Wale - The Album About Nothing (Discussion Thread) *Stream*

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The singing was over exxagerated.. He's not trying to harmonize or use auto tune..Its a lot less annoying than I thought it would be when I first read the responses..

This album is soooooo DMV....Probably his most regional sounding release so far...
 
Versa

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Just gave the album a second spin. I think this album is really good. I'm going to give a track by track review, but if you don't care about that, scroll down for an overall summary of why I don't think this album is great, and why IMO "really good" isn't acceptable. I think some of ya'll might feel me.

1. The Intro About Nothing is a dope beginning to the albun. I personally find the production to be a bit too "loud" in some parts and could have benefitted from better mixing. Dope record though. 3/5

2. The Helium Balloon - Arguably the best song on the record. Incredible beat, Wale is spitting his ASS OFF on this, and Seinfeld is effectively utilized. 5/5

3. The White Shoes - A dope, but melancholy tribute to sneaker culture. I personally am not a sneaker head like that (not for mainstream brands at least), and I also didn't like the syruppy vibe of the beat or the hook much, so this is probably my least favorite song on the album. Wale's singing is also bad. And not soulful, raspy, bad but you feel it so it's good bad....he just sounds bad. 3/5

4. The Pessimist - The "relatable black man song" that's going to be more or less mandatory for every conscious rapper from this point out. I appreciated it, I felt it, and it's a good song. Cole was used well for the hook, but no verse? wtf? 4/5

5. The Middle Finger - aka the song where I thought the hook was "fukk you like Nia Lonnnnnnng". This song bangs so unbelievably hard. I see some of ya'll saying you don't like it, and I'm looking at ya'll funny. Top 3 song on the album IMO. 5/5

6. The One Time In Houston - atmospheric, beautiful record. I feel wale painted a pretty vivid picture of that "one time" and brought me in successfully. Don't have much bad to say about this one at all. Maybe dragged on a little too long in the middle. 4/5

7. The Girls On Drugs - Perfect record. "Go Deep" was my shyt when I was a kid so he already had me there, and the verses were strong. Nothing really to complain about here, except I think Wale is a fool for putting it on the Festivus mixtape before. How could he not realize immediately this is an album cut? Come on son. I shouldn't have already heard this song before TAAN dropped. 5/5

8. The God Smile - I actually didn't mind Wale's singing on this one. Not as abrasive. Cool song. Didn't grab me like others, but I felt the bars. 4/5

9. The Need To Know - I relate to this song pretty strongly, and Mrs. Versa (also known as SZA) bodied the hook.Good song. 4/5

10. The Success - Incredible beat. Wale spitting his ass off. My only issue with this song is dude only gave us 2 verses. C'mon son. You know better than that. 5/5 still though.

11. The Glass Egg - Brehs....I hate this damn song, and that's a shame, because Wale actually brought the bars. His singing is just so atrocious and offensive that it ruins everything else about it. All he needed was someone else to handle the singing parts and this would've been a strong 4. 2/5

12. The Bloom (Ambitious Girl 3) - Not as good as Ambitious Girl , and I never heard Ambitious Girl 2, but it's dope. Nice feel good record that pays homage to the ladies in a classy way. I'm liking it. 4/5

13. The Matrimony - A cool lil single. By the numbers. Nothing I'm thirsty to spin back like tht. Good verses, but didn't grab me musically. It did conceptually though. 3/5

14. The Body - This song is amazing lol. The car wordplay to describe a woman's body is dope. Jeremih destroyed the hook. The beat is great. It gave me the Lotus Flower Bomb type of vibe. That was his best single , and this is just as good. Those two brothers got good chemistry. One thing I really like about Wale is he has mastered the ability to drop a lyrical, artistic record while still having radio appeal. 5/5

So overall, I think this album is a solid 4/5 effort. My initial listen said 3.5, but I find myself vibing more to many of the songs on second play through. Here are all the reasons I feel this disappointed me and some of ya'll feel the same.

