Wale’s sensitive side steals the show on his fourth studio album
Wale never meant to be Mr. Nice Guy. If you were scrolling through Feedly the past two years, Mr. Folarin’s mean mug would appear next to headlines like “Wale Threatens Complex Staff Over Our “50 Best Albums of 2013” List” or “Rapper Punches Heckler in the Face… at WWE Event.” Last January, Wale made a case for his assholiness by comparing himself to J. Cole and Janelle Monae on The Breakfast Club: “I’m like black ass, D.C. loud… Let’s just let it be known now that I’m not gonna be a media darling.” He also once described his default face as “angry.”
In the past 365, though, Wale’s demeanor has improved. With his blossoming bromance with Jerry Seinfeld—his muse since the 2008 mixtape The Mixtape About Nothing—and his growing transparency on wax, the MMG street poet is redeeming his image by rapping a more positive one into existence. On his fourth studio album, The Album About Nothing, Wale curates an emo medley of middle fingers and #SadBoyz tracks seemingly borne from Seinfeld improv. Beginning with “The Intro About Nothing,” the D.C. rep decides to unpack his demons, saying, “Been on this long road, accumulating luggage/As time proceeds, preoccupied with everything/I think it’s ’bout time I sing of nothing.”
Instead, he sings and raps about everything. Whether it’s grappling with fame on “The Helium Balloon” or shushing the haters on “The Middle Finger” (the hook sounds like a DM to the Internet trolls that come for him on the regular: “Fuck you, leave me alone”), the sentimental gangster is letting himself be his most vulnerable. Take Wale’s ode to his future missus “Matrimony,” where Usher delivers a very lovey dovey hook alongside some heavy rhymes from the song’s host: “This is hard, tryna find some time to move on/ ‘Cause when we lost our baby, I got shady, she got too dark.”
Wale recently spoke to Billboard of the demons he faced during the recording process, including the miscarriage and frustration with his success (or lack thereof). “The girl I was with, we tried for a long time to have a child. And when she finally did [get pregnant], she miscarried at 10 or 11 weeks,” he explained. “I was visualizing my child’s face. We gave it a name and everything. All of that went away.”
Shit gets real deep on “The Pessimist,” too. With a dark cloud over his head, Wale speaks from his chest on the ills affecting the Black community, name-dropping George Zimmerman and shading the justice system. J. Cole volunteers for hook duty, singing, “Lord knows I’m hopeless/ Still I pray.” Three songs later, the sun slowly peaks through on “The God Smile,” the DJ Dahi-produced track with Wale’s favorite hook. After sending a prayer or three up, Wale finds purpose in his struggle: “Well I shine for the niggas that passed/ So my niggas in the pen got me pushin’ a pad.” The uplifting theme is reminiscent to “Sunshine” off Wale’s 2013 album The Gifted, where he opens the feel-good jam with the line, “May the optimism of tomorrow, be your foundation for today.”
“The God smile” my favorite hook I every did
— Wale Folarin (@Wale) April 5, 2015
Like a classic Seinfeld episode, Wale’s Album About Nothing chocks up human experience to a life lesson. While Wale may not be the typical people’s champ, shaking hands and kissing babies wherever his Jordans touch, his rocky relationship with hip-hop fame has made him into his own MVP. Though his previous projects may not have brought the level of success Wale once sought (“Imagine how you’d feel if someone who put in less work than you blew up?,” he said), his latest LP is proof that every “L” leads to a win.