Wale Been in the Game for Almost a Decade without a Definitive Sound/Style

[GoldenGlove]

Notice how nobody agrees in the thread

Ive seen at least 5 different reasons to why wale supposedly isnt as successful or why he has so many critics

You idiots dont know what you want from that man

And please with the go go argument the mixtape about nothing is a lowkey classic & should not be recreated

More about nothing, attention deficit & all his earlier work sounds no different than his work on mmg with the exception of a few trap songs here & there

1 of you idiots give me a real reasonable reason to why ambition, the gifted, florian, taan & summer on sunset or not it or missed there marks

Are you fukking dense? The concensus in this thread is that while Wale is very talented, his peers have surpassed him for whatever reason. Plenty of people have been agreeing, are you not reading?

There's only a couple die hard Wale dikk riding stans in here like you who can't comprehend this discussion. So you come in acting like nikkas are shytting on Wale, when this thread ain't even that. Nobody is shytting on him in here really. Out of all these posts, there probably like 3 where dudes just came in trolling calling him dirt/trash or whatever.

Wale HIMSELF feels like he's not respected as much as he should be. HE'S SAID THIS himself in interviews. He's said he doesn't feel like he's had the success he deserves either.

The thread title isn't wrong at all. That's something I think damn near everybody in here so far can agree on.

 

[GoldenGlove]

Answer the damn question bruh

You asked me do I hold other artists that I'm a fan of to the same standard of criticism... my answer was YES. What are you even going on about at this point?

 

[FocusedDaily]

Wale is Nice, Def top 10 current rappers. If I were forced to make an honest list, he might be top 5 doing it right now.

I played self made vol 1 straight thru last night, and if a rapper yall liked has spit those verses the Coli would call him the GOAT.

 

[Ziggiy]

I thought he had turned a corner with Ambition. That album still goes hard to this day


The thing with Wale is that his female centric songs ARE his wave. He's better at female empowerment/dedication anthems than any of his peers and I'm including Kendrick, Drake's tent, and J.Cole in that sentence. Wale can write a female centric song that brings ALL of them to shame...

It's why Summer On Summerset is his best work in years. If Wale were to make a concept album about the ups and downs of a relationship I guarantee it would be a classic.

Also I think he's too obsessed with being mentioned as a great alongside Cole, Kendrick, and the artist by committee known as Drake. I know the need to be the best is supposed to be something that every MC pushes towards, but Wale sometimes needs to STFU and let the music just speak for itself.

With that said he's a dope MC and supremely underrated and I think he still has that defining album in him, the funny thing is that Wale might be one of those artists who fukks around and experiences a "second prime" and drops a classic when NOBODY expects him too.

 

[FappleMeOff]

his last mixtape and these new singles aside from Running Back have aged horrible.

His freebie tracks are still fantastic and fit into his style perfectly. I just don't think he gives a fukk anymore and is just creating whatever music he feels like making in the moment. Right now it's that upbeat, summer time shyt

 

[Ziggiy]

Wale put out the Gaga record. Then he showed up on "No Hands" and was with MMG and then did the Lotus record. He did not continue to make pop records. There's nothing pop about bad. There's nothing pop about The Matrimony.

Kendrick made GKMC with Swimming Pools and Poetic Justice as lead singles. He then delivers the worst rap verse of his career on a Taylor Swift song. And has continue to pollute the game with awful pop features and everyone acts like they don't exist because they see it as him "playing the game" and because he doesn't put them on his projects. Wale would never get that benefit of the doubt.

J. Cole's debut album was considered mediocre by fans and Cole himself. He dropped Work Out, that Can't Get Enough record, and the Missy record. Wale never dropped 3 singles like that in a row for a project. He got a pass due to FNL dropping just before. His next album he drops Power Trip and a TLC record. A corny TLC record. Again, his fans still fukk with the album cuts. At this point, he and Wale are making albums of the same caliber. But while Cole's hit records don't define him, Wale's defined him. The fact is, only so many people ever get to be a star and if there was a fullproof ingredient, then we would not be paying PR people so much. The second Cole blew up before Wale he was reserved to second tier as @Abogado always says. Very rarely do multiple people occupying the same lane get to achieve the same success. There's nothing Wale is giving you that Kendrick and Cole are not giving you. That's his problem. They're the same type of artists with better narratives around them (the everyman college kid who was the first rapper signed to roc nation) and (the west coast savior). No one cares about DC in hip hop. If Wale was from New York or Atlanta he'd be huge.