- Wale needs to do a better job of selecting what songs he's giving away for free and what songs he decides to keep on the album. Looking at Festivus , I can say that The Deep End, Narcissis-her, Blood Money, and a few of others were worthy of being included in this album. How Wale thought songs like The Glass Egg, The Matrimony, and The White Shoes were better than those tracks is flat out bizarre to me. With a few tweaks, removals, and additions, this album could have became something great.

- The flaws this album has are so blatantly obvious that in some cases it baffles me that it made it to the final mix. Wale, my man, why you singing on Glass Egg and White Shoes fam fam? Fam, stop it. You ruining songs with your vocals B. You're better than that. Lol @ this nikka and J.Cole thinking they're reincarnated members of the Motown record label and shyt with the harmonizing. Stop. Drake shoulda never gave ya'll nikkas a lane to sing in. Also, why is Seinfeld used so scarcely? I anticipated him being the glue that brought this whole album together. He should have been sprinkled on every record, there should have been interludes with samples from the show and conversations between him and Wale. Did that CAC only have 5 mins to spare or some shyt? Did my man Seinfeld feel uncomfortable with your use of the word "nikka" and decided to bail on you halfway through the album's production ,king? Not enough Seinfeld B. Where is the heavy hitting banger like "Loyalty"? OH, THAT'S RIGHT. YOU GAVE IT AWAY FOR FREE ON A MIXTAPE. WHOOPS.

- This album was hyped for YEARS. It was at least talked about since before Gifted came out, and I think before Ambition too. It is the successor to one of the BEST MIXTAPES OF ALL TIME. We knew barely anything about the album other than it was going to be his best work, it was going to feature Seinfeld a ton, and he was going to elevate the culture. Well, that ended up being a lie, a half truth, and another lie. When the bar is set that high YEARS before an albums release, you can't come out with a very good album. You have to drop greatness. You have to drop something breathtaking. You have to have nikkas shaking their heads, rewinding songs, and running to the internet and cell phones to tell about their first experiences and reactions. This album did none of that.

- Lastly, and maybe most notably, is the climate in which this album dropped. The timing could not have been any worse to be frank. We are 2 weeks removed from a masterpiece called To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick dropped an INCREDIBLE album that is more or less FLAWLESS and jam packed with powerful moving, catchy, deep records. The album made me smile, made me sad, made me inspired, and everything in between.He elevated the game conceptually and musically. Just 60 days prior to that, Lupe dropped a beautiful masterpiece of his own that literally took lyricism and thematic, layered rapping to a level I didn't even think was possible prior to its release. He elevated the game as well. On that same day Joey Bada$$ also dropped the best project of his young career with a great debut album with very few flaws. The month before that, J.Cole arguably proved to the world that he's not just a relatable every man rapper with mundane hooks, mostly boring production but heartfelt bars. He expanded the scope of his sound, elevated his rapping, and dropped the best album of his career. Big KRIT dropped an album that was sonically far different from his best works, but still soulful and powerful. And Logic, who ignited this parade of great hip hop albums with his debut IMO, dropped a beautifully produced and incredibly fun project that displayed his noteworthy skills and told a relatable story that demanded hip hop's attention. That's two undeniable masterpiece albums and a bunch of others that range between flawed greatness and exceptional excellence.. How does Wale follow this all up? With a pretty good album that is probably one of his top 3 or 4 best projects. Cool, but not good enough. Not now. Not in this climate. The game has been elevated too high.

I don't recall myself ever being this disappointed with an album that is pretty good. This was Wale's opportunity to prove all the doubters wrong and drop something that truly justified why his fans ride for him and defend him so hard. This didn't do that. It didn't elevate his discography. He didn't show much growth as a rapper or artist. He didn't even put out his best project with this ,for I feel More About Nothing and The Gifted are both superior. My man was all alone on the fast break, jumped from the free throw line and faked a dunk before switching to a boring ass layup. Real talk, the album should be called TAAAAN and not TAAN. This joint is The Above Average Album About Nothing.

4 out of 5 stars, and it's a very weak 4. Take away any of the songs I rated a 5/5 and this shyt drops to a 3 easy.
 
