It would be nearly impossible to completely sleep on Wale’s new album, The Gifted. After all, this is a Maybach Music Group release. So everyone from Rick Ross to Meek Mill to Wale himself has been promoting the hell out of it for the past few weeks. The album title has been everywhere—as of last night, “#TheGifted” was trending nationwide on Twitter—and MMG as a whole has done a great job of pushing the project.
It would be possible for you to sleep on the album’s content, though. With Kanye West’s Yeezus, J. Cole’s Born Sinner, and Mac Miller’s Watching Movies with the Sound Off dropping last week, there’s a good chance your ears are fatigued from all of the dope music that’s been released recently. But we’d advise to wake up, because there’s some great stuff here. Check out 6 reasons you shouldn’t sleep on The Gifted.
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Reason #1: Just about all of the production on The Gifted is excellent.
When Wale first started to talk about The Gifted late last year, he mentioned that he was taking a more hands-on approach to tinkering with the production on the album. “[On MMG’s] Self Made, I could just hit a beat,” he said, “But now I’m like, ‘Alright, I don’t like the strings. Take that out. Let’s try this. I don’t like the percussion, so let’s change the snare.’ I might be doing it myself on some of the songs on there, so it’s a little bit different.” It definitely shows. Though he worked with a number of different producers on this project—including Sean C, LV, Tone P, Lee Major, Cardiak, Travi$ Scott, and more—everything sounds cohesive and tailor-made for Wale’s flows. No songs sound out of place, and Wale seems right at home on every production effort put forward. -
Reason #2: Wale finds new ways to flip old concepts.
The things that Wale raps about on The Gifted are the things you’d expect him to rap about. But he manages to find new, exciting ways to do it on this album. From drugs (“Bricks”) and sneakers (“88”) to weed (“Rotation”) and women (“Tired of Dreaming”), Wale touches on the usual topics, but he does so in a way that sounds fresh and shows that he took his time in crafting the album. -
Reason #3: The album isn’t overloaded with MMG artist appearances.
Self Made 3 drops later this summer. And it’ll no doubt feature lots of collabos between Wale and his fellow MMG artists. But The Gifted is decidedly MMG-lite. Outside of a collab with Meek Mill on “Heaven’s Afternoon” and a collab with Rick Ross on “Tired of Dreaming,” Wale opts to work with those outside of the MMG camp on The Gifted. That’s most definitely a good thing and allows him to shine on his own. -
Reason #4: The guests featured on The Gifted all serve their purposes.
While Wale doesn’t have a ton of cameos from MMG artists on his album, he does have plenty of guest verses. But you won’t find a single guest appearance here that sounds out of place. From Rihanna on the “Bad (Remix)” to Juicy J and Nicki Minaj on “Clappers” to Cee-Lo Green on “Gullible,” we can honestly cosign every one. We don’t know whether Wale was particularly hard on his guests and made them work on their verses more than once. But he received top-notch contributions from everyone who contributed something to the project. -
Reason #5: Jerry Seinfeld showed up for the “Outro About Nothing.”
At some point in the future, Wale and Seinfeld are going to work together again on a larger project. For now, Wale got the comedian to do a skit that also serves as an outro for the album. And even though it’s only about 45 seconds long, it adds a feeling of importance to The Gifted and makes it feel like a complete album that was well thought-out on Wale’s part from beginning to end. -
Reason #6: Wale doesn’t sound like he’s afraid to be himself on The Gifted.
Although much of Wale’s MMG debut, Ambition, was solid, he sounded like he was trying hard to fit into the MMG roster on that album. That’s not the case here. In fact, he specifically alludes to the fact that he is not like any of the other MMG artists on the album’s intro, “The Curse of the Gifted.” But as long as he’s rapping like he is on the rest of the album, that’s okay. As The Gifted proves, Wale has plenty to offer on his own. So don’t sleep on him.