajectory as Wale.
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