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Versa said:
Just gave the album a second spin. I think this album is really good. I'm going to give a track by track review, but if you don't care about that, scroll down for an overall summary of why I don't think this album is great, and why IMO "really good" isn't acceptable. I think some of ya'll might feel me.

1. The Intro About Nothing is a dope beginning to the albun. I personally find the production to be a bit too "loud" in some parts and could have benefitted from better mixing. Dope record though. 3/5

2. The Helium Balloon - Arguably the best song on the record. Incredible beat, Wale is spitting his ASS OFF on this, and Seinfeld is effectively utilized. 5/5

3. The White Shoes - A dope, but melancholy tribute to sneaker. I personally am not a sneaker head like that (not for mainstream brands at least), and I also didn't like the syruppy vibe of the beat or the hook much, so this is probably my least favorite song on the album. Wale's singing is also bad. And not soulful, raspy, bad but you feel it so it's good bad....he just sounds bad. 3/5

4. The Pessimist - The "relatable black man song" that's going to be more or less mandatory for every conscious rapper from this point out. I appreciated it, I felt it, and it's a good song. Cole was used well for the hook, but no verse? wtf? 4/5

5. The Middle Finger - aka the song where I thought the hook was "fukk you like Nia Lonnnnnnng". This song bangs so unbleivably hard. I see some of ya'll saying you don't like it, and I'm looking at ya'll funny. Top 3 song on the album IMO. 5/5

6. The One Time In Houston - atmospheric, beautiful record. I feel wale painted a pretty vivid picture of that "one time" and brought me in successfully. Don't have much bad to say about this one at all. Maybe dragged on a little too long in the middle. 4/5

7. The Girls On Drugs - Perfect record. "Go Deep" was my shyt when I was a kid so he already had me there, and the verses were strong. Nothing really to complain about here, except I think Wale is a fool for putting it on the Festivus mixtape before. How could he not realize immediately this is an album cut? Come on son. I shouldn't have already heard this song before TAAN dropped. 5/5

8. The God Smile - I actually didn't mind Wale's singing on this one. Not as abrasive. Cool song. Didn't grab me like others, but I felt the bars. 4/5

9. The Need To Know - I relate to this song pretty strongly, and Mrs. Versa (also known as SZA) bodied the hook.Good song. 4/5

10. The Success - Incredible beat. Wale spitting his ass off. My only issue with this song is dude only gave us 2 verses. C'mon son. You know better than that. 5/5 still though.

11. The Glass Egg - Brehs....I hate this damn song, and that's a shame, because Wale actually brought the bars. His singing is just so atrocious and offensive that it ruins everything else about it. All he needed was someone else to handle the singing parts and this would've been a strong 4. 2/5

12. The Bloom (Ambitious Girl 3) - Not as good as Ambitious Girl , and I never heard Ambitious Girl 2, but it's dope. Nice feel good record that pays homage to the ladies in a classy way. I'm liking it. 4/5

13. The Matrimony - A cool lil single. By the numbers. Nothing I'm thirsty to spin back like tht. Good verses, but didn't grab me musically. It did conceptually though. 3/5

14. The Body - This song is amazing lol. The car wordplay to describe a woman's body is dope. Jeremih destroyed the hook. The beat is great. It gave me the Lotus Flower Bomb type of vibe. That was his best single , and this is just as good. Those two brothers got good chemistry. One thing I really like about Wale is he has mastered the ability to drop a lyrical, artistic record while still having radio appeal. 5/5

So overall, I think this album is a solid 4/5 effort. My initial listen said 3.5, but I find myself vibing more to many of the songs on second play through. Here are all the reasons I feel this disappointed me and some of ya'll feel the same.

- Wale needs to do a better job of selecting what songs he's giving away for free and what songs he deicdes to keep on the album. Looking at Festivus , I can say that The Deep End, Narcissis-her, Blood Money, and a few of others were worthy of being included in this album. How Wale thought songs like The Glass Egg, The Matrimony, and The White Shoes were better than those tracks is flat out bizarre to me. With a few tweaks, removals, and additions, this album could have became something great.

