Let me prefix this by saying... this is not a Wale hate thread. This is more of an observation.
I've been rocking with Wale's music since his mixtape days. Back in like 06, 07. I remember hearing Mixtape About Nothing and being pulled in by the sounds, the lyrics, the concepts... the creativity of the project. I really thought he was going to be great, or at least make an impact from a creativity standpoint in the hiphop genre.
Now, roughly 10 years later, with countless albums and mixtapes and features under his belt, I can honestly say, that this dude's career has been pretty aimless. Typically with artists who have been doing music for this amount of time, they find a groove or a style of their own and improve on it and perfect it.
I listen to Wale's new music and I just shake my head. I don't understand why he's gone down this route, but it appears like he's obsessed with making commercial records for success/fame and appeal. He came in the class with Kendrick, Cole, Big Sean, Drake etc... why is he doing songs like this at this point in his career?
WHY is Wale featuring G-Eazy on a song in 2017? What is the play here? I can't imagine any of the guys he came in the game with dropping a single featuring G-Eazy on it.
Seriously... I honestly don't get it. I understand that Shine is aimed to be a light spirited fun album. But breh... My PYT and Running Back >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> this Fashion Week song, and those songs are damn near a year old.
I wish this dude would have just stayed true to himself and stuck to the poetic/heartfelt pro black music he was on from time to time. It's like he doesn't know what is best to push for himself from a marketing standpoint... to be the spoken word clever uplifting MC or the cliche brash rich and famous commercial MC.
It's funny cause, look at all the praise and attention Kendrick Lamar got from his natural sisters line/stretch marks bars on Humble... Wale has been on that for years, but it seems like he doesn't even want to push that message as his main vision for himself.
Why not push this instead of that corny G-Eazy shyt? Wale and HipHop fans chime in...
Good post OP. New song sounds horrific, I can't even say what style of music that is tbh.
It all starts with something about his personality being off-putting. Not sure what it is. When you see famous artists pose with famous artists it usually makes sense. With Wale you get the sense that somehow he is fake, in a world of fake people, which is an achievement.
Musically: I -years deep in his career- have a hard time quoting 1 Wale line. My favorite song he made is the song where there's this bed up-and-down sound, but I keep forgetting the title of the song but it's a song that was ultimately covered by Rihanna. I think his pocket was going to be/would be the beautiful, natural sisters music with a very small slice of materialism and gangsta.
How he was signed to MMG, very unclear to me. I know Rozay likes soulful music but..
Then there have been these moments where Wale gets angry at a sports commentator for saying Drake is more famous than him (which obviously is true) that tell you his character is shaky.. and why he is someone we all know but nobody fukks with heavy in Hip-Hop (besides him fighting on Twitter with fans demanding them to think he's a great artist ...)