So much truth to this . This deserves to be its own article...

I'd also add that Kendrick and Cole also have the benefit of very powerful/influential music videos that push their narrative. Poetic Justice, Alright, Humble on Kendrick's side really help push his albums into "true art" territory. And Cole in my opinion has absolutely MASTERED the art of turning a potentially Corny song into an amazing video. When you see the Crooked Smile video for instance. Or you see GOMD (not a corny song but the video makes the song more impressive)

Wale doesn't really have that "art" element that adds to and enhances his music.

 

[Yaddam Yussein]

Wale should just be a ghostwriter.

 

[GoldenGlove]

Wale is Nice, Def top 10 current rappers. If I were forced to make an honest list, he might be top 5 doing it right now.

I played self made vol 1 straight thru last night, and if a rapper yall liked has spit those verses the Coli would call him the GOAT.

Why is Wale, a top 5 current rapper riding G-Eazy's wave going into his 5 studio album 10 years in the game?

 

[BO BARON]

You asked me do I hold other artists that I'm a fan of to the same standard of criticism... my answer was YES. What are you even going on about at this point?

No nikka i asked you what is the problem with certain rappers doing songs with g eazy especially wale stop being a shythead

 

[BO BARON]

Why is Wale, a top 5 current rapper riding G-Eazy's wave going into his 5 studio album 10 years in the game?

G eazy has a wave

shyt head

 

[Zee Scribe]

So much truth to this . This deserves to be its own article...

I'd also add that Kendrick and Cole also have the benefit of very powerful/influential music videos that push their narrative. Poetic Justice, Alright, Humble on Kendrick's side really help push his albums into "true art" territory. And Cole in my opinion has absolutely MASTERED the art of turning a potentially Corny song into an amazing video. When you see the Crooked Smile video for instance. Or you see GOMD (not a corny song but the video makes the song more impressive)

Wale doesn't really have that "art" element that adds to and enhances his music.

This is true too. Cole's videos usually have nothing whatsoever to do with the songs post-Power Trip. The exception is Wet Dreamz. Wale's videos, on the other hand, are very predictable. I love "The God Smile." But he could've done so much more with that video. That entire video should've been an ode to stuff going on in DC with the narrative of some kid navigating through it in a cinematic fashion. He even had Obama in office at the time. It could've been a juxtaposition with the life of the person in the White House versus the people outside of it.

 

[GoldenGlove]

I thought he had turned a corner with Ambition. That album still goes hard to this day


The thing with Wale is that his female centric songs ARE his wave. He's better at female empowerment/dedication anthems than any of his peers and I'm including Kendrick, Drake's tent, and J.Cole in that sentence. Wale can write a female centric song that brings ALL of them to shame...

It's why Summer On Summerset is his best work in years. If Wale were to make a concept album about the ups and downs of a relationship I guarantee it would be a classic.

Also I think he's too obsessed with being mentioned as a great alongside Cole, Kendrick, and the artist by committee known as Drake. I know the need to be the best is supposed to be something that every MC pushes towards, but Wale sometimes needs to STFU and let the music just speak for itself.

With that said he's a dope MC and supremely underrated and I think he still has that defining album in him, the funny thing is that Wale might be one of those artists who fukks around and experiences a "second prime" and drops a classic when NOBODY expects him too.

Like Big Sean's TWENTY88?

 

[The Plug]

I feel like Kendrick and J. Cole took his place.

 

[GoldenGlove]

G eazy has a wave

shyt head

Exactly... so again, why the fukk at this point in Wale's career is he doing this Fashion Week song?

What's the play here?

 

[Ziggiy]

Like Big Sean's TWENTY88?

Something similar except he wouldn't need Jhene Aiko's wack ass.

Think To Pimp A Butterfly but about a relationship. Where he does his poetic thing throughout the album as little interludes. If he gets really deep with it and incorporates things like his complicated relationship with his mother and the birth of his daughter I guarantee you it'd be classic