Clappers is a go-go party record. He intentionally put it on there to pay homage to the DC area sound and to have at least one radio hit. I don't think it's fair to hold it against the album for that ONE song. How many classic records have we given pass to for having that one "ehhhh" song? Some even have more than one.
My problem with Ambition was that too many of the songs was about...well....ambition lol and swagger rapping. I like it, but the majority of it was just "I'm better than the haters and my bytches love me" material. With the exception of like....Chain Music and DC or Nothing. Now, it was uplifting and inspiring as heck, but it wasn't diverse. It lacked depth, and it followed up a really deep and diverse project (More About Nothing), so the fans didn't really fukk with it. Gifted, on the other hand, had a song about being gullible, the mind set of hustling drugs(Bricks), a song about the shallowness of material things (Vanity), an uplifting black record (Black Heroes), a marijuana record (Rotation), a song about the fickle relationship between love and hate (love hate thing), a love record (tired of dreaming), and a song where he freaking raps from the perspective of a Jesus piece chain. The album is much deeper, much more diverse in both sound and subject material, and far more mature. I can look past Clappers to enjoy the overall product. I think Gifted got lost in the shuffle because it came out right after yeezus and Born Sinner, and right before Magna Carta. I think Gifted is way better than all those albums. I also think that the unorthodox production was off putting for some.
Ambition is for people who like self-centered, materialistic, ambitious Wale. Gifted for people who like introspective and conscious Wale. TAAN and MAB are both more like Gifted in themes and feel than they are like Ambition.
Just my 2 cents.