- The flaws this album has are so blatantly obvious in some cases that it baffles me that it made it to the final mix. Wale, my man, why you singing on Glass Egg and White Linen fam fam? Fam, stop it. You ruining songs with your vocals B. You're better than that. Lol @ this nikka and J.Cole thinking they're reincarnated members of the Motown record label and shyt with the harmonizing. Stop. Drake shoulda never gave ya'll nikkas a lane to sing in. Also, why is Seinfeld used so scarecly? I anticipated him being the glue that brought this whole album together. He should have been sprinkled on every record, there should have been interludes with samples from the show and conversations between him and Wale. Did that CAC only have 5 mins to spare or some shyt? Did my man Seinfeld feel uncomfortable with your use of the word "nikka" and decided to bail on you halfway through the album's production king? Not enough Seinfeld B. Where is the heavy hitting banger like "Loyalty"? OH, THAT'S RIGHT. YOU GAVE IT AWAY FOR FREE ON A MIXTAPE. WHOOPS.

- This album was hyped for YEARS. It was at least talked about since before Gifted came out, and I think before Ambition too. It is the successor to one of the BEST MIXTAPES OF ALL TIME. We knew barely anything about the album other than it was going to be his best work, it was going to feature Seinfeld a ton, and he was going to elevate the culture. Well, that ended up being a lie, a half truth, and another lie. When the bar is set that high YEARS before an albums release, you can't come out with a very good album. You have to drop greatness. You have to drop something breathtaking. You have to have nikkas shaking their heads, rewinding songs, and running to the internet and cell phones to tell about their first experiences and reactions. This album did none of that.

- Lastly, and maybe most notably, is the climate in which this album dropped. The timing could not have been any worse to be frank. We are 2 weeks removed from a masterpiece called To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick dropped an INCREDIBLE album that is more or less FLAWLESS and jam packed with powerful moving, catchy, deep records. The album made me smile, made me sad, made me inspired, and everything in between.He elevated the game conceptually and musically. Just 60 days prior to that, Lupe dropped a beautiful masterpiece of his own that literally took lyricism and thematic, layered rapping to a level I didn't even think was possible prior to its release. He elevated the game as well. On that same day Joey Bada$$ also dropped the best project of his young career with a great debut album with very few flaws. The month before that, J.Cole arguably proved to the world that he's not just a relatable every man rapper with mundane, mostly boring production but heartfelt bars. He expanded the scope of his sound, elevated his rapping, and dropped the best album of his career. Big KRIT dropped an album that was sonically far different from his best works, but still soulful and powerful. And Logic, who ignited this parade of great hip hop albums with his debut IMO, dropped a beautiful produced and incredibly fun projects that displayed his noteworthy skills and told a relatable story that demanded hip hop's attention. That's two undeniable masterpiece albums and a bunch of others that range between flawed greatness and exceptional excellence.. How does Wale follow this all up? With a pretty good album that is probably one of his top 3 or 4 best projects. Cool, but not good enough. Not now. Not in this climate. The game has been elevated too high.

I don't recall myself ever being this disappointed with an album that is pretty good. This was Wale's opportunity to prove all the doubters wrong and drop something that truly justified why his fans ride for him and defend him so hard. This didn't do that. It didn't elevate his discography. He didn't show much growth as a rapper or artist. He didn't even put out his best project with this ,for I feel More About Nothing and The Gifted are both superior. My man was all alone on the fast break, jumped from the free throw line and faked a dunk before switching to a boring ass layup. Real talk, the album should be called TAAAAN and not TAAN. This joint is The Above Average Album About Nothing.

4 out of 5 stars, and it's a very weak 4. Take away any of the songs I rated a 5/5 and this shyt drops to a 3 easy.
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how the hell you say white shoes is 3/5 and one time in houston is 4/5?

One time in houston probably the worst song and White shoes/Glass Egg is easily a 5 to me lol. I agree with the rest of this for the most part though besides the kendrick dikkriding
 
Versa

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With that said, I bought it, and I'm glad a lot of ya'll love it. I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Maybe with more spins I will feel more strongly about it, but all the other shyt that came out as of recent hit me pretty much right away. Too much stuff I don't like about this one to give it my full co-sign. Definitely good though.
 
